It's Harvest time

August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It was originally named Sextilis because it was the 6th month in the ten-month Roman calendar, then in about 700 BC it became the eighth month when it was rudely shoved back in the order of months when January and February were added by King Numa Pompilius.

The 1st August, traditionally known as Lammas meaning 'Loaf Mass', was a festival to mark the annual wheat and corn harvest. On this day farmers made loaves of bread from the new wheat crop and gave them to their local church. They were then used as the Communion bread during a special mass thanking God for the harvest. The custom ended when Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church.

The National Eisteddfod of Wales takes place during the first week of August.

On the 3rd August 1492 Christopher Columbus left Spain with his fleet of three ships to set sail across the Atlantic to America. He was actually trying to find a new route to China and thought by sailing west he would find a quicker and easier route.

Barack Obama was born on the 4th August 1961

Neil Armstrong was born on the 5th August 1930

The Edinburgh Festival starts on the 5th

On the 6th August 1991 Tim Berners-Lee released his text-based web software to the public creating the beginnings of the World Wide Web and general public use of the Internet.

On the 7th August 1840 an Act of Parliament in the UK prohibited the employment of children under 16 as chimney sweeps. Small boys (starting at the age of 5 or 6 years) were employed to climb up chimneys to clean the inside of the flue. The poor boys came down covered in soot, and with bleeding elbows and knees. They often got stuck or froze with terror in the cramped darkness - in these cases the Master Chimney Sweeper, would simply light the fire underneath to 'encourage' them to get on with their work. Horrible times.

One of the most infamous robberies in British history, The Great Train Robbery, took place on the 8th August 1963. A gang of thieves ambushed the Glasgow to Euston mail train and stole used bank notes worth £2.3 million (£40 million in today's money). The robbery took place at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn in Buckinghamshire when the robbers stopped the train by changing a rail signal from green to red. 12 of the 15 robbers were later caught, convicted and jailed.

On the 13th August 1961, communist East Germany built a wall in the middle of the night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. The wall stood as a symbol of the Cold War.

Elvis Presley died on the 16th August 1977. He is widely known just as Elvis, and is referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll".

On the 17th August 1978, three American balloonists made the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a hot air balloon.

On the 25th August 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galileo Galilei demonstrated his new creation the telescope.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born on the 27th August 1910. She always wrote her birthday as this date because that was the day of her baptism, which was always more important to her than her birth.

Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech 'I have a Dream', was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on the 28th August 1963

The Notting Hill Carnival takes place over the last weekend of August

Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris on the 31st August 1997

∼ Be safe and well∼

        Polly x