THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― AUGUST 11

August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 142 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Sunday or Monday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Wednesday or Friday (56).

NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL JOKE DAY (Not celebrated when a Democrat is in office)

1898 – Spanish–American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens ends.

1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1962 – Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity.

1965 – Race riots (the Watts Riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.

1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam.

2003 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

2012 – At least 306 people are killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.

TODAY'S BIRTHS

1921 – Alex Haley, American historian and author, Roots (d. 1992)

1946 – Marilyn vos Savant, American journalist and author

1950 – Steve Wozniak, American computer scientist and programmer, co-founded Apple Inc.

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.