7 August 1209
Faced with an English invasion, William the Lion of Scotland agreed in the Treaty of Norham to pay 15,000 marks for King John’s ‘goodwill’ and handed over his two daughters for John to arrange their marriages.
7 August 1641
A parliamentary bill declaring ship money illegal received royal assent. Six years earlier Charles I had controversially extended ship money, a custom that required coastal counties to pay inland counties for the upkeep of the navy.
7 August 1782
During the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington established the Badge of Military Merit to honour US soldiers wounded in battle. It is better known today as the Purple Heart.
7 August 1840
An Act of Parliament made it illegal for anyone under the age of 16 to be apprenticed as a sweep and for anyone under 21 to be made or allowed to climb a chimney to clean it.
7 August 1999
Led by the warlord Shamil Basayev, Islamist fighters cross the border from Chechnya into the Russian Republic of Dagestan, provoking a massive Russian military counter-attack and triggering the Second Chechen War.
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