On Aug. 11, 1860, the country’s first successful silver mill began operating near Virginia City, Nev.
In 1909 what is believed to be the first radio SOS sent by an American ship was transmitted from the liner Arapahoe after its engines were disabled off Cape Hatteras, N.C.
In 1921 writer Alex Haley, who chronicled the African-American experience with works such as “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”and “Roots,” was born in Ithaca, N.Y.
In 1934 the first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz prison on an island in San Francisco Bay.
In 1942 during World War II, Vichy government official Pierre Laval publicly declared that “the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war.”
In 1965 rioting and looting broke out in the predominantly African-American Watts section of Los Angeles; ultimately, 34 people were killed in the violence.
In 1984 President Ronald Reagan made a joking remark during a radio sound test that he had “signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”
In 1992 the Mall of America, the nation’s biggest shopping center, opened in Bloomington, Minn.
In 1994 a federal jury awarded $286.8 million to 10,000 commercial fishermen across Alaska for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
In 1999 a rare tornado hit downtown Salt Lake City, killing one person.
