August 7
Encyclopedia : A : AU : AUG : August 7
|
Events
- 1679 - The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René 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 of North America.
- 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.
- 1942 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - U.S. 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).
- 1945 - President Harry Truman announces the successful 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 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 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.
- 1965 - Singapore is expelled and separated from the Federation of Malaysia.
- 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.
- 1990 - At 12:34:56 (both AM and PM) the time and date by British reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90 i.e. 1234567890.
- 1995 - Operation Storm is officially declared over in Croatia, resulting in total Croat victory over rebel Serb forces.
- 1997 - Fine Air Flight 101, a cargo flight from Miami to Santo Domingo crashes onto NW 72nd Ave near Miami International Airport, killing five people.
- 1998 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: 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.
- 2005 - Russian Priz class mini-submarine AS-28 and its seven crewmembers are rescued off the Pacific coast
Births
- 1400 - Guillaume Dufay, French composer (d. 1474)
- 1533 - Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Basque soldier and poet (d. 1595)
- 1560 - Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian 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. 191)
- 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)
- 1904 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
- 1925 - M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
- 1925 - Felice Bryant, American country songwriter and singer (d. 2003)
- 1926 - Stan Freberg, American voice comedian
- 1928 - James Randi, Canadian magician
- 1929 - Don Larsen, baseball player
- 1932 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopan athlete
- 1932 - Dr. Maurice Rabb, Jr., African American ophthalmologist
- 1936 - Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American saxophonist
- 1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
- 1942 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
- 1942 - B.J. Thomas, American singer
- 1943 - Dino Valente, American musician Quicksilver Messenger Service (d. 1994)
- 1944 - David Rasche, American actor
- 1945 - Alan Page, American football player
- 1948 - Greg Chappell, Australian test cricket player, captain and coach
- 1949 - Walid Jumblatt, Leader of the Lebanese Druze
- 1952 - Alexei Sayle, British 'alternate' comedian
- 1954 - Jonathan Pollard, Israeli spy
- 1955 - Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
- 1957 - Alexander Dityatin, Soviet gymnast
- 1958 - Bruce Dickinson, English singer (Iron Maiden)
- 1960 - David Duchovny, American actor
- 1961 - Yelena Davydova, Soviet gymnast
- 1963 - Harold Perrineau Jr., American actor
- 1964 - Michael Weishan, American TV host, author
- 1966 - Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
- 1967 - Jason Grimsley, American baseball player
- 1973 - Danny Graves, American baseball player
- 1975 - Edgar Renteria, Colombian baseball player
- 1975 - David Hicks, Australian alleged terrorist
- 1975 - Charlize Theron, South African actress
- 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
- 1980 - Aurélie Claudel, French supermodel
- 1982 - Yana Klochkova, Ukrainian swimmer
- 1983 - Tina O'Brien, British actress
- 1987 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian hockey player
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, English prince
- 1613 - Thomas Fleming, English judge (b. 1544)
- 1616 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (b. 1548)
- 1635 - Friedrich von Spee, German writer (b. 1591)
- 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 ship. Killed five days later during another landing on the ship
- 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)
- 1974 - Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (b. 1925)
- 1985 - Grayson Hall, American actress (b. 1923)
- 1989 - Mickey Leland, U.S. Congressman (D-TX) (b. 1944)
- 1995 - Brigid Brophy, British author (b. 1929)
- 1999 - Brion James, American actor (b. 1945)
- 2004 - Red Adair, American firefighter (b. 1915)
- 2004 - Colin Bibby, English ornithologist (b. 1948)
- 2004 - Aaron Lee Thibedeau, Aaron Lee "TIBBS" Thibedeau(b. 1979)
- 2005 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-born news anchor (b. 1938)
Holidays and Observances
- Roman Catholicism - the feasts of at least 15 saints:
- *St. Cajetan of Thienna
- *St. Donatus
- *St. Claudia
- *St. Agathangelo Noury
- *St. Albert of Trapani
- *St. Victricius
- *St. Carpophorus
- *St. Donat
- *St. Donatian
- *St. Donatus & Hilarinus
- *St. Donatus of Besancon
- *St. Faustus
- *St. Hyperechios
- *St. Peter, Julian, and Companions
External links
August 6 - August 8 - July 7 - September 7 -- listing of all days
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.