7th August, on this day

322 BC - Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great.
768 Stephen III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1461 The Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor;
1485 Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII of England, lands in Wales at the start of his succesful bid to take the English throne
1498 Columbus arrives in Caribbean
1620 Kepler's mother arrested for witchcraft
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.
1711 Ascot racecourse becomes 'Royal' Ascot after the attendance of Queen Anne for a day at the races
1714 The first important victory of the Russian Navy - the Battle of Gangut.
1782 George Washington establishes the Order of the Purple Heart - a decoration for US soldiers wounded in combat
1789 US War Department established
1794 Whiskey Rebellion begins: Farmers in the Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania rebel against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.
1819 Battle of Boyac ; Bol¡var defeats Spanish in Colombia
1840 The British Parliament passes an Act prohibiting the use of 'climbing boys' as chimney sweeps
1858 Queen Victoria choses Ottawa to be the capital of the Dominion of Canada
1879 The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
1882 Hatfields of south WV and McCoys of east Ky feud, 100 wounded or die
1888 Theophilus Van Kannel of Phila patents revolving door
1914 World War I: German forces enter the Belgian city of Liege
1925 Britain introduces the Daylight Saving Act - bringing in British summer time so the nation changes clocks by one hour twice a year
1926 The first British motor racing Grand Prix is staged at Brooklands - 110 laps of the track for a total distance of 287 miles. Winner is Robert Senechal in just over 4 hours at an average speed of almost 72 miles an hour
1933 The Iraqi Government slaughtered over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Sumail. The day becomes Assyrian Martyrs Day.
1934 US Court of Appeals upheld lower court ruling striking down govt's attempt to ban controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses"
1938 2 die in a NYC subway accident
1940 Largest amount paid for a stamp ($45,000 for 1856 British Guiana)
1940 Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
1941 551 Jews are shot in Kishnev ghetto in Romania
1942 Battle of Guadalcanal begins: US troops land on the Japanese-held island of Guadalcanal in the Southern Solomon Islands in the Pacific
1944 IBM dedicates the first program-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.
1946 1st US coin bearing portrait of Negro authorised
1947 Balsa raft Kon Tiki crashes into a Polynesian archipelago reef
1951 Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket reaches 1,992 kph
1953 Eastern Airlines enters the jet age, uses Electra prop-jet
1955 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, begins selling its first Transistor radios in Japan.
1959 US satellite Explorer 6, is launched from Cape Canaveral - and becomes the first space probe to transmit photographs of the Earth from space
1960 Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) gains independence from France
1960 Students stage kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches
1961 Cosmonaut Gherman Titov circles Earth for a full day in Vostok 2
1963 Jac Kennedy becomes 1st, 1st lady to give birth since Mrs Cleveland
1964 US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution
1966 Race riot in Lansing, Michigan
1967 The People's Republic of China agrees to give North Vietnam an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
1970 1st computer chess tournament
1970 4, including presiding judge, Harold Haley, killed in courthouse shootout in San Rafael, Calif (Police charge Angela Davis provided weapons)
1971 Apollo 15 returns to Earth
1973 US Vice-President Spiro Agnew admits he is under investigation in his own state of Maryland for crimes including fraud and bribery
1973 NBC airs the final day of the Watergate hearings on U.S. daytime television.
1974 Philippe Petit walks tightrope strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center
1976 US Viking 2 goes into Martian orbit after 11-month flight from Earth
1976 Scientists in Pasadena, Calif, announce Viking I found strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars
1978 Thousands of mourners file past the body of Pope Paul VI
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 Grete Waitz of Norway, wins 1st all-women Marathon (Helsinki Fin)
1984 Japan beats US for olympic gold medal in baseball
1985 Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
1986 Daniel Buettner, Bret Anderson, Martin Engel and Anne Knabe begin cycling journey of 15,266 miles from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Argentina
1987 5 Central American presidents sign peace accord in Guatemala
1987 Lynne Cox swims 4.3 km from US to USSR Bering Sea
1988 US Writers guild end their 6 months strike
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 Desert Shield begin-US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia
1990 Saudi Arabia allows US troops on their soil to stop an Iraqi invasion
1990 In South Africa, the African National Congress suspends its 29 year guerilla campaign against 'white rule' - a concession that leads to formal talks on ending the country's system of Apartheid
1991 Court rules Manuel Noriega, may access some secret US documents
1995 British athlete Jonathan Edwards twice breaks his own world triple jump record - becoming the first man to clear 18 metres - while winning the gold medal in the World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg
1997 Footballers Bruce Grobbelaar, Hans Segers and John Fashanu are all found not guilty of match fixing
1998 Two terrorist bombs exploded outside the American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania kill more than 200 and injure a further 5,000. The Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy Places claims responsibility

7th August 2006

Lebanon PM revises air raid toll

'549 dead' in N Korea flooding

BP field closure raises oil price

7th August 2007

S Asia millions face flood hunger

Turkey pressures Iraq PM on Kurds

Violence breaks out in East Timor

7th August 2008

Musharraf faces impeachment bid

Beijing pollution efforts hailed

Coup demonstrations in Mauritania

7th August 2009

Pakistani Taliban leader 'killed'

Iraqi bombers kill Shia Muslims

Georgia marks anniversary of war

7th August 2010

'Medics' killed in Afghanistan

Pakistan on flooding 'red alert'

The death toll from a Basra market blast rises to 43

Birthdates which occurred on 7th August :

317 Constantius II Roman emperor (337-61)
1598 Georg Stiernhielm "father of Swedish poetry" (Hercules)
1742 Nathanael Greene American Revolutionary War General
1779 Carl Ritter cofounder of modern science of geography
1783 John Heathcoat inventor (lace-making machinery)
1870 19 kittens born to Tarawood Antigone (4 still born)
1876 Mata Hari dancer/courtesan/spy (WW I)
1885 Billie Burke Washington DC, actress (Glinda-The Wizard of Oz)
1886 Louis Hazeltine inventor (neutrodyne circuit, making radio possible)
1896 Ernesto Lecuona Havana Cuba, composer (Malague¤a)
19-- Calos Vives Columbia, spanish singer (No Podras Escaparde Mi)
19-- David Rasche Ill, actor (Sledge Hammer)
1903 Louis Leakey anthropologist (1964 Richard Hooper Medal)
1904 Ralph J Bunche a founder & UN diplomat (Nobel 1950)
1921 Karel Husa Prague Czechoslovakia, composer (Trojan Women)
1926 Stan Freberg LA Calif, satirist/ad executive
1927 Edwin W Edwards (Gov-La)
1928 Amazing "James" Randi Toronto Ontario, skeptic magician
1929 Don Larsen pitcher (NY Yankees), on what must have been a perfect day
1929 Ruth Carter-Stapleton Plains Ga, 1st sister/evangelist
1932 Ann Harding US, actress (East is West, Janie)
1938 Helen Caldicott Melbourne Australia, physician/anti-war activist
1940 Marlyn Mason San Fernando Cal, actress (Making It, Peyton Place)
1942 Anjanette Comer Dawson Tx, actress (Baby, Lepke)
1942 B.J. Thomas singer (Raindrops, Growing Pains Theme)
1942 Garrison Keillor PBS radio personality (Prairie Home Companion)
1943 Lana Cantrell Sydney, Australia, singer (Those Were the Days)
1944 John Glover Kingston NY, actor (52 Pick-Up, Something Special)
1945 Alan Page defensive tackle (Minn Vikings)
1950 David James Wottle 800m runner (Olympic-gold-1972)
1950 Rodney Crowell singer/guitarist (for Emmylou Harris)
1951 Gary Hall swimmer (Olympic-bronze-1976)
1956 Kent V Rominger Del Norte Colo, US Navy Lt Commander/astronaut
1957 Aleksandr Ditiatin USSR, gymnast (Olympic-gold-1980)
1958 Alberto Salazar marathoner (NYC Marathon Winner)
1958 Bruce Dickinson heavy metal rocker (Iron Maiden-Run to Hills)
1958 Larisa Karlova USSR, team handball player (Olympic-gold-1976, 80)
1960 Jacquie O'Sullivan rocker (Bananarama-Venus)
1961 Yelena Davydova USSR, gymnast (Olympic-gold-1980)
1963 Marcus Lewis Pontiac Mich, singer (Sing me a Song)
1967 Charlotte Lewis Kensington London, actress (Golden Child, Pirates)
1969 David Hollander LA Calif, actor (Lewis & Clark, What's Happenings?)
197- Josh A Andrew Koenig actor (Boner-Growing Pains)

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Deaths which occurred on August 7th:
1867 Ira Aldridge actor dies at 63 in Lodes Poland
1957 Oliver Hardy comedian of Laurel & Hardy, dies at 65
1969 Russ Morgan orch leader (Welcome Aboard), dies at 65
1972 Joi Lansing actress (Bob Cummings Show), dies at 44 of cancer
1976 Murvyn Vye actor (Bob Cummings Show), dies at 63
1991 Shotzie Cincinnati Red dog mascot, dies at 9