Original photo by pepifoto/ iStock
In the Northern Hemisphere, July’s arrival signals the full swing of summer. With school out and vacation on the mind, the days of our seventh month become jam-packed with barbecues, adventure, and holiday celebrations — all enjoyed while enduring some of the hottest weather of the year. But there’s more to the month than just its scorching temps, so read on for six interesting facts about the dog days of July.
July Once Had a Different Name
The Gregorian calendar divides our year into 12 months, with July sitting in the seventh spot. But it wasn’t always this way; at one time, July had an entirely different name. Under the Roman calendar, July was called Quintilis — the Roman word for “fifth,” marking its place as the fifth month of the 10-month year. Statesman and leader Julius Caesar influenced the name change: Quintilis was renamed to honor Caesar following his assassination in 44 BCE, in an ode to his birth month. By then, July had slid out of fifth place and into its current seventh spot.
July Is One of the Most Common Birthday Months
If you’ve RSVP’d to a seemingly endless stream of birthday parties in July, it’s no surprise. That’s because July’s arrival marks the start of one of the most popular birth months in the year. While August reigns as the most common birth month, July comes in second, with the 12-week popularity wave ending in September (the third-most popular month).
When it comes down to the specific date, July 7 is circled as the sixth-most popular birthday, with an average of 12,108 babies born on that day each year. However, not every day in the summer month is popular for new arrivals; July 4 is the fifth-least common birthday among Americans, with an average of just 8,796 babies born. The summer holiday is beaten out only by three other unpopular days, all of which occur in winter: Christmas, New Year’s Day, and New Year’s Eve.
July Is Packed With Food-Related Holidays
In the U.S., July’s grandest holiday is Independence Day, marked with a day of fireworks, fanfare, and food. But the culinary celebrations don’t have to end after the Fourth of July is through. The summer month hosts a handful of unofficial food-related holidays that are perfectly timed to summer cravings. Dessert lovers can celebrate the season with National Apple Turnover Day on July 5, along with National Sugar Cookie Day on July 9 and National Hot Fudge Sundae Day on July 25. National Piña Colada Day arrives on July 10, followed by Mojito Day on July 11, and both chicken wings and lasagna are honored on July 29. However, one star of the seasonal backyard barbecue gets more than just a day; sausages are honored for a full four weeks thanks to July’s designation as National Hot Dog Month. But if hot dogs aren’t your thing, we have good news: It’s also National Ice Cream Month.
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The First Bikini Debuted in July
Pools, beaches, and aquatic parks are practically midway through their operating season come the dog days of July, the same month that commemorates a popular piece of attire often worn in water: the bikini. French designer Louis Réard unveiled his tiny two-piece swimsuit on July 5, 1946, at a Paris swimming pool. Réard’s goal was to create the smallest two-piece swimsuit possible, and it’s likely he was inspired by postwar fabric shortages; his original design used just 30 inches of material.
The first bikini was scandalous, with Réard initially unable to find a model willing to debut his creation in public. But the small two-piece suits soon became popular in Europe, commonly seen on beaches throughout the 1950s. Within a decade, the bikini trend gained momentum and jumped across the pond to American swimmers. As for the unusual name, Réard named his swimsuit for Bikini Atoll, a coral island in the Marshall Islands used by the U.S. as a nuclear test site — a moniker meant to suggest how monumental his clothing invention would be.
July Is the Best Month to Encounter a UFO
Most people look to the summer night sky in anticipation of fireworks or an astronomical spectacle (like a glimpse of the planet Venus, which appears to glow its brightest in early July). However, July also offers the best odds of catching sight of an unidentified flying object.
The phenomenon dates as far back as July 1947, when New Mexico rancher W.W. Brazel sparked generations of skywatchers thanks to his report of a downed spacecraft — an event we now call the Roswell Incident. Despite a flurry of conspiracy theories, Brazel’s account of finding debris from a skyfallen UFO was disproven and explained by U.S. military officials as a crashed weather balloon. But in the decades to follow, reports of UFO sightings only grew; according to the National UFO Reporting Center, which has collected data on UFO sightings since 1974, more reports are made in July than any other month. While it’s unclear just why summer lends itself to more UFO sightings, one theory nods at the best parts of summer: Spending more time outside gives us chances to see the unusual, paired with spooky summer blockbusters that prime our brain to see the supernatural.
July Marks Earth’s Farthest Spot From the Sun
As Earth travels its constant path around the sun, there comes a time when our planet is at its farthest point from our home star — which happens in July. On an average day, Earth sits a snug 93 million miles from the sun, but because the planet's orbit is an ellipse — in which the sun isn’t perfectly centered — our distance from the star waxes and wanes throughout the year. In early July, Earth experiences its aphelion, aka a planet’s farthest distance from the sun, winding up a mind-bending 94.5 million miles away. (Come January, Earth will reach its perihelion, aka the closest position to the sun, measuring 91.4 million miles away.) Aphelion is predictable, normally occurring around two weeks after the summer solstice. In 2023, Earth’s aphelion occurs on July 6 at 4:07 p.m. EST.
Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
