The National Acadian Day is observed in Canada each year on August 15, celebrating the Assumption of Mary. It was during the first National Convention of the Acadians held at Memramcook, New Brunswick, in 1881 that the Acadian leaders received the mandate to set the date of this celebration.
The choice of the date was the object of a debate at the convention between those wishing for Acadians to celebrate June 24, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, and National Day of French Canadians since 1834 and National Holiday of Quebec since 1977, and others wishing the celebration to occur on August 15.
(... from Wikipedia on 2012-04-17 13:36:48)
Admission Day or Statehood Day is a legal holiday in the state of Hawaii in the United States. It is celebrated annually on the third Friday in August to commemorate the anniversary of the 1959 admission of Hawaii into the Union.
Statehood bills for Hawaii were introduced into the U.S. Congress as early as 1919 by Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, the non-voting delegates Hawaii sent to the U.S. Congress. Additional bills were introduced in 1935, 1947 and 1950. In 1959, the U.S. Congress approved the statehood bill. This was followed by a referendum in which Hawaiian residents voted 94% in support of statehood (the ballot question was: "Shall Hawaii immediately be admitted into the Union as a state?"), and on August 21, 1959 (the third Friday in August), President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation making Hawaii the 50th state.
(... from Wikipedia on 2012-04-17 16:47:12)