more events on August 11
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2003
NATO assumes command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, its first major operation outside Europe.
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Temperatures rise to 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius); over 140 people die in the heat wave.
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1999
A tornado in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, kills one person.
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1990
Troops from Egypt and Morocco arrive in Saudi Arabia as part of the international operation to prevent Iraq from invading.
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1989
Voyager 2 discovers two partial rings around Neptune.
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1988
Al Qaeda formed at a meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan.
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1984
Carl Lewis wins four Olympic gold medals, tying the record Jesse Owens set in 1936.
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1978
Funeral of Pope Paul VI.
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1975
US vetoes admission of North and South Vietnam to UN.
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1972
The last U.S. ground forces withdraw from Vietnam.
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1965
A small clash between the California Highway Patrol and two black youths sets off six days of rioting in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
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1953
Hulk Hogan, wrestler, actor (Assault on Devil’s Island); World Wrestling Federation heavyweight champion, 1984-89.
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1950
Gennady Nikonov, inventor of AN-94 assault rifle.
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Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer.
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1946
Marilyn Vos Savant, author, columnist, playwright; “Highest IQ (Women)” Guinness Book of World Records, 1986-1989 (category retired in 1990).
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1944
German troops abandon Florence, Italy, as Allied troops close in on the historic city.
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1943
Kenny Gamble, songwriter, record producer; a pioneer of the “Philadelphia Sound” (“Ain’t Gonna Love Nobody,” “Me and Mrs. Jones”).
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1942
The German submarine U-73 attacks a Malta-bound British convoy and sinks HMS Eagle, one of the world’s first aircraft carriers.
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1941
Soviet bombers raid Berlin but cause little damage.
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1933
Jerry Falwell, founder of the conservative political lobbying organization, the Moral Majority.
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1929
Babe Ruth hits his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland Indians.
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1921
Alex Haley, genealogist and author of Roots.
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1916
The Russia army takes Stanislau, Poland, from the Germans.
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1912
Moroccan Sultan Mulai Hafid abdicates his throne in the face of internal dissent.
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1908
Britain’s King Edward VII meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
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1906
In France, Eugene Lauste receives the first patent for a talking film.
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1904
German General Lothar von Trotha defeats the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa.
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1892
Hugh MacDiarmid, poet and founder of the Scottish Nationalist Party.
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1862
Carrie James Bond, songwriter who wrote “I Love You Truly” and “A Perfect Day.”
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President Abraham Lincoln appoints Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army.
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1861
James Bryan Herrick, physician who first described sickle-cell anemia.
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1856
A band of rampaging settlers in California kill four Yokut Indians. The settlers had heard unproven rumors of Yokut atrocities.
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1833
Robert G. Ingersoll, advocate of scientific realism and humanistic philosophy.
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1792
A revolutionary commune is formed in Paris, France.
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1492
Rodrigo Borgia is elected to the papacy as Pope Alexander VI.
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991
Danes under Olaf Tryggvason kill Ealdorman Byrhtnoth and defeat the Saxons at Maldon.