TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, AUG. 11, the 224th day of 2020. There are 142 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1997, President Bill Clinton made the first use of the historic line-item veto, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. (However, the U.S. Supreme Court later struck down the veto as unconstitutional.)
In 1934, the first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz Island (a former military prison) in San Francisco Bay.
In 1949, President Harry S. Truman nominated Gen. Omar N. Bradley to become the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In 1964, the Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night” had its U.S. premiere in New York.
In 1965, rioting and looting that claimed 34 lives broke out in the predominantly Black Watts section of Los Angeles.
In 1992, the Mall of America, the nation’s largest shopping-entertainment center, opened in Bloomington, Minnesota.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton named Army Gen. John Shalikashvili the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, succeeding the retiring Gen. Colin Powell. In 2012, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney announced his choice of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to be his running mate. Usain Bolt capped his perfect London Olympics by
leading Jamaica to victory in a worldrecord 36.84 seconds in the 4x100 meters.
In 2014, Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams, 63, died in Tiburon, California, a suicide.
In 2017, a federal judge ordered Charlottesville, Virginia, to allow a weekend rally of white nationalists and other extremists to take place at its originally planned location downtown. (Violence erupted at the rally, and a woman was killed when a man plowed his car into a group of counterprotesters.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Arlene Dahl is 95. Songwriter-producer Kenny Gamble and rock musician Jim Kale (Guess Who) are 77. Magazine columnist Marilyn Vos Savant and country singer John Conlee are 74. Singer Eric Carmen is 71. Computer scientist and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is 70. Wrestler-actor Hulk Hogan is 67. Singer Joe Jackson is 66. Playwright David Henry Hwang is 63. Actor Miguel A. Nunez Jr. is 61. Actors Viola Davis, Embeth Davidtz and Duane Martin are 55. Actor-host Joe Rogan, rhythm-and-blues musician Chris Dave, actors Anna Gunn, Ashley Jensen and Sophie Okonedo, and rock guitarist Charlie Sexton are 52. Hip-hop artist Ali Shaheed Muhammad is 50. Actor Nigel Harman is 47. Actor Will Friedle is 44. Actor Rob Kerkovich is 41.