From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through the summer on this day.
[edit] Events
- 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.
- 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.
- 1807 - The Clermont, designed by American engineer Robert Fulton — embarked on its maiden voyage.
- 1819 - Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
- 1879 - The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
- 1888 - Jack the Ripper commits the first of his murders around London's East End.
- 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 IIIrd Reich (Germany) during World War Two
- 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 - Cent (United States coin): Lincoln Memorial Design on reverse debuted
- 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.
- 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.
- 1991 - World Wide Web debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
- 1997 - Garth Brooks plays to 750,000 people in Central Park.
- 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.
- 2000 - deviantART is founded.
- 2005 - Russian Priz class mini-submarine AS-28 and its seven crewmembers are rescued off the Pacific coast
- 2006 - Thermae Bath Spa opens in Bath, after four years of delays and escalating costs.
[edit] 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 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
- 1932 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopan athlete
- 1932 - Dr. Maurice Rabb, Jr., African American ophthalmologist
- 1932 - Edward Hardwicke, British actor
- 1933 - Eddie Firmani, South African football(soccer) player and coach
- 1936 - Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American saxophonist
- 1939 - Anjanette Comer, American actress
- 1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
- 1942 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
- 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 - Greg Carmichael, British guitarist
- 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)
- 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
- 1966 - Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
- 1967 - Jason Grimsley, American baseball player
- 1971 - Rachel York, American actress and singer
- 1973 - Danny Graves, American baseball player
- 1973 - Anthony Minnuto, American writer
- 1975 - Edgar Renteria, Colombian baseball player
- 1975 - David Hicks, Australian alleged terrorist
- 1975 - Charlize Theron, South African actress
- 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
- 1980 - Aurélie Claudel, French supermodel
- 1982 - Yana Klochkova, Ukrainian swimmer
- 1982 - Vasileios Spanoulis, Greek basketball player
- 1983 - Tina O'Brien, British actress
- 1983 - Christian Chávez, Mexican singer and actor, member of RBD
- 1987 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian hockey player
[edit] 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)
- 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)
- 1989 - Mickey Leland, American politician, United States Congressman from Texas (b. 1944)
- 1992 - John Anderson, American actor (b. 1922)
- 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 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)
[edit] Holidays and observances
[edit] Liturgical feasts
Roman Catholicism
- Transfiguration [HCC]
- St. Agathangelo Noury
- St. Albert of Trapani (Albert of Sicily)
- Saint Cajetan of Thienna, priest, confessor [common]
- Saint Justin [Paris]
- St. Carpophorus
- St. Donatus
- St. Donatian
- St. Donatus & Hilarinus
- St. Donatus of Besancon, bishop of Besançon, martyr [common; Besançon (as confessor)]
- Saint Euphronius, bishop of Autun [Autun]
- Saint Faustus
- Translation of Saint Florinus, confessor [Chur]
- Saint Hilarinus, monk, martyr
- St. Hyperechios
- St. Peter, Julian and Companions
- Saint Sixtus II, pope and companions, martyrs (sometimes only confessors) [common]
- St. Victricius, bishop of Rouen, confessor [Rouen]
- Saint Afra, virgin, martyr
- Saint Claudia
- Saint Juliana of Cornillon
- Saint Mary of Egypt [Cologne, Trier]
[edit] External links
