Today is Wednesday, Aug. 11, the 223rd day of 2010. There are 142 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Aug. 11, 1965, rioting and looting that claimed 34 lives broke out in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles.

ON THIS DATE

In 1909, the steamship SS Arapahoe became the first ship in North America to issue an S.O.S. distress signal, off North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras.

In 1934, the first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.

In 1960, the African country of Chad became independent of France.

In 1962, the Soviet Union launched cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev on a 94-hour flight.

In 1975, the United States vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations, following the Security Council’s refusal to consider South Korea’s application.

In 1992, the Mall of America opened in Bloomington, Minn.

In 2000, Pat Buchanan won the Reform Party presidential nomination in a victory bitterly disputed by party founder Ross Perot’s supporters, who chose their own nominee, John Hagelin, in a rival convention.

In 2005, President George W. Bush expressed sympathy for war protesters such as Cindy Sheehan, the mother camped outside his Texas ranch demanding more answers for her soldier-son’s death in Iraq, but said he believed it would be a mistake to bring U.S. troops home immediately.

In 2009, a Myanmar court found democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to visit her home; she was ordered to serve an 18-month sentence under house arrest. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President John F. Kennedy and founder of the Special Olympics, died in Cape Cod, Mass. at age 88.

Associated Press