What happened on 7 August?

13 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1819 Bolivar's liberation of South America Bolivar leads the wars of independence freeing Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spanish rule.
2. 1942 Guadalcanal Campaign First major US ground offensive in the Pacific; turned the tide against Japan.
3. 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Congress passes the resolution (signed into law on 10 August) authorising Johnson to use force in Southeast Asia without a declaration of war.
4. 1990 Mandal Commission implementation announced 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes ignites protests.
5. 1588 Fireships scatter the Armada at Calais Anchored off Calais to await Parma's army, the Armada sees eight blazing English ships drifting down on it in the dark. Not one Spanish vessel burns — but the fleet cuts its anchor
6. 2008 Russo-Georgian War Russia routs Georgia in a five-day war over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the first European war of the 21st century and a marker of resurgent Russia.
7. 1914 Battle of the Frontiers France's opening offensives into Alsace-Lorraine and the Ardennes collide with the advancing German armies in the war's bloodiest opening fortnight — 27,000 French soldiers die on
8. 1819 Battle of Boyaca Bolivar's victory secures the independence of New Granada (Colombia).
9. 1990 Operation Desert Shield A US-led coalition masses forces in Saudi Arabia to deter Iraq and prepare to liberate Kuwait.
10. 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa Al-Qaeda truck bombs at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania kill over 200, bringing Osama bin Laden to global notice.
11. 1905 Swadeshi movement Against Curzon's partition of Bengal, Indians boycott British cloth and goods, burn foreign textiles and build national industries and schools — led by the radical trio of Lal, Bal
12. 1932 Law of Spikelets A draconian decree punishing the theft of collective grain, deepening the Ukrainian famine.
13. 1954 The Miracle Mile At the Empire Games in Vancouver, Bannister and the Australian John Landy — the only two men to have broken four minutes — race; Bannister passes Landy as he glances over his shoul