August 7

• 1679 - The brigantine Le Griffon, which was 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.
• 1789 - The United States War Department is established.
• 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".
• 1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins: Farmers in the Monoghaela Valley of Pennsylvania rebel against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.
• 1816 - Simón Bolívar triumphed over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
• 1927 - Peace Bridge opens, between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
• 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 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.
• 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1989 - US Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX), and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
• 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.

• 1560 - Elizabeth Bathory serial killer (d. 1614)
• 1598 - Georg Stiernhielm, poet
• 1742 - Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1786)
• 1779 - Carl Ritter, cofounder of modern science of geography (d. 1859)
• 1836 - Evander Law, Confederate General
• 1867 - Emil Nolde, painter (d. 1956)
• 1876 - Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), spy (d. 1917)
• 1877 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater
• 1883 - Joachim Ringelnatz, writer (d. 1934)
• 1885 - Billie Burke, actress, The Wizard of Oz (d. 1970)
• 1890 - Gurley Flynn, politician (d. 1964)
• 1904 - Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
• 1904 - Hanna Melzer, activist against Nazism (d. 1960)
• 1926 - Stan Freberg, cartoon and commercial voice, comedian
• 1927 - Carl Alfalfa Switzer, actor (d. 1959)
• 1928 - James Randi, magician
• 1936 - Rahsaan Roland Kirk
• 1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
• 1942 - Garrison Keillor, radio host
• 1942 - B.J. Thomas, singer
• 1949 - Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze
• 1958 - Bruce Dickinson, singer
• 1960 - David Duchovny, actor
• 1975 - Charlize Theron, actress

• 461 - Majorian, Roman Emperor (assassinated)
• 1834 - Joseph Marie Jacquard, inventor of the Jacquard Loom
• 1855 - Mariano Arista, president of Mexico
• 1931 - Bix Beiderbecke, musician
• 1941 - Rabindranath Tagore, author
• 1957 - Oliver Hardy, comedian, actor
• 1995 - Brigid Brophy, British author

• Colombia - Battle of Boyacá
• Côte d'Ivoire - Republic Day (Independence in 1960 from France)
• Kiribati - Youth Day
• Western Samoa - Labour Day