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This day in history

This day in history: 7 August

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Key facts

362 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 7 August.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2026: Debsirin Nonthaburi school shooting

Holidays and observances

Assyrian Martyrs Day (Assyrian community)

Battle of Boyacá Day (Colombia)

Christian feast day: Afra

Christian feast day: Albert of Trapani

Christian feast day: August 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Blessed Edward Bamber, John Woodcock and Thomas Whittaker

Christian feast day: Cajetan of Thienna

Christian feast day: Carpophorus and companions

Christian feast day: Dometius of Persia

Christian feast day: Donatus of Arezzo

Christian feast day: Donatus of Besançon

Christian feast day: Donatus of Muenstereifel

Events

2026Debsirin Nonthaburi school shooting

2020Air India Express Flight 1344 overshoots the runway at Calicut International Airport in the Malappuram district of Kerala, India, and crashes, killing 21 of the 190 people on board.

2008The start of the Russo-Georgian War over the territory of South Ossetia.

2007At AT&T Park, Barry Bonds hits his 756th career home run to surpass Hank Aaron's 33-year-old record.

1999The Chechnya-based Islamic International Brigade invades neighboring Dagestan.

1998Bombings at United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya kill approximately 212 people.

1997Fine Air Flight 101 crashes after takeoff from Miami International Airport, killing five people.

1997Space Shuttle Program: The Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-85 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1995The Chilean government declares state of emergency in the southern half of the country in response to an event of intense, cold, wind, rain and snowfall known as the White Earthquake.

1993Ada Deer, a Menominee activist, is sworn in as the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

1990First American soldiers arrive in Saudi Arabia as part of the Gulf War.

1989The National Cold Fusion Institute opened in Salt Lake City.

1989U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.

1987Cold War: Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, crossing the Bering Strait from Little Diomede Island in Alaska to Big Diomede in the Soviet Union.

1985Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.

1981The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.

1978U.S. President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal due to toxic waste that had been disposed of negligently.

1976Viking program: Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars.

1974Philippe Petit performs a high wire act between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center 1,368 feet (417 m) in the air.

1970California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his courtroom and killed during an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.

1969Richard Nixon appoints Luis R. Bruce, a Mohawk-Oglala Sioux and co-founder of the National Congress of American Indians, as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

1964Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.

1962Canadian-born American pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey is awarded the U.S. President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service for her refusal to authorize thalidomide.

1960Ivory Coast becomes independent from France.

1959Explorer program: Explorer 6 launches from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1947The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).

1947Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have

1946The government of the Soviet Union presented a note to its Turkish counterparts which refuted the latter's sovereignty over the Turkish Straits, thus beginning the Turkish Straits crisis.

1944IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).

1942World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal begins as the United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.

1933The Kingdom of Iraq slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Simele. This date is recognized as Martyrs Day or National Day of Mourning by the Assyrian community in memory of the Simele massacre.

1930The last confirmed lynching of black people in the Northern United States occurs in Marion, Indiana; two men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, are murdered.

1927The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.

1926The first British Grand Prix was held at Brooklands.

1909Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California.

1890Anna Månsdotter, found guilty of the 1889 Yngsjö murder, becomes the last woman to be executed in Sweden.[better source needed]

1858The first Australian rules football match is played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College.

1819Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.

1794U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

1791American troops destroy the Miami town of Kenapacomaqua near the site of present-day Logansport, Indiana in the Northwest Indian War.

Born on this day

2000Lauren Hemp, English footballer

1999Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, American hurdler and sprinter

1998Jalen Hurts, American football player

1998María Belén Bazo, Peruvian windsurfer

1998Vladimir Barbu, Italian diver

1997Kyler Murray, American football player

1997Matty Cash, English-Polish footballer

1996Dani Ceballos, Spanish footballer

1993Karol Zalewski, Polish sprinter

1993Martti Nõmme, Estonian ski jumper

1992Adam Yates, English cyclist

1992E. J. Tackett, American bowler

1992Simon Yates, English cyclist

1992Wout Weghorst, Dutch footballer

1991Luis Salom, Spanish motorcycle racer (died 2016)

1991Mike Trout, American baseball player

1991Mitchell te Vrede, Dutch footballer

1990Jake Allen, Canadian ice hockey player

1990Josh Franceschi, English singer-songwriter

1989DeMar DeRozan, American basketball player

1988Beanie Wells, American football player

1988Erik Pieters, Dutch footballer

1988Jonathan Bernier, Canadian ice hockey player

1988Melody Oliveria, American blogger

1988Mohamed Coulibaly, Senegalese footballer

1987Mustapha Dumbuya, Sierra Leonean footballer

1987Rouven Sattelmaier, German footballer

1987Ryan Lavarnway, American baseball player

1987Sidney Crosby, Canadian ice hockey player

1986Altaír Jarabo, Mexican model and actress

1986Juan de la Rosa, Mexican boxer

1986Paul Biedermann, German swimmer

1986Valter Birsa, Slovenian footballer

1984Stratos Perperoglou, Greek basketball player

1984Tooba Siddiqui, Pakistani model and actress

1984Yun Hyon-seok, South Korean poet and author (died 2003)

1983Andriy Hrivko, Ukrainian cyclist

1983Christian Chávez, Mexican singer-songwriter and actor

1983Danny, Portuguese footballer

1983Mark Pettini, English cricketer and journalist

Died on this day

2025Myint Swe, retired army general and acting president of Myanmar (born 1951)

2024Jon McBride, American astronaut (born 1943)

2023William Friedkin, American film director (born 1935)

2022David McCullough, American historian and author (born 1933)

2021Markie Post, American actress (born 1950)

2021Trevor Moore, American comedian (born 1980)

2019David Berman, American musician, singer, poet and cartoonist (born 1967)

2018M. Karunanidhi, Indian politician, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and prominent leader of Tamils (born 1924)

2018Stan Mikita, Slovak hockey player (born 1940)

2017David Maslanka, American composer (born 1943)

2017Don Baylor, American baseball player (born 1949)

2016Bryan Clauson, American racing driver (born 1989)

2015Frances Oldham Kelsey, Canadian pharmacologist and physician (born 1914)

2015Louise Suggs, American golfer, co-founded LPGA (born 1923)

2015Manuel Contreras, Chilean general (born 1929)

2014Henry Stone, American record producer (born 1921)

2014Perry Moss, American football player and coach (born 1926)

2014Víctor Fayad, Argentine lawyer and politician (born 1955)

2013Alexander Yagubkin, Russian boxer (born 1961)

2013Almir Kayumov, Russian footballer (born 1964)

2013Anthony Pawson, English-Canadian biologist, chemist, and academic (born 1952)

2013Margaret Pellegrini, American actress and dancer (born 1923)

2013Meeli Truu, Estonian architect (born 1946)

2013Samuel G. Armistead, American linguist, historian, and academic (born 1927)

2012Anna Piaggi, Italian journalist and author (born 1931)

2012Dušan Zbavitel, Czech indologist and author (born 1925)

2012Judith Crist, American critic and academic (born 1922)

2012Mayer Zald, American sociologist and academic (born 1931)

2012Murtuz Alasgarov, Azerbaijani academic and politician, Speaker of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan (born 1928)

2012Vladimir Kobzev, Russian footballer and coach (born 1959)

Quote of the day

“Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?”

Lao Tzu

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Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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