7 August in military history

On this day in military history, in 1998, Al-Qaeda attacked the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killing 224 persons and wounding 4,500 more. Of the dead, 12 were Americans. Then President Clinton, instead of taking the war to the terrorists, decided that lobbing some cruise missiles into Afghanistan was a more "appropriate" response to an attack on American interests at the time.

Also on this day, in 1942, the 1St Marine Division, along with elements from the 1st and 2nd Marine Raider Battalions, waded ashore on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands during the first amphibious assault of World War II. The invasion caught the Japanese by surprise but it wasnt until February 1943 when the Japanese finally left the island. Thus started the long "island-hopping" campaign to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific.