This day in history

Today is Friday, Aug. 11, the 223rd day of 2023. There are 142 days left in the year.

Birthdays: Guess Who bassist Jim Kale is 80. Former Massachusetts House speaker Sal DiMasi is 78. Magazine columnist Marilyn Vos Savant is 77. Country singer John Conlee is 77. Singer Eric Carmen is 74. Computer scientist and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is 73. Wrestler-actor Hulk Hogan is

70. Singer Joe Jackson is 69. Playwright David Henry Hwang is 66. Actor Viola Davis is 58. Host Joe Rogan is 56. Actor Anna Gunn is 55. Actor Ashley Jensen is 55. Actor Sophie Okonedo is 55. Rock guitarist Charlie Sexton is 55. Hip-hop artist Ali Shaheed Muhammad is

53. Actor Will Friedle is 47. Rock singer Ben Gibbard is 47. Actor Rob Kerkovich is 44. Actor Merritt Wever is 43. Actor Chris Hemsworth is 40. Rock musician Heath Fogg of Alabama Shakes is 39. Rapper Asher Roth is 38. Actor Alyson Stoner is 30.

► In 1834, a Protestant mob ransacked and torched the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, forcing the nuns to flee.

► In 1841, Frederick Douglass, a fugitive slave, addressed a white audience for the first time when he spoke to a gathering of abolitionists on Nantucket. “It was with the utmost difficulty that I could stand erect, or that I could command and articulate two words without hesitation and stammering,” he later wrote, according to Mass Humanities. Yet his talk energized the group, who asked him to join their work, and he established himself as a brilliant orator.

► In 1934, the first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz Island, a former military prison, in San Francisco Bay.

► In 1949, President Truman nominated General Omar N. Bradley to become the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

► In 1952, Hussein bin Talal was proclaimed King of Jordan, beginning a reign lasting nearly 47 years.

► In 1956, abstract painter Jackson Pollock died in an automobile accident on Long Island, N.Y., at age 44.

► 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, Minn.

► In 1997, President Bill Clinton made the first use of the historic line-item veto, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. (The US Supreme Court later struck down the veto as unconstitutional.)

► In 2014, Academy Awardwinning actor and comedian Robin Williams died in Tiburon, Calif., at age 63.

► In 2016, the Obama administration said it had decided marijuana would remain on the list of most dangerous drugs, rebuffing growing support across the country for broad legalization, but said it would allow more research into its medical uses.

► In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden named California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate; Harris was the first Black woman on a major party’s presidential ticket.