JULY is upon us

·???????? July is named after the emperor Gaius Julius Caesar. The month used to be called?Quintilis?(“the fifth” in Latin) because it used to be the fifth month in the Roman calendar but was renamed?Julius?in 44 BCE?to honour Julius Caesar after his death.

·???????? The birthstone of July is the ruby?and July has two flowers – the water lily and the larkspur. The water lily is a symbol of a pure heart, while the larkspur (especially its white form) represents the lightness of the heart.

·???????? July 1?is Canada Day, a Canadian federal holiday that celebrates the creation of the Dominion of Canada in?1867.?

·???????? Many countries celebrate their independence days in July including Burindi, Rwanda, Somalia, Belarus, Abkhazia, the US, Algeria, Cape Verde, Venezuela, Comoros, Malawi, the Solomon Islands, Argentina, South Sudan, the Bahamas, Kiribati, S?o Tomé and Príncipe, Liberia, the Maldives and Vanuatu.

·???????? July 7?marks?the Islamic New Year, which begins with the first sighting of the crescent Moon after the new Moon in the month of Muharram. This event signals?the start of the Islamic lunar calendar?year.

·???????? July 14?is?Bastille Day, which commemorates the storming of the Bastille and the start of the French?Revolution.

·???????? July 5 is the time of?aphelion when Earth is the farthest it will get from the Sun for the entire year—specifically, we’ll be?94,506,364 miles away from our?star.

·???????? The next full Moon is the so-called Buck Moon, the seventh full Moon of 2024, which will be visible on 21st July at 22:05 BST

·???????? It was in July that the rabies vaccine was first successfully given to a patient. The French microbiologist Louis Pasteur administered the vaccine to a nine-year-old called Joseph Meister on?July 6, 1885.?

·???????? On?July 25, 1909 Louis Bleriot became the first man to fly an aircraft from one country to another successfully. He took off from the coast of?France landed across the channel near Dover, England. Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean on July 2, 1932.

·???????? July 16, 1945, was another big day for the world and a step down a very dark period of history. It was on this day in Alamogordo, New Mexico, that the first atomic bomb was detonated.?

·???????? The greatest sporting event on the planet, the Tour de France, takes place in July as does Wimbledon.

·???????? The famous Running of the Bulls festival, called San Fermín, takes place in Pamplona, Spain, in July.

·???????? The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth – not just in July – was a scorching 134°F (56.7°C) in Death Valley, California on July 10th, 1913.

·???????? World Chocolate Day takes place every year on July 7th, dedicated to the appreciation of all things chocolate.

·???????? In Japan, the Tanabata Festival, also known as the Star Festival, is celebrated in July.

·???????? The Glasgow Fair and the Edinburgh Trades holidays take place in July.