August 7

August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining.

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances

Events

1679 - The brigantine Le Griffon, which was commissioned by Ren� Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes.
1789 - The United States War Department is established.
1782 - George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic "Purple Heart".
1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins: Farmers in the Monoghaela Valley of Pennsylvania rebel against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.
1816 - Sim�n Bol�var triumphed over Spain in the Battle of Boyac�.
1927 - Peace Bridge opens, between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
1942 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
1944 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
1947 - Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
1953 - Ohio admitted to the union, retroactive to 1803.
1959 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1960 - C�te d'Ivoire becomes independent.
1964 - Vietnam War: The United States Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving US President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
1967 - Vietnam War: The People's Republic of China agrees to give North Vietnam and undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
1976 - Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
1978 - United States President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal.
1981 -The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
1989 - US Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX), and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
1998 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: Bombing of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kills 224 people and injures over 4,500.

Births

1560 - Elizabeth Bathory serial killer (+ 1614)
1598 - Georg Stiernhielm, poet
1742 - Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary War general (+ 1786)
1779 - Carl Ritter, cofounder of modern science of geography (+ 1859)
1836 - Evander Law, Confederate General
1867 - Emil Nolde, painter (+ 1956)
1876 - Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), spy (+ 1917)
1883 - Joachim Ringelnatz, writer (+ 1934)
1885 - Billie Burke, actress, The Wizard of Oz (+ 1970)
1890 - Gurley Flynn, politician (+ 1964)
1904 - Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
1904 - Hanna Melzer, activist against Nazism (+ 1960)
1926 - Stan Freberg, cartoon and commercial voice, comedian
1927 - Carl Alfalfa Switzer, actor (+ 1959)
1928 - James Randi, magician
1936 - Rahsaan Roland Kirk
1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
1942 - Garrison Keillor, radio host
1942 - B.J. Thomas, singer
1958 - Bruce Dickinson, singer
1960 - David Duchovny, actor
1975 - Charlize Theron, actress

Deaths

461 - Majorian, Roman Emperor (assassinated)
1834 - Joseph Marie Jacquard, inventor of the Jacquard Loom
1855 - Mariano Arista, president of Mexico
1931 - Bix Beiderbecke, musician
1941 - Rabindranath Tagore, author
1957 - Oliver Hardy, comedian, actor
1995 - Brigid Brophy, British author

Holidays and observances

Colombia - Battle of Boyac�
C�te d'Ivoire - Republic Day (Independence in 1960 from France)
Kiribati - Youth Day
Western Samoa - Labour Day

See Also:

August 6 - August 8 - July 7 - September 7 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December