August 7 in history — What Happened Today in History

The National Cold Fusion Institute opened in Salt Lake City.

Cold 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.

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

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

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

Viking program: Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars.

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

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

Richard 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.

Vietnam 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.

Canadian-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.

Ivory Coast becomes independent from France.

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

Thor 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 traveled from South America.

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

The 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.

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

World 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.

The 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.

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

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

The first British Grand Prix was held at Brooklands.

Alice 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.

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

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

Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.

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

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

Adam Yates, English cyclist

Simon Yates, English cyclist

Luis Salom, Spanish motorcycle racer (died 2016)

Mike Trout, American baseball player

Mitchell te Vrede, Dutch footballer

Jake Allen, Canadian ice hockey player

Josh Franceschi, English singer-songwriter

DeMar DeRozan, American basketball player

Jonathan Bernier, Canadian ice hockey player

Mohamed Coulibaly, Senegalese footballer

Melody Oliveria, American blogger

Erik Pieters, Dutch footballer

Beanie Wells, American football player

Manuel Contreras, Chilean general (born 1929)

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

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

Víctor Fayad, Argentine lawyer and politician (born 1955)

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

Henry Stone, American record producer (born 1921)

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

Almir Kayumov, Russian footballer (born 1964)

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

Margaret Pellegrini, American actress and dancer (born 1923)

Meeli Truu, Estonian architect (born 1946)

Alexander Yagubkin, Russian boxer (born 1961)

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