In addition to Julius and Augustus, other Roman Emperors attempted to name months after themselves, but they didn’t stick. August had been Sextilus but 8 BC, it was renamed in honor of Emperor Augustus. Legend has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar’s July, but that was 100% made up bullshit.
On August 1, in 1838 Slavery was abolished in Jamaica 27 years earlier that paragon of “good” nations, The United States of America.
Also on this date in 1944, Anne Frank penned the last entry in her diary
“[I] keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would like to be, and what I could be, if…there weren’t any other people living in the world.”
Three days later, Anne and her family were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on March 15, 1945, at age 15. 78 years after that many US Synagogue feel the need to have armed guards to protect against anti-Semitic violence.
As far as news from the weekend, all of it seemed to signal the end of the world in one way or another. Here are two items that have troubled my beautiful mind.
New York City declares monkeypox a public health emergency
and
Alarm as Arizona Republicans set to nominate election deniers for top posts
What’s been eating you?
The flag of Jamaica was adopted on 6 August 1962 – Jamaican Independence Day. The flag consists of a gold saltire, which divides the flag into four sections: two of them green (top and bottom) and two black (hoist and fly).
It is currently the only national flag that does not contain a shade of the colors red, white, or blue.
A saltire, also called Saint Andrew’s Cross is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross. Saltire is derived from the Middle French word, sautoir, meaning a ribbon, chain, scarf, or the like, tied around the neck in such a manner that the ends cross over each other.
