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As summer's final month settles in, most warm-weather fantasies—from daily beach trips to endless afternoon naps—fade faster than our tan lines from June. Whether you’re crossing off yet another blisteringly hot day on the calendar or hiding indoors from a late-summer thunderstorm, beating the August brain fog can be a challenge.
To warm up your mind instead of your body, test your knowledge with 100 of the best August trivia questions, ranging from August history to pop culture to symbols.
August History
1. Why was August originally called Sextilis in ancient Rome?
Answer: It was the sixth month in the original 10-month Roman calendar.
2. Which Roman leader gave August its present name?
Answer: Augustus Caesar.
3. Why did Augustus Caesar demand that August have 31 days instead of 30?
Answer: He didn't want his month to be shorter than Julius Caesar's month (July).
4. How many days did August originally have before Augustus Caesar modified it?
Answer: 30 days.
5. What catastrophic event buried Pompeii and Herculaneum on August 24, 79 CE?
Answer: The eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
6. What French ruler was born on August 15, 1769, on the island of Corsica?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte.
7. Most delegates officially signed the parchment copy of which founding U.S. document on August 2, 1776?
Answer: The Declaration of Independence.
8. Which military submarine became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater on August 3, 1958?
Answer: USS Nautilus.
9. What major trade canal connecting two oceans officially opened on August 15, 1914?
Answer: The Panama Canal.
10. Which French landmark became a public museum on August 10, 1793?
Answer: The Louvre.
August Science
11. What bright star gives the "Dog Days of Summer" their name?
Answer: Sirius.
12. From which comet's debris field does the annual mid-August Perseid meteor shower originate?
Answer: Comet Swift-Tuttle.
13. What meteorological season is the month of August in the Southern Hemisphere?
Answer: Winter.
14. What is the traditional North American name given to August's full moon?
Answer: The Sturgeon Moon.
15. What is the summer counterpart to hibernation, used by animals to survive extreme heat or drought?
Answer: Estivation.
16. Which chemical element was first discovered in the Sun’s spectrum during a solar eclipse on August 18, 1868?
Answer: Helium.
17. What dwarf planet was famously demoted from full planet status by the IAU on August 24, 2006?
Answer: Pluto.
18. Which continent experiences a monsoon season in August?
Answer: Asia.
19. What insect begins its massive annual migration to Mexico in late August?
Answer: The Monarch butterfly.
20. What is a baby sea turtle called when it hatches in August along U.S. beaches?
Answer: A hatchling.
August Pop Culture
21. What iconic music channel debuted on August 1, 1981?
Answer: MTV.
22. Represented by the lion, which fiery astrological sign rules the calendar from late July through August 22?
Answer: Leo.
23. Which track on Taylor Swift's 2020 album "Folklore" spawned an annual internet trend every time the eighth month rolls around?
Answer: "August."
24. Which long-running Comedy Central animated series debuted on August 13, 1997?
Answer: South Park.
25. What 1975 cult film holds the record as the longest-running theatrical release in film history?
Answer: The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
26. What famous Beatles album cover photo was snapped on a London pedestrian crossing on August 8, 1969?
Answer: Abbey Road.
27. What legendary three-day music festival kicked off on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, on August 15, 1969?
Answer: Woodstock.
28. Which British rock group played its final full concert with lead singer Freddie Mercury on August 9, 1986?
Answer: Queen.
29. What hit 1990s dance track by Los del Río spent 16 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1996?
Answer: "Macarena."
30. The first-ever PG-13 movie was released in theaters in August of 1984. What was it?
Answer: Red Dawn.
August True Crime
31. What iconic artwork was stolen by a museum employee from the Louvre on August 21, 1911?
Answer: The Mona Lisa.
32. Whose parents were found murdered in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892?
Answer: Lizzie Borden’s parents.
33. What infamous serial killer claimed their first official victim on August 31, 1888?
Answer: Jack the Ripper.
34. What was outlawed in the United States by the Marihuana Tax Act on August 2, 1937?
Answer: Marijuana.
35. Which international spy was born on August 7, 1876, in the Netherlands?
Answer: Mata Hari.
36. What famous diarist wrote her final entry on August 1, 1944?
Answer: Anne Frank.
37. What 1835 newspaper stunt claimed that bat-people lived on the Moon?
Answer: The Great Moon Hoax.
38. What claim did four men make in Allagash, Maine, on August 26, 1976?
Answer: They claimed they were abducted by aliens.
39. What lunch staple was allegedly created on August 6, 1762, by an English nobleman at a card table?
Answer: The sandwich.
40. Which pop culture icon died on August 5, 1962, at age 36?
Answer: Marilyn Monroe.
August Technology
41. What public network made its debut on August 6, 1991?
Answer: The World Wide Web.
42. What operating system launched on August 24, 1995, backed by the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up"?
Answer: Windows 95.
43. What colorful desktop computer began shipping from Apple on August 15, 1998?
Answer: The iMac G3.
44. What early photographic process was unveiled to the public in France in August 1839?
Answer: The daguerreotype.
45. What road safety device was first installed in electric form in Cleveland on August 5, 1914?
Answer: The electric traffic light.
46. What major computing standard was launched by IBM on August 12, 1981?
Answer: The IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC).
47. What carried the first official transatlantic message from Queen Victoria to a U.S. President in August 1858?
Answer: The transatlantic telegraph cable.
48. What balloon completed the first successful transatlantic crossing on August 17, 1978?
Answer: Double Eagle II.
49. What physical phenomenon did Michael Faraday discover on August 29, 1831?
Answer: Electromagnetic induction.
50. What replaced the wheat ears on the back of the Lincoln penny on August 7, 1959?
Answer: The Lincoln Memorial.
August Politics
51. Who became the only U.S. president to resign from office on August 9, 1974?
Answer: Richard Nixon.
52. Which Vice President took office after Warren G. Harding died on August 2, 1923?
Answer: Calvin Coolidge.
53. Which U.S. President signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935?
Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt.
54. Which landmark civil rights law was signed on August 6, 1965?
Answer: The Voting Rights Act of 1965.
55. What federal tax was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln on August 5, 1861?
Answer: The Federal Income Tax.
56. Which U.S. President was born on August 4, 1961?
Answer: Barack Obama.
57. On August 5, 1981, which President fired over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers?
Answer: Ronald Reagan.
58. Which constitutional amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920, granted women the right to vote?
Answer: The 19th Amendment.
59. Which U.S. President born on August 10, 1874, led the country during the start of the Great Depression?
Answer: Herbert Hoover.
60. What military decoration was established by George Washington on August 7, 1782, as the Badge of Military Merit?
Answer: The Purple Heart.
August Traditions
61. What UK harvest holiday falls on August 1?
Answer: Lammas Day.
62. What Spanish festival involving tomatoes takes place on the last Wednesday of August?
Answer: La Tomatina.
63. What observance on August 13 celebrates people who favor their left hand?
Answer: International Left-Handers Day.
64. What nationwide Italian holiday is celebrated on August 15?
Answer: Ferragosto.
65. What Scottish city hosts a famous three-week performing arts festival every August?
Answer: Edinburgh.
66. What dairy product is celebrated all month long in the U.S. during August?
Answer: Goat cheese.
67. What popular pet celebration is observed on August 26?
Answer: National Dog Day.
68. What street celebration takes place in London during the late-August holiday weekend?
Answer: Notting Hill Carnival.
69. What historic bareback horse race is held in Siena, Italy, on August 16?
Answer: The Palio di Siena.
70. What is the traditional name given to the August 12 opening of the red grouse shooting season in Britain?
Answer: The Glorious Twelfth.
August Birthdays
71. What author born on August 30, 1797, created Frankenstein?
Answer: Mary Shelley.
72. Which sci-fi author born on August 22, 1920, wrote Fahrenheit 451?
Answer: Ray Bradbury.
73. Which suspense film director was born in London on August 13, 1899?
Answer: Alfred Hitchcock.
74. How old was Macaulay Culkin when he filmed Home Alone?
Answer: 10 years old.
75. Which actor born on August 17, 1943, starred in Taxi Driver and The Godfather Part II?
Answer: Robert De Niro.
76. Which pop icon born on August 16, 1958, recorded "Like a Prayer"?
Answer: Madonna.
77. Which actress born on August 7 played Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road?
Answer: Charlize Theron.
78. Which Scottish actor born on August 25, 1930, was the first official James Bond?
Answer: Sean Connery.
79. What author born on August 11, 1921, wrote Roots?
Answer: Alex Haley.
80. Which music legend born on August 1, 1942, was the lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead?
Answer: Jerry Garcia.
August Space
81. What famous astronaut, born on August 5, made "one giant leap for mankind"?
Answer: Neil Armstrong.
82. Which NASA rover landed inside Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012?
Answer: Curiosity.
83. Which NASA mathematician portrayed in Hidden Figures was born on August 26, 1918?
Answer: Katherine Johnson.
84. Which U.S. observance on August 19 honors Orville Wright’s birthday?
Answer: National Aviation Day.
85. Which probe launched on August 12, 2018, to study the Sun?
Answer: Parker Solar Probe.
86. Which August 1966 spacecraft became the first U.S. mission to orbit the Moon?
Answer: Lunar Orbiter 1.
87. Which planet received its first close-up spacecraft visit from Voyager 2 on August 25, 1989?
Answer: Neptune.
88. Which infrared space telescope launched on August 25, 2003?
Answer: The Spitzer Space Telescope.
89. What was the name of the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945?
Answer: Enola Gay.
90. Which spacecraft launched on August 5, 2011, to study Jupiter?
Answer: Juno.
August Symbols
91. Which island chain became the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959?
Answer: Hawaii.
92. What famous speech was delivered in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963?
Answer: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
93. Which green gemstone is the best-known August birthstone?
Answer: Peridot.
94. Which two additional gemstones are recognized as August birthstones?
Answer: Sardonyx and spinel.
95. Which two flowers are traditionally associated with August birthdays?
Answer: Gladiolus and poppy.
96. Which South Dakota city hosts a famous motorcycle rally every August?
Answer: Sturgis.
97. Which historic Seattle landmark opened on August 17, 1907?
Answer: Pike Place Market.
98. Which organization was established by an act signed on August 10, 1846?
Answer: The Smithsonian Institution.
99. Which Disneyland attraction opened on August 9, 1969?
Answer: The Haunted Mansion.
100. Which country marks its independence on August 15, one day after Pakistan?
Answer: India.
How many of these August trivia questions did you nail on the first try? Whether you aced the August history round or needed a quick refresher on late-summer pop culture, you've officially beaten the summer slump! Pass these trivia questions along to a friend, family member, or your favorite Leo to see if they can beat your high score before the month slips away into a moment in time.