August 7, 2027: National Play Outside Day | First Saturday Of Every Month, Purple Heart Day, National Sunflower Day, National Lighthouse Day, National Sea Serpent Day, National Raspberries N’ Cream Day

National days, ongoing national weeks and months, and global observances for August 7, 2027. Plus historical events and birthdays.

2027
National Play Outside Day

August 7, 2027 celebrates National Play Outside Day | First Saturday Of Every Month, plus 12 more. The first Saturday of every month is National Play Outside Day. This National Day presents opportunity to remind everyone to get outside and enjoy the fresh air through play.

National Days on August 7, 2027

Born on August 7

People born on August 7

1904
RB

Ralph Bunche

American political scientist, academic, and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate. He was the first Nobel laureate and the first person from African descent to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

1932
MR

Maurice Rabb Jr.

American ophthalmologist and academic widely known for his pioneering work in cornea and retinal vascular diseases.

1869
MF

Mary Frances Winston

American mathematician who became the first American woman to receive a PhD in mathematics from a European university (University of Göttingen in Germany).

1903
LL

Louis Leakey

A Kenyan-English paleontologist and archaeologist who demonstrated that humans evolved in Africa.

1966
JW

Jimmy Wales

American-British entrepreneur who co-founder of Wikipedia.

1942
GK

Garrison Keillor

American humorist, novelist, short story writer, and radio host who created the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion.

1779
CR

Carl Ritter

German geographer and academic who is considered to be one of the founders of geography.

1884
BB

Billie Burke

Broadway, radio, silent, and sound film actress best known for her role as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz.

Historical Events on August 7

Events that occurred on August 7 throughout history

1679

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

1782

George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers who are wounded in battle. The Merit is later renamed the Purple Heart.

1786

The colonial Brotherton Indian Reservation in New Jersey became the first federal Indian Reservation is created by the U.S.

1787

Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The document was written on parchment paper and delivered for proofing and edits.

1789

The U.S. Department of War is established. President George Washington signed the legislation after the first session of Congress was held. The department was later renamed the Department of Defense in 1949.

1794

President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792. The Acts were established to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

1909

Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete an auto trip from coast to coast in the U.S. The trip took 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California.

1926

The first British Grand Prix was held at Brooklands track in Surrey, UK. The race featured nine starting cars, but only three drove cross the finish line.

1930

The last confirmed lynching of black people in the Northern United States occurs in Marion, Indiana, when a white mob broke into jail and lynched Black teenagers Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. A third teenager, James Cameron, narrowly survived the attack.

1942

U.S. Marines initiate the first American offensive of WWII at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The offensive lasted 6 months.

1944

IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. Designed by Howard Aiken, the calculator was used to run complex calculations for the U.S. Navy and the Manhattan Project.

1964

Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to give President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.

1969

Richard Nixon appoints Luis R. Bruce, a Mohawk-Oglala Sioux as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Bruce was also co-founder of the National Congress of American Indians.

1974

Philippe Petit performs a high wire act between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Petit was suspended 1,350 feet above the ground and spent 45 minutes on a steel cable, crossing the gap eight times.

1978

President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, after toxic waste had been disposed of negligently. It was the first time the U.S. used federal emergency funds for a man-made environmental disaster.

1985

Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri, and Chiaki Mukai becomes Japan's first astronauts.

1987

Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim from the U.S. to the Soviet Union. She swam across the Bering Strait from Little Diomede Island in Alaska to Big Diomede in the Soviet Union.

1990

First American soldiers arrive in Saudi Arabia as part of the Gulf War in Operation Desert Shield. President George H.W. Bush ordered the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to help defend Saudi Arabia against Iraq.

Also Happening This Month

Longer-running observances that include this date.

National Weeks

See all weeks for August.

National Months

Showing the first 12 — See all months for August.

Global Observances

See all international observances for August.

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