August 2024: Five Saturdays and Paris at Both Ends
August 2024 opened on Thursday, August 1 and closed on Saturday, August 31, and Paris framed both ends. The Olympics closed at the Stade de France on Sunday, August 11. The Paralympics then opened on Wednesday, August 28, and filled the city with athletes again. Between those two nights, the month did its arithmetic: 31 days, five Fridays, five Saturdays and nine weekend days.
August 2024 by the numbers
The shape of the month: 31 days, 22 business days, nine weekend days. Five Thursdays, five Fridays and five Saturdays carried the week's back half. Four Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays carried the front. Week numbers ran 31 to 35.
The moon turned new on Sunday, August 4. First quarter came Monday, August 12, full moon Monday, August 19, last quarter Monday, August 26. Three of four phases landed on Mondays, a lunar schedule with a soft spot for the week's least loved day.
Paris holds the frame
The Olympics closed on Sunday, August 11 after 19 days of sport. The United States and China finished level on 40 gold medals each. Tom Cruise rappelled from the stadium roof to carry the flag toward Los Angeles 2028.
Seventeen days later, the city did it again. On Wednesday, August 28, the Paralympics opened along the Champs-Elysees, the first Paralympic ceremony ever staged outside a stadium. About 4,400 athletes paraded to Place de la Concorde.
Paris spent August proving that a whole city can be the venue. The Paralympic sport ran on into September.
A rough Monday, a busy Saturday
Monday, August 5 delivered the year's sharpest market shock. Japan's Nikkei index fell 12.4 percent, its worst session since 1987, and indexes sagged from Asia to the Americas.
Saturday, August 24 belonged to the engineers. NASA announced that Boeing's Starliner would return from the space station empty. Its two astronauts would stay about eight months, flying home on a SpaceX Dragon in 2025.
Entertainment kept its own numbers. Black Myth: Wukong launched on Tuesday, August 20 and sold 10 million copies in three days. It helped push Steam past 37 million concurrent players.
Deadpool & Wolverine crossed 1 billion dollars worldwide by Sunday, August 11. Oasis announced a reunion tour on Tuesday, August 27. The couch, that month, was also a venue.
The month's hardest day
August carried grief as well. On Friday, August 9, a regional flight crashed at Vinhedo, Brazil, and all 62 people aboard died.
It was the country's deadliest air disaster since 2016. The month's hardest number was 62.
Five Thursdays, five Fridays, five Saturdays: August 2024 stacked its extras at the week's end. A month that generous deserves good ink.