AUGUST 7

The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through its summer on this day.

Contents

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

External links

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.

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

★ 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 - 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 from El Paso, Tx

★ 1983 - Christian Chávez, Mexican singer and actor, member of RBD

★ 1987 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian hockey player

★ 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, Spanish actor , director , and producer. (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances

★ BC Day - Province of Canada.

★ Civic Holiday - Canada.

★ Emancipation Day - Turks and Caicos Islands.

★ National Holiday in Colombia: Battle of Boyaca, birth of Bogotá.

Liturgical feasts

Roman Catholicism

★ St. Afra, virgin martyr

★ St. Albert of Trapani (Albert of Sicily)

★ Saint Cajetan of Thienna, priest, confessor [common]

★ St. Carpophorus

★ St. Peter, Julian and Companions

★ Saint Sixtus II, pope and companions, martyrs (sometimes only confessors) [common]

★ Saint Juliana of Cornillon

★ Saint Mary of Egypt [Cologne, Trier]

External links

★ BBC: On This Day

★

★ On This Day in Canada
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