The answers have the right to probably just be uncovered through historic sources and methods,


First, the answer to your second question.
You are watching: Why does july and august have 31 days
The current calendar that most of the western world uses is Gregorian Calendar1, i m sorry is an advancement over Julian Calendar, i beg your pardon itself to be an development over timeless Roman Calendar.
Now, on come the very first question.
Generally months v 31 and also 30 days come in alternate fashion except for July and also August which space consecutive. Therefore why carry out they both have actually 31 days?
To prize this, we need to an initial look into the background of roman inn Calendar. The first roman calendar meeting to legendary Romulus had 10 months, and also it began from Martius, i.e. The month we speak to March. And that deserve to still be watched in the contemporary calendar today. September, October, November, and also December are 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th months respectively, however Sept originates from Latin for 7, Oct is for 8, and so on.
After that, there to be a pair of (minor) modifications to the roman Calendar prior to the development of Julian Calendar. At the time, there were 12 months, v Iunarius and also Februarius, new months included before Martius. And also yet, an ordinary year had actually 355 days, however, a tropic solar year, i.e. The period of Earth"s revolution around the Sun, is about 365.25 days. Therefore, prior to this time, Romans offered to include a month referred to as Mensis Intercalaris that 27/28-days between Februarius and Martius come balance this. (the detailed scheme have the right to be seen in the wikipedia article on Julian Calendar).
To adjust this, the calendar was substantially overhauled under the regime of Julius Caesar. Among the consequences of this reform was Quintilis (Quint - 5; so now the 7th month), which currently had 31 days, maintained 31 days; and Sextilis (Sex - 6; so currently the 8th month), which previously had 29 days, acquired a an increase of 2 days and also now had 31 days.If one is curious, the net adjust was January (Iunarius), Sextilis (August), and also December obtained 2 work each, whereas Aprilis (April), Iunius (June), September, and November gained 1 work each.
Now for the names of these months. After ~ the death of Julius Caesar, Quintilis to be renamed to Julius in his honor, i m sorry is the origin of July. Similarly, Sextilis was renamed to Augustus in the respect of then reigning emperor Augustus.
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Interestingly, subsequent majesties Tiberius, Caligula, Domitian and also Commodus (unsuccessfully) tried to rename September ~ themselves, however failed.
1 Technically, existing calendar - the UTC is a further alteration of Gregorian Calendar, since a Leap second is sometimes added, to store the time of work close to typical solar time. However for all practical purposes, it"s not considerably different native Gregorian Calendar.