August 7 is the Expression
error: unrecognised punctuation character "{"th day of the year Expression error: unrecognised punctuation character "{" in the
Gregorian calendar. There are Expression error: unrecognised punctuation character
"{" days remainingExpression error: unrecognised punctuation character "{".
The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through its summer on this
day.
Events
- 322 BC - Battle of Crannon between
Athens and Alexander the Great of Macedon.
- 1679 - The brigantine Le
Griffon, commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La
Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first
ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North
America.
- 1714 - The first important victory of the Russian Navy -
the Battle of Gangut.
- 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.
- 1789 - The United States War
Department is established.
- 1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins: Farmers in the Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania rebel against the federal tax on liquor and
distilled drinks.
- 1819 - Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
- 1879 - The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in
Manchester.
- 1927 - The Peace Bridge opens, between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
- 1933 - The Iraqi Government slaughtered over 3,000
Assyrians in the village of Sumail. The day becomes
Assyrian Martyrs Day.
- 1940 - Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich
(Germany) during World War II
- 1942 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - U.S. Marines
initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the
Solomon Islands.
- 1944 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator
(known best as the Harvard Mark I).
- 1945 - President Harry
Truman announces the bombing of Hiroshima with an atomic bomb while returning from the Potsdam Conference
aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl's balsa
wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at
Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7000-km
(4375-mile) journey across the Pacific Ocean proving that pre-historic peoples could have
traveled from South America.
- 1947 - The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over
the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
- 1955 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to
Sony, begins selling its first Transistor radios in
Japan.
- 1959 - The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S.
penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design and is
still in use.
- 1959 - Explorer program: Explorer 6 launched
from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- 1960 - Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent.
- 1964 - Vietnam War: The U.S. 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.
- 1966 - Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
- 1967 - Vietnam War: The People's Republic of China agrees to give North
Vietnam an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
- 1970 - California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in
his courtroom and killed during in an effort to free George Jackson from
police custody.
- 1973 - NBC airs the final day of the Watergate hearings on U.S. daytime television.
- 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.
- 1985 - Takao Doi, Mamoru
Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first
astronauts.
- 1988 - Rioting in New York City's Tompkins Square Park.
- 1989 - U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
- 1997 - Garth Brooks plays to 750,000 people in
Central Park.
- 1998 - Bombing of the
United States embassies in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya,
kill 224 people and injure over 4,500.
- 1999 - A group of Indian army veterans launch the
political party Rashtriya Raksha Dal.
- 2007 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks baseball great Hank Aaron's record by hitting his 756th home run.
- 2007 - Jonas Brothers CD was released
Births
- 317 - Constantius II, Roman emperor (d. 361)
- 1400 - Guillaume Dufay, French composer (d.
1474)
- 1533 - Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Basque
soldier and poet (d. 1595)
- 1560 - Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian countess and
serial killer (d. 1614)
- 1574 - Robert Dudley, styled Earl of
Warwick, English writer (d. 1649)
- 1598 - Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (d.
1672)
- 1726 - James Bowdoin, American Revolutionary leader and
politician (d. 1790)
- 1742 - Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary
general (d. 1786)
- 1779 - Louis de Freycinet, French explorer (d.
1842)
- 1779 - Carl Ritter, German geographer (d. 1859)
- 1844 - Auguste Michel-Lévy, French geologist (d.
1911)
- 1860 - Alan Leo, British astrologer (d. 1917)
- 1867 - Emil Nolde, German painter (d. 1956)
- 1876 - Mata Hari, Dutch spy (d. 1917)
- 1877 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (d.
1949)
- 1885 - Billie Burke, American actress (d.
1970)
- 1901 - Ann Harding, American actress (d. 1981)
- 1903 - Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d.
1972)
- 1904 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1971)
- 1907 - Albert Kotin, American abstract expressionist painter of the New York School
(d. 1980)
- 1911 - Nicholas Ray, American actor, director and
scenarist (d. 1979)
- 1913 - George Van Eps, noted American guitarist (d.
1998)
- 1921 - Manitas de Plata, Gypsy guitarist
- 1925 - M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
- 1925 - Felice Bryant, American country songwriter and singer (d.
2003)
- 1926 - Stan Freberg, American voice comedian
- 1927 - Edwin W. Edwards, four-term Louisiana
governor
- 1927 - Art Houtteman, baseball player (d. 2003)
- 1927 - Carl Switzer, American child actor (d. 1959)
- 1928 - Romeo Muller, American screenwriter (d.
1992)
- 1928 - James Randi, Canadian magician
- 1929 - Don Larsen, baseball player
- 1931 - Charles E. Rice, Legal Scholar and Author
- 1932 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopan athlete (d.
1973)
- 1932 - Dr. Maurice Rabb, Jr., African American ophthalmologist
- 1932 - Edward Hardwicke, British actor
- 1933 - Eddie Firmani, South African football player and
coach
- 1936 - Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American saxophonist
(d. 1977)
- 1939 - Anjanette Comer, American actress
- 1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
- 1942 - Tobin Bell, American actor
- 1942 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
- 1942 - Carlos Monzón, Argentine boxer
- 1942 - B.J. Thomas, American singer
- 1942 - Caetano Veloso, Brazilian musician
- 1943 - Dino Valente, American musician Quicksilver Messenger Service (d. 1994)
- 1943 - Alain Corneau, French film director
- 1944 - David Rasche, American actor
- 1945 - Alan Page, American football player
- 1946 - Ed Seykota, commodities and futures trader
- 1947 - Franciscus Henri (Franciscus Henricus
Antheunis), children's entertainer, composer and artist
- 1948 - Greg Chappell, Australian test cricket player,
captain and coach
- 1949 - Walid Jumblatt, Leader of the Lebanese
Druze
- 1952 - Alexei Sayle, British comedian
- 1953 - Anne Fadiman, American writer, daughter of
Clifton Fadiman
- 1954 - Jonathan Pollard, Israeli spy
- 1955 - Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
- 1955 - Wayne Knight, American actor
- 1957 - Alexander Dityatin, Soviet gymnast
- 1958 - Bruce Dickinson, English singer
(Iron Maiden)
- 1958 - Alberto Salazar, Member, American National
Distance Running Hall of Fame
- 1960 - David Duchovny, American actor
- 1961 - Yelena Davydova, Soviet gymnast
- 1962 - Bruno Pelletier, Québécois singer
- 1963 - Harold Perrineau Jr., American actor
- 1964 - Michael Weishan, American TV host, author
- 1964 - John Birmingham, Australian author
- 1966 - Kristin Hersh, American singer and guitarist
(Throwing Muses)
- 1967 - Jason Grimsley, American baseball player
- 1968 - Lynn Strait, American singer (Snot)
- 1971 - Sydney Penny, American actress
- 1971 - Rachel York, American actress and singer
- 1972 - Greg Serano, American actor
- 1973 - Danny Graves, American baseball player
- 1975 - Edgar Renteria, Colombian baseball player
- 1975 - David Hicks, Australian alleged terrorist
- 1975 - Charlize Theron, South African actress
- 1976 - Jeffrey Durrum, American Supermodel
- 1976 - Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos, Greek
footballer
- 1978 - Jamey Jasta, American singer (Hatebreed)
- 1978 - Alexandre Aja, French director
- 1978 - Vanness Wu, Taiwanese singer
- 1978 - Linsey Dawn McKenzie, English model and porn star
- 1978 - Cirroc Lofton, American actor
- 1978 - Shirley Yeung, Hong Kong actress
- 1979 - Eric Johnson, American actor
- 1980 - Aurélie Claudel, French supermodel
- 1982 - Yana Klochkova, Ukrainian swimmer
- 1982 - Vasileios Spanoulis, Greek basketball player
- 1983 - Tina O'Brien, British actress
- 1983 - Robert Flores, American baseball player
- 1983 - Christian Chávez, Mexican singer and actor, member of RBD
- 1987 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian hockey player
- 1988 - Melody Oliveria, American internet blogger
- 1989 - Sherman Cárdenas, Colombian football
player
- 1996 - Tessa Allen, American actress
Deaths
- 461 - Majorian, Roman
Emperor (assassinated) (b. 420)
- 479 - Emperor Yūryaku of Japan
- 1106 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b.
1050)
- 1485 - Alexander Stewart, 1st Duke of
Albany, Scottish prince
- 1613 - Thomas Fleming, English judge (b.
1544)
- 1616 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (b.
1548)
- 1635 - Friedrich von Spee, German writer (b.
1591)
- 1639 - Martin van den Hove, Dutch scientist (b.
1605)
- 1661 - Jin Shengtan, Chinese editor, writer and critic
(b. 1608)
- 1817 - Pierre Samuel du Pont de
Nemours, French industrialist (b. 1739)
- 1834 - Joseph Marie Jacquard, French weaver and
inventor (b. 1752)
- 1848 - Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (b.
1779)
- 1855 - Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (b. 1802)
- 1912 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss
hydrologist (b. 1841)
- 1917 - Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning, first
pilot to land his aircraft on a moving ship. (b. 1891)
- 1938 - Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian/Soviet
actor, producer, dramatist (b. 1863)
- 1941 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author,
Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1861)
- 1957 - Oliver Hardy, American comedian and actor (b.
1892)
- 1969 - Joseph Kosma, French composer (Autumn Leaves) (b. 1905)
- 1972 - Joi Lansing, American model and actress (b.
1929)
- 1974 - Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (b.
1925)
- 1974 - Sylvio Mantha, professional ice hockey player (b. 1902)
- 1984 - Esther Phillips, American singer (b.
1935)
- 1985 - Grayson Hall, American actress (b.
1923)
- 1987 - Camille Chamoun, Lebanese President (b.
1900)
- 1989 - Mickey Leland, American politician,
United States Congressman from Texas (b.
1944)
- 1992 - John Anderson, American actor (b.
1922)
- 1994 - Larry Martyn, comedy actor (b. 1934)
- 1995 - Brigid Brophy, British author (b.
1929)
- 1999 - Brion James, American actor (b. 1945)
- 2003 - Mickey McDermott, baseball player (b.
1929)
- 2004 - Red Adair, American oil field firefighter (b.
1915)
- 2004 - Colin Bibby, English ornithologist (b. 1948)
- 2005 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-born news anchor (b.
1938)
- 2006 - Mary Anderson Bain, American
New Deal politician (b. 1911)
- 2007 - Hal Fishman, Los Angeles based local news anchor.
(b. 1931)
- 2007 - Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director and producer. (b. 1917)
Holidays and observances
Liturgical feasts
Roman Catholicism
External links