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

A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail. The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts.

Le Griffon was a sailing vessel built by French explorer and fur trader René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in the Niagara area of New York in 1679.

The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. The Great Lakes Waterway enables modern travel and shipping by water among the lakes. The lakes connect ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River as their primary drainage outflow. The lakes are also connected to the Mississippi River basin through the Illinois Waterway.

August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 146 days remain until the end of the year.