August 16

 Holidays and Observances
(Alphabetical Order)

2026 Daily Holidays that fall on August 16, include:

• Bennington Battle Day (State of Vermont) 
• God's Preeminence Day - August 16, 2026 (Third Sunday in August)
• Joe Miller's Joke Day 
• National Airborne Day 
• National Bratwurst Day 
• National Roller Coaster Day
• National Rum Day 
• Surveillance Day 
• True Love Forever Day

2026 Weekly Holidays that include August 16, are:

• Elvis Week - August 8-16, 2026
• Kool-Aid Day - August 14-16, 2026 (Second Weekend in August)
• National Aviation Week - August 15-21 (Always during the week of Orville Wright's Birthday on August 19)
• National Bargain Hunting Week - August 10-16, 2026 (First Monday - Sunday Week in August)
  
• National Hobo Week - August 13-16, 2026
• Perseid Meteor Showers - July 17 - August 24, 2026, will peak on August 12-13, 2026)
• Rabi 'al Awwal - August 14 - September 11, 2026
• Safe + Sound Week - August 10-16, 2026

2026 Monthly Holidays that include August 16, are:

There are too many monthly holidays to include here, so please check out our August Holidays page to see all of the holidays that are celebrated the entire month of August.

NOTE:

1. A page on each holiday will be coming soon and linked above.
2. If a date is a movable holiday, that is different every year, I'll include the year as well as the date rule above. Otherwise, the holiday falls on the same date each year.

World Festivals and Events
(Date Order)

• Sturgis Motorcycle Rally - August 7-16, 2026 (Begins 1st Friday in August for 10 Days)
• U.S. Amateur Golf Week - August 10-16, 2026

Astrological Sign

The Astrological Sign for August 16 is Leo.

Birth Flower of the Month

Birthstone

Famous Birthdays

• 1892 - Otto Messmer, American cartoonist and animator who co-created Felix the Cat (d. 1983)
• 1954 - James Cameron, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (The Terminator, The Titanic)
• 1962 - Steve Carell, American actor, director, producer (The Office)
• 1999 - Karen Chen, American figure skater

Famous Deaths

• 1948 - Babe Ruth, American baseball placer and coach (b. 1895)
• 1949 - Margaret Mitchell, American journalist and author who wrote Gone With The Wind (b. 1900)
• 1977 - Elvis Presley, American singer, and actor (b. 1935)
• 2018 - Aretha Franklin, American singer (R.E.S.P.E.C.T.) (b. 1942)

Famous Weddings and Divorces

• 1902 - Filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille marries actress Constance Adams
• 1983 - Musician Paul Simon (Simon and Garfunkel) marries actress Carrie Fisher

Quote of the Day

August 16 is True Love Forever Day!

Healthy Diet Habit Tip of the Day 
or a Recipe of the Day

In a perfect world, we would all practice the healthy diet habit of portion control. The problem is, that everywhere we go out of control portions rule. Many foods of today are 2 to 5 times bigger than they should be. We have lost the ability to judge a proper portion by eyeballing it. Giant portions look right to us!

Find out more about Portion Control from Kerry's Healthy Diet Habits website!

Season

August 16th falls within the Summer Season in the Northern Hemisphere.

Summer is the Hottest of the Four Seasons! It follows Spring and is before Fall! The kids are out of school and many vacations happen in summer, which means more family time. Hopefully a beach is involved!

The first day of Summer is also known as the Summer Solstice where we enjoy the most sunlight of the year! After this day, the amount of daylight starts to decrease each day.

Check out our Summer Season page for information about Summer, Summer Dates, Major Summer Holidays and Observances, Major Summer Festivals, Fun Facts About Summer, Summer Food Tips, Summer Gardening, Summer Preparation, Summer Quotes, and Summer Weather Information.

Kerry has put together some great information and tips on Summer Foods: 

• Summer Cooking

• Summer Weight Loss Tips

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, this day falls in the Winter Season. 

• Winter Foods

• Winter Weight Gain

• Winter Weight Loss Tips

This Day in History

• 1841 - U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States
• 1906 - An 8.2 earthquake hits central Chile killing 3,8882 people
• 1913 - The Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary is completed
• 1916 - The Migratory Bird Treaty is signed by Canada and the United States
• 1942 - The U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears with a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. After drifting without her two person crew it crash lands in Daly City, CA
• 1960 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom
• 1987 - Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crash after take off in Detroit Michigan killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground 
• 1989 - Toronto's stock market halts trading after a solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips
• 2005 - West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnel Douglas MD-82 crashes in Venezuela killing all 160 people on board
• 2013 - In Cebu, Philippines, the ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship killing 61 people with 59 others missing
• 2020 - The August Complex fire in California starts and goes on to burn more than one million acres of land

This Day in Music

• 1962 - I Call It Pretty Music (But Old People Call It The Blues) is Stevie Wonder's first single that is released
• 1966 - Last Train to Clarksville is the first single released by The Monkees
• 1968 - The Jackson 5 perform their first official live show when they open for Diana Ross and the Supremes in Los Angelese
• 1969 - Woodstock Day 2 features performances by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Santana, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin
• 1994 - Maybe You Should Drive is the second studio album released by the Barenaked Ladies
• 1995 - Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs live for the first time with his daughters Wendy and Carnie (video below)
• 1997 - On the 20th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, a tribute concert is held in Memphis, Tennessee which features a virtual due of Don't Cry Daddy with his daughter Lisa Marie
• 2002 - A Little Less Conversation is an album that contains 30 of #1 hits by Elvis Presley that is released on the twenty fifth anniversary of his death
• 2008 - 5 Years Time, the debut single by Noah and the Whale peaks at #7 on the UK Singles Chart

This Day in Sports

• 1920 - Carl Mays of the NY Yankees throws a fastball and hits Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians on the head. He dies the next day.
• 1927 - Six out of the eight planes participating in the Dole Air Race from Oakland, CA to Honolulu Hawaii, either crash or disappear
• 1930 - The first British Empire Games opens in Hamilton, Ontario
• 1954 - The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine is published
• 1960 - Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet and sets three records

Word of the Day from Wiktionary

Wishing You a Great Day Today!