August? What Happened in August?

Kay True
Kay True
Jul 30, 2017 · 2 min read

How August came to be, well, August

Sextillis, meaning six in Latin, was named such being the sixth month in the original Roman Calendar.

In 700 BC January and February were added making August the eighth month. In 8 BC, Julius Caesar changed the name to August in honor of Rome’s first emperor Caesar Augustus.

August is the astrological birth date of Leo the prancing, proud, and charismatic Lion. The 44th President of the United States, Barrack Obama was born in August, so was President Bill Clinton. French Composer Achille-Claude Debussy was also a child of August.

August, like all months, has had its share of infamous events.

On August the 1st, 1944, Anne Frank penned her final words into her timeless diary.Three days later arrested and sent to Bergen-Belson Nazi Concentration camp where at age 15 she would die

The infamous August heat showed the world the destructive force of the first Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan killing an estimated 175,000 people instantly.

The only U.S President to Resign, Richard Millhouse Nixon left the White House lawn at noon as a result of the Watergate Scandal.

However, the glorious month of August did herald in many positive actions and social reforms.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson established a federal mandate that African Americans primarily in the South were free to vote regardless of any phony or discriminatory laws that had made it impossible for many of them to vote.

Speaking of the right to vote; the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution became law in 1920 and thus giving women the right to vote.

The beautiful and luscious state of Hawaii became the 50th state in the Union.

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