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Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
On this day in 1945, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrite, August Wilson, was born. He’s best remembered for his plays, Fences and The Piano Player – part of a larger work called The Pittsburgh Cycle, which chronicled the African-American experience in Pittsburgh all through the 20th Century (each play set in a different decade).
Other well-known Augusts in history include:
August Wenzinger – cellist and conductor
August Vollmer – criminologist extraordinaire
Augustus (aka Gaius Octavius, aka Gaius Thurinus) – first Roman emperor
Augustus Gloop – world famous nincompoop 
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What an august list of personages! (Yuk, yuk, yuk.) My favorite factoid about August: It has 31 days because Augustus, the emperor mentioned above, was jealous of Julius Caesar, whose namesake month is of course July. You’ll note that none of the “30 days hath” months are named after powerful figures, unless you count the fictional goddess Juno.
posted by Mary on 4-27-2006 at 12:55 pm