August 16 Holidays

National Rum Day celebrates the distilled sugarcane spirit whose modern form was developed in the 17th-century Caribbean — rum was central to the triangle trade, paid as the British Royal Navy’s daily ration until 1970, and is today produced in more than 80 countries. Onam is the most important festival in Kerala, India — a 10-day harvest celebration marking the return of King Mahabali from the underworld, observed with flower carpets, boat races, traditional feasts, and elaborate folk performances. National Airborne Day marks August 16, 1940, when the U.S. Army conducted its first parachute jump, beginning the development of the airborne infantry that would jump into Normandy and the Pacific Theater. National Roller Coaster Day marks August 16, 1878, when the first U.S. patented roller coaster — LaMarcus Thompson’s “Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway” — opened at Coney Island, New York. Aged in oak, a flowered boat race, a parachute, and 3 Gs.