Federal prisoners land on Alcatraz

Born on This Day

Alex Haley

1921 - 1992

Author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which traced his ancestors’ history from Africa to slavery in America.

Viola Davis

1965 -

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards-winning actor known for her work in Fences and The Help.

Steve Wozniak

1950 -

Engineer and co-founder of Apple (with Steve Jobs). Credited with revolutionary designs of the Apple 1 and 2 computers.

Alex HaleyCorbis via Getty Images

Viola DavisWireImage

Steve Wozniak2013 Getty Images

1942

AUG11

Movie actor Hedy Lamarr and avant-garde music composer George Antheil receive a patent for a radio-controlled torpedo guidance system. Their breakthrough will play a key role in today’s wireless technology.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on August 11th

Meriwether Lewis is shot in the leg

While hunting for elk along the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis is shot in the thigh, probably by one of his own men. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had embarked on their epic journey to the Pacific two years earlier. The 33 members of the Corps of Discovery had experienced many adventures and narrowly escaped disaster […]

Confederate general Jubal Early abandons Winchester, Virginia

Confederate General Jubal Early pulls out of Winchester, Virginia, as Union General Philip Sheridan approaches the city. Wary of his new foe, Early moved away to avoid an immediate conflict. Since June, Early and his 14,000 troops had been campaigning in the Shenandoah Valley and the surrounding area. He had been sent there by General […]

Weimar Constitution adopted in Germany

On August 11, 1919, Friedrich Ebert, a member of the Social Democratic Party and the provisional president of the German Reichstag (government), signs a new constitution, known as the Weimar Constitution, into law, officially creating the first parliamentary democracy in Germany. Even before Germany acknowledged its defeat at the hands of the Allied powers on […]

Germans begin to evacuate Sicily

On August 11, 1943, German forces begin a six-day evacuation of the Italian island of Sicily, having been beaten back by the Allies, who invaded the island in July. The Germans had maintained a presence in Sicily since the earliest days of the war. But with the arrival of Gen. George S. Patton and his […]

Hussein succeeds to Jordanian throne

Prince Hussein is proclaimed the king of Jordan after his father, King Talal, is declared unfit to rule by the Jordanian Parliament on grounds of mental illness. Hussein was formally crowned on November 14, 1953, his 18th birthday. Hussein was the third constitutional king of Jordan and a member of the Hashemite dynasty, said to […]

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Watts Rebellion begins

In the predominantly Black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, racial tension reaches a breaking point after two white policemen scuffle with a Black motorist suspected of drunken driving. A crowd of spectators gathered near the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street to watch the arrest and soon grew angry by what they believed to […]

Last U.S. ground combat unit deactivated in South Vietnam

The last U.S. ground combat unit in South Vietnam, the Third Battalion, Twenty-First Infantry, is deactivated and begins departing for the United States. The unit had been guarding the U.S. air base at Da Nang. This left only 43,500 advisors, airmen, and support troops left in-country. This number did not include the sailors of the […]

Hip-hop is born at a teen party in the Bronx

On August 11, 1973, at a back-to-school party for teenagers in the west Bronx, DJ Kool Herc introduces hip-hop, and the music genre begins to spread.

“American Graffiti” opens

On August 11, 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age movie American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George Lucas, opens in theaters across the United States. Set in California in the summer of 1962, American Graffiti was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, and helped launch the big-screen careers of Richard Dreyfuss […]

Carol Bundy confesses her connection to the “Sunset Slayer”

Nurse Carol Bundy confesses her connection to the “Sunset Slayer,” the killer who had been murdering and mutilating young women in Hollywood, California, all summer, to co-workers. “I can’t take it anymore. I’m supposed to save lives, not take them,” she reportedly said. Her confession was relayed to police, who immediately arrested Douglas Clark, Bundy’s […]

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Reagan jokes about bombing Russia

On August 11, 1984, President Ronald Reagan makes a joking but controversial off-the-cuff remark about bombing Russia while testing a microphone before a scheduled radio address. While warming up for the speech, Reagan said “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin […]

Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams dies at 63

Robin Williams, the prolific Oscar-winning actor and comedian, dies by suicide on August 11, 2014. He was 63. Williams’ prodigious comedic talent first came to national attention on the late-’70s TV show “Mork & Mindy,” where he played a curious and childlike extraterrestrial who drank water through his finger, sported rainbow suspenders and introduced alien […]

Anne Heche dies after fiery car crash in LA

Actor Anne Heche dies on August 11, 2022, from injuries sustained after crashing her car into a Los Angeles home several days earlier. She was 53.

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