August 7
From Metapedia
[edit] Events
- 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.
- 1940 - Alsace Lorraine is annexed by Germany during World War II
- 1960 - Côte d'Ivoire, (Ivory Coast) 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.
- 1998 - Al-Qaeda bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, kill 224 people and injure over 4,500.
[edit] Births
- 1742 - Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary general (d. 1786)
- 1870 - Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, German arms manufacturer (d. 1950)
- 1876 - Mata Hari, Dutch spy (d. 1917)
- 1903 - Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)
- 1950 - Alan Keyes, US diplomat and political activist
- 1954 - Jonathan Pollard, American convicted of spying for Israel
- 1966 - Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia
[edit] Deaths
- 1106 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1050)
