On this day: 7 August

Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628: Sassanid troops under general Shahrbaraz conquer the town of Zenobia.

The Avar and Slav armies leave the siege of Constantinople.

Pope Stephen III is elected to office, and quickly seeks Frankish protection against the Lombard threat, since the Byzantine Empire is no longer able to help.

Coronation of King Otto I of Germany.

Ming Chinese general Cao Qin staged a failed coup against the Tianshun Emperor.

Battle of Guinegate: French troops of King Louis XI are defeated by the Burgundians led by Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg.

The brigantine Le Griffon becomes the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.

The Battle of Gangut: The first important victory of the Russian Navy.

The Treaty of Åbo ends the 1741–1743 Russo-Swedish War.

Prussia declared its intervention in the War of the Austrian Succession on behalf of Charles VII, beginning the Second Silesian War.

The Badge of Military Merit (pictured), the precursor to the U.S. Purple Heart, was established as a military decoration of the Continental Army.

The first federal Indian Reservation is created by the United States.

The United States Department of War is established.

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

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

Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.

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

Mahdist War: Anglo-Egyptian soldiers clashed with Mahdist Sudanese rebels in the Battle of Abu Hamed.

Fifty-nine days after leaving New York City with three passengers, Alice Huyler Ramsey arrived in San Francisco to become the first woman to drive an automobile across the contiguous United States.

The Battle of Mulhouse began with France's first attack of World War I in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the region of Alsace from Germany.

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

World War II: U.S. Marines initiated the first American offensive of the Guadalcanal campaign, with landings on Tulagi (pictured), Gavutu–Tanambogo and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

IBM presented the first program-controlled calculator to Harvard University, after which it became known as the Mark I (pictured).

The Soviet Union informed Turkey that the way in which the latter was handling the Turkish Straits no longer represented the security interests of Turkey's fellow Black Sea nations, escalating the Turkish Straits crisis.

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).

Hurricane Diane, the first Atlantic hurricane to cause more than $1 billion in damages, formed between the Lesser Antilles and Cape Verde.

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

Ivory Coast becomes independent from France.

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.

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.

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.

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

Viking program: Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars.

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

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

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

Lynne Cox became the first person to swim between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, crossing from Little Diomede to Big Diomede in the Bering Strait in 2 hours and 5 minutes.

The National Cold Fusion Institute opened in Salt Lake City.

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

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

The 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.

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

The Chechnya-based Islamic International Brigade invades neighboring Dagestan.

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

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