On August 7

Car bombs exploded simultaneously at the American embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 4,000 others.

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.

Five members of the Bamber family were found murdered at a farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, England.

Jonathan Jackson took hostages in a courthouse in Marin County, California, to coerce the release of the Soledad Brothers, resulting in the deaths of judge Harold Haley and three others.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The first section of the Great Northern Railway, now the southern section of the East Coast Main Line, opened between London and Peterborough.

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

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

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