September by the Numbers

38: Anniversary celebrated this Labor Day weekend by the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, where competitors from around the world join in the world’s largest barbecue competition.

1954: Year in September that ground was broken on the original KCI Airport. The airport did not open until 1956.

80,000: Number of honeybees in a hive. The honeybee is Missouri’s state insect, and September is Honey Month.

22: Date of the September equinox, when the sun shines directly on the equator and the world experiences nearly equal amounts of day and night. This is also the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere.

9/32: The fraction of an inch measuring the gaps in lines on college-ruled notebook paper, used by millions of students heading back to school this month.

1.24: Times faster humans notice the color yellow out of their peripheral vision than they notice red, an attention getting color. This fact makes yellow the universal color choice for school busses.

9: On this date in 1776, the Continental Congress changed the name of the new American nation from the United Colonies to the United States of America.

1956: Year the present-day Broadway Bridge opened on Sept. 9.

23: Date in 1900 the Folly Theater opened as the Standard Theatre, with a performance of The Jolly Grass Widows. Vaudeville was featured.

20: Date in 2006 the Liberty Memorial was designated a National Historic Landmark.