August 7

Events
Up to 1900
322 BC - Battle of Crammon between Athens and Macedon.
461 - Roman Emperor Majorian is beheaded near the river Iria in northwestern Italy.
626 - The Avar and Slav armies leave the Siege of Constantinople.
768 - Pope Stephen III is elected.
936 - Coronation of King Otto I of Germany.
1316 - Pope John XXII is elected.
1420 - Building of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy begins.
1461 - Ming Dynasty Chinese general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.
1588 - The English Navy defeats the Spanish Armada.
1679 - The brigantine Le Griffon, which was commissioned by Rene 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.
1714 - Battle of Gangut: First important victory in the Russian Navy.
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 Department of War is established.
1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins: Farmers in the Monoghaela Valley of Pennsylvania rebel against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.
1819 - Simon Bolivar triumphed over Spain in the Battle of Boyaca.
1858 - The first Australian rules football match is played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College.
1879 - Opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester, England.
1884 - Germany takes control of Southwest Africa, present-day Namibia.
1888 - In the US, Theophilus Van Kannel is given a patent for the Revolving door.
1901 2000
1909 - Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to make a transcontinental car journey, reaching San Francisco, California after setting off from New York City on June 9.
1927 - Peace Bridge opens, between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
1930 - The last confirmed lynchings of African Americans in the Northern United States take place in Marion, Indiana.
1933 - Simele Massacre: Iraqi government forces slaughter over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Simele.
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 7,000 km (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 (this is disputed by some).
1959 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1960 - Cote 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.
1964 - Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the oldest tree in the world, is cut down.
1965 - Singapore is expelled and separated from the Federation of Malaysia.
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.
1971 - Apollo 15 returns to Earth after a mission to the Moon.
1972 - Idi Amin gives all Asian people in Uganda 90 days to leave.
1974 - French tight-rope walker Philippe Petit crosses from one tower to the other at New York City's World Trade Center.
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.
1983 - The first World Athletics Championships begin in Helsinki, Finland.
1985 - Takao Doi, Mamoru Mori, and Chiaki Mukai are chosen as Japan's first astronauts.
1987 - American swimmer Lynne Cox crosses the so-called 'Ice Curtain' between Alaska (US), and the Soviet Union's far east.
1989 - US 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.
1990 - Cesar Gaviria becomes President of Colombia.
1994 - Ernesto Samper becomes President of Colombia.
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 - Andres Pastrana Arango becomes President of Colombia.
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.
1999 - Southern Russia: Chechnya-based Islamic International Brigade invades nearby Dagestan.
2000 - US presidential candidate Al Gore chooses Joe Lieberman as his running mate.
2000 - Saturn's moon Ymir is discovered.
From 2001
2002 - Alvaro Uribe becomes President of Colombia.
2005 - The biggest bank robbery in Brazilian history takes place when 150 million Real (equivalent of 52 million Euros) are stolen from a bank in Fortaleza in the northeast of the country.
2007 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks baseball great Hank Aaron's record by hitting his 756th home run.
2008 - The Republic of Georgia carries out a military offensive in South Ossetia.
2009 - Typhoon Morakot hits Taiwan.
2010 - Juan Manuel Santos becomes President of Colombia.
2012 - 3 gunmen kill 19 people in a church in Okene, Nigeria.
2018 - US President Donald Trump imposes new sanctions (restrictions) on Iran.
2018 - Ivan Duque becomes President of Colombia.
Births
Up to 1800
317 - Constantius II, Roman Emperor (d. 361)
594 - Empress Kogyoku of Japan (d. 661)
1282 - Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, daughter of Edward I of England (d. 1316)
1400 - Guillaume Dufay, French composer (d. 1474) (some sources give August 5, 1397 birthdate)
1533 - Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga, Basque soldier and poet (d. 1595)
1560 - Elizabeth Bathory, Hungarian countess and serial killer (d. 1614)
1574 - Robert Dudley, English writer (d. 1649)
1598 - Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (d. 1672)
1649 - Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria (d. 1664)
1726 - James Bowdoin, 2nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1790)
1734 - Duchess Maria Anna Josepha of Bavaria (d. 1776)
1742 - Nathanael Greene, American revolutionary general (d. 1786)
1751 - Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess of Orange (d. 1820)
1779 - Louis de Freycinet, French explorer (d. 1842)
1779 - Carl Ritter, German geographer (d. 1859)
1783 - Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom (d. 1810)
1783 - John Heathcoat, English inventor (d. 1861)
1801 1900
1804 - Johan Nicolai Madvig, Danish classical philologist and politician (d. 1886)
1811 - Elias Loomis, American mathematician, astronomer and meteorologist (d. 1889)
1819 - Ion Emanuel Florescu, Romanian general and politician (d. 1893)
1832 - Max Lange, German chess player (d. 1899)
1862 - Victoria of Baden, Queen of Sweden (d. 1931)
1863 - Scipione Riva-Ricci, Italian physician (d. 1937)
1867 - Emil Nolde, German painter (d. 1956)
1868 - Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Russian mathematician (d. 1931)
1870 - Gustav Krupp, German industrialist and war criminal (d. 1950)
1872 - Andries Cornelis Dirk de Graeff, Dutch politician (d. 1957)
1876 - Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (d. 1917)
1876 - John August Anderson, American astronomer (d. 1959)
1877 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (d. 1949)
1878 - Maria Caspar-Filser, German artist (d. 1968)
1883 - Joachim Ringelnatz, German writer and painter (d. 1934)
1884 - Billie Burke, American actress (d. 1970)
1890 - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, American activist (d. 1964)
1896 - Alberto Demicheli, Uruguayan politician (d. 1980)
1900 - Alan Helffrich, American athlete (d. 1994)
1901 1950
1901 - Ann Harding, American actress (d. 1981)
1903 - Louis Leakey, British-Kenyan archaeologist (d. 1972)
1904 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat (d. 1971)
1906 - Nelson Goodman, American philosopher (d. 1998)
1907 - Albert Kotin, American abstract painter (d. 1980)
1910 - Freddie Slack, American pianist and bandleader (d. 1965)
1911 - Nicholas Ray, American movie director and writer (d. 1979)
1912 - Vo Chi Cong, President of Vietnam (d. 2011)
1913 - Alicia Penalba, Argentine sculptor, tapestry designer and weaver (d. 1982)
1916 - Kermit Love, American puppeteer (d. 2008)
1918 - Poni Adams, American actress (d. 2014)
1921 - Manitas de Plata, French flamenco guitarist (d. 2014)
1924 - Kenneth Kendall, English journalist (d. 2012)
1925 - M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
1925 - Armand Razafindratandra, Malagasy cardinal (d. 2010)
1926 - Stan Freberg, American actor, comedian and author (d. 2015)
1927 - Edwin Edwards, 50th Governor of Louisiana (d. 2021)
1927 - George Busbee, American politician, Governor of the State of Georgia (d. 2004)
1927 - Rocky Bridges, American baseball player (d. 2015)
1928 - Betsy Byars, American author
1928 - James Randi, Canadian-American stage magician and scientific sceptic
1929 - Jo Baer, American painter
1929 - Don Larsen, American baseball player
1930 - Veljo Tormis, Estonian composer (d. 2017)
1932 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian runner (d. 1973)
1932 - Edward Hardwicke, British actor (d. 2011)
1932 - Rien Poortvliet, Dutch painter (d. 1995)
1933 - Eddie Firmani, South African footballer and coach
1933 - Elinor Ostrom, American economist (d. 2012)
1933 - Jerry Pournelle, American science fiction author (d. 2017)
1937 - Magic Slim, American blues musician (d. 2013)
1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Belgian politician, former Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2014)
1941 - Franco Columbu, Italian actor and bodybuilder
1942 - Sigfried Held, German footballer
1942 - B.J. Thomas, American singer
1942 - Caetano Veloso, Brazilian musician
1943 - Alain Corneau, French movie director (d. 2010)
1944 - Robert Mueller, American FBI director
1945 - Kenny Ireland, Scottish actor (d. 2014)
1945 - Alan Page, American football player and judge
1946 - John C. Mather, American physicist
1947 - Sofia Rotaru, Soviet-Ukrainian singer
1948 - Greg Chappell, Australian cricketer and coach
1948 - Antonis Vardis, Greek composer and singer (d. 2014)
1949 - Tim Renwick, British musician
1949 - Walid Junblatt, Lebanese political leader
1950 - Alan Keyes, American conservative political activist, pundit, author and diplomat
1950 - Kessai Note, former President of the Marshall Islands
1950 - Dave Wottle, American athlete
1951 1975
1952 - Gary Schwartz, American actor, voice actor, author and teacher
1952 - Caroline Aaron, American actress
1955 - Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
1955 - Greg Nickels, American politician, 51st Mayor of Seattle
1955 - Diana Downs, American murderess
1956 - Kent Rominger, American astronaut
1957 - Alexander Dityatin, Soviet gymnast
1958 - Bruce Dickinson, British singer (Iron Maiden)
1958 - Alberto Salazar, American runner
1960 - Jacquie O'Sullivan, British singer (Bananarama)
1960 - David Duchovny, American actor
1961 - Yelena Davydova, Soviet-Russian gymnast
1961 - Brian Conley, English actor and singer
1962 - Alain Robert, French daredevil
1962 - Alison Brown, American musician, songwriter and producer
1962 - Bruno Pelletier, Canadian singer
1962 - Doon Mackichan, British comedienne and actress
1963 - Harold Perrineau, American actor
1966 - Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
1966 - Shobna Gulati, English actress
1966 - Kristin Hersh, American singer-songwriter, musician and author
1966 - David Cairns, Scottish politician (d. 2011)
1967 - Evgeny Platov, Russian ice dancer
1968 - Martin Max, German footballer
1969 - Domino Harvey, English bounty hunter (d. 2005)
1969 - Paul Lambert, Scottish footballer and coach
1971 - Rachel York, American actress and singer
1972 - Karen Disher, American film director
1973 - Kevin Muscat, Australian footballer
1973 - Zane Lowe, New Zealand disc jockey and television presenter
1974 - Michael Shannon, American actor
1975 - Charlize Theron, South African actress
1975 - Edgar Renteria, Colombian baseball player
1975 - Gaahl, Norwegian singer-songwriter
1975 - Koray Candemir, Turkish singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and actor
1975 - David Hicks, Australian alleged terrorist
From 1976
1976 - Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos, Greek footballer
1977 - Charlotte Ronson, English fashion designer
1977 - Samantha Ronson, English DJ and songwriter
1978 - Mark McCammon, Barbadian footballer
1979 - Eric Johnson, American actor
1979 - Nenad Djordjevic, Serbian footballer
1980 - Seiichiro Maki, Japanese footballer
1980 - Shane Orio, Belizean footballer
1982 - Yana Klochkova, Ukrainian swimmer
1982 - Marco Melandri, Italian cyclist
1982 - Abbie Cornish, American actress
1983 - Brit Marling, American writer, producer, director and actress
1984 - Yun Hyon-seok, South Korean activist (d. 2003)
1985 - Rick Genest, Canadian fashion model and artist (d. 2018)
1986 - Paul Biedermann, German swimmer
1986 - Valter Birsa, Slovenian footballer
1986 - Nancy Sumari, Tanzanian beauty queen
1987 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 - Melody Oliveria, American blogger
1990 - Helen Flanagan, English actress
1991 - Mitchell te Vrede, Dutch footballer
1993 - Francesca Eastwood, American actress, model, television presenter and socialite
1996 - Liam James, Canadian actor
Deaths
Up to 1900
461 - Majorian, Roman Emperor (assassinated) (b. 420)
479 - Emperor Yuryaku of Japan
1106 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1050)
1385 - Joan of Kent (b. 1328)
1485 - Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany (b. 1454)
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)
1809 - Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., Governor of Connecticut (b. 1740)
1817 - Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, French industrialist (b. 1739)
1821 - Caroline of Brunswick, Queen of the United Kingdom (b. 1768)
1834 - Joseph Marie Jacquard, inventor of the Jacquard loom (b. 1752)
1848 - Jons Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (b. 1779)
1855 - Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (b. 1802)
1864 - Li Xiucheng, Chinese general (b. 1823)
1893 - Alfredo Catalani, Italian musician (b. 1854)
1900 - Wilhelm Liebknecht, German political activist (b. 1826)
1901 2000
1908 - Antonio Starabba, Italian politician (b. 1839)
1912 - Francois-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (born 1841)
1917 - Edwin Harris Dunning, South African-English pilot and commander (b. 1891)
1937 - Takeo Wakabayashi, Japanese footballer (b. 1907)
1938 - Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner (b. 1863)
1941 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer and poet (b. 1861)
1945 - Yi Wu, Korean prince (b. 1912)
1948 - Charles Bryant, American actor and movie director (b. 1879)
1957 - Oliver Hardy, American radio and movie comedian, and actor (born 1892)
1969 - Joseph Kosma, French composer (b. 1905)
1972 - Asposia Manos, wife of King Alexander of Greece (b. 1896)
1972 - Joi Lansing, American model, actress and singer (b. 1929)
1974 - Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (b. 1925)
1981 - Gunnar Uusi, Estonian chess player (b. 1931)
1987 - Camille Chamoun, Lebanese President (b. 1900)
1989 - Mickey Leland, American politician (b. 1944)
1994 - Larry Martin, English actor (b. 1934)
1995 - Brigid Brophy, British writer (b. 1929)
1999 - Brion James, American actor (b. 1945)
From 2001
2004 - Red Adair, American oil well firefighter (b. 1915)
2005 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-American news anchor (b. 1938)
2007 - Angus Tait, New Zealand electronics innovator and businessman (b. 1929)
2008 - Andrea Pininfarina, Italian engineer (b. 1957)
2010 - Bruno Cremer, French actor (b. 1929)
2011 - Hugh Carey, former Governor of New York (b. 1919)
2011 - Mark Hatfield, former Governor of Oregon (b. 1922)
2011 - Harri Holkeri, 57th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1937)
2011 - Nancy Wake, New Zealand-born spy (b. 1912)
2014 - Denys Williams, British-Barbadian judge, acting Governor-General of Barbados (b. 1929)
2014 - Cristina Deutekom, Dutch opera singer (b. 1931)
2014 - Perry Moss, American football coach (b. 1926)
2014 - Claude Bertrand, Canadian neurosurgeon (b. 1917)
2015 - Frances Oldham Kelsey, Canadian physician (b. 1914)
2015 - Manuel Contreras, Chilean general, convicted of crimes against humanity (b. 1929)
2015 - Terrence Evans, American actor (b. 1934)
2016 - Gustavo Bueno, Spanish philosopher (b. 1924)
2016 - Bryan Clauson, American racing driver (b. 1989)
2017 - Don Baylor, American baseball player (b. 1949)
2017 - Haruo Nakajima, Japanese actor (b. 1929)
2017 - Sigmund Sobolewski, Polish activist and Holocaust survivor (b. 1923)
2017 - Patsy Ticer, American politician (b. 1935)
2018 - John Ciaccia, Italian-born Canadian politician (b. 1933)
2018 - Arvonne Fraser, American women's rights activist (b. 1925)
2018 - Gustavo Giagnoni, Italian footballer and manager (b. 1932)
2018 - M. Karunanidhi, Indian politician and writer (b. 1924)
2018 - Anton Lehmden, Austrian painter (b. 1929)
2018 - Stan Mikita, Slovakian-born Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1940)
2018 - Carlos Almenar Otero, Venezuelan tenor (b. 1926)
Observances
Republic Day (Ivory Coast)
Youth Day (Kiribati)
Battle of Boyaca Day (Colombia)
August 07