Here is a list of things which happened on the 7th of August over the years:
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. (1782)
The United States War Department is established. (1789)
IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I). (1944)
The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the “sheaves of wheat” design and is still in use. (1959)
Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan. (1966)
California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his courtroom and killed during in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody. (1970)
French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center (1974)
United States President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal. (1978)
President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. (1990)
The United States Embassy bombing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya killing approximately 212 people. (1998)
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore chose Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, making him the first Jewish candidate on a major party ticket. (2000)