Ephemeris, 07 August

It happened one 07 August

1942 : The Americans landed on Guadalcanal On August 7, 1942, U.S. troops landed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands to take over the island to the Japanese. Because of the element of surprise, the landing was done without too much opposition, but with the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, the battle lasted until the withdrawal of Japanese troops in February 1943.
1947 : A raft travels nearly 7000km On August 7, 1947, the Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl arrived in the archipelago of Tuamotu aboard his raft Kon-Tiki, after covering nearly 7000km. He had left Peru on April 28. Heyerdahl wanted to prove that the first inhabitants of the Pacific islands came from South America.
1956 : Trucks of ammunition exploded in Cali On August 7, 1956, seven military trucks full of ammunition exploded in the center of the city of Cali. The nearby army barracksrailway station and homes are destroyed and 1000 people are killed. The cause of the explosion has never been found.
1998 : Bombings in 2 U.S. ambassies On August 7, 1998, the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya and the one in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were victims of bombings. 212 people were killed and over 5000 injured. The attacks were perpetrated by fundamentalist terrorist organization al-Qaeda.

Independance Day in Ivory Coast
August 7 is Independence Day in Ivory Coast, which commemorates its independence gained in 1960 against France.

Thor Heyerdahl, anthropologue norvégien
Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity.

Yūryaku, Emperor of Japan (479)
Mata Hari, Dutch spy (1876)
Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, Nobel Peace Prize (1903)
Nicholas Ray, American director (1911)
Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian athlete (1932)
Jean-Luc Dehaene, Belgian politician (1940)
Alain Corneau, French director (1943)
John Glover, American actor (1944)
Robert Mueller, 6th Director of the FBI (1944)
Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese politician (1949)
Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer (1955)
Bruce Dickinson, English singer (Iron Maiden) (1958)
David Duchovny, American actor (1960)
Alain Robert, French urban climber (1962)
Bruno Pelletier, Canadian singer (1962)
Sydney Penny, American actress (1971)
Charlize Theron, South african actress (1975)
Tina O'Brien, English actress (1983)
Rouven Sattelmaier, German football player (1987)

Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, French industrialist (1817)
Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature (1941)
Oliver Hardy, American comedian (1957)
Joseph Kosma, French composer (1969)
Red Adair, American oil well firefighter (2004)
Bruno Cremer, French actor (2010)

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