11 August History
- 991 - Danes under Olaf Tryggvason kill Ealdorman Brihtnoth and defeat the Saxons at Maldon.
- 1492 - Rodrigo Borgia is elected to the papacy as Pope Alexander VI.
- 1792 - A revolutionary commune is formed in Paris, France.
- 1856 - A band of rampaging settlers in California kill four Yokut Indians. The settlers had heard unproven rumors of Yokut atrocities.
- 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln appoints Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army.
- 1904 - German General Lothar von Trotha defeats the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa.
- 1906 - In France, Eugene Lauste receives the first patent for a talking film.
- 1908 - Britain's King Edward VII meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
- 1912 - Moroccan Sultan Mulai Hafid abdicates his throne in the face of internal dissent.
- 1916 - The Russia army takes Stanislau, Poland, from the Germans.
- 1929 - Babe Ruth hits his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland Indians.
- 1941 - Soviet bombers raid Berlin but cause little damage.
- 1942 - The German submarine U-73 attacks a Malta-bound British convoy and sinks HMS Eagle, one of the world's first aircraft carriers.
- 1944 - German troops abandon Florence, Italy, as Allied troops close in on the historic city.
- 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.
- 1972 - The last U.S. ground forces withdraw from Vietnam.
11 August Birthdays
- 1833 - Robert G. Ingersoll, advocate of scientific realism and humanistic philosophy.
- 1862 - Carrie James Bond, songwriter who wrote "I Love You Truly" and "A Perfect Day."
- 1861 - James Bryan Herrick, physician who first described sickle-cell anemia.
- 1892 - Hugh MacDiarmid, poet and founder of the Scottish Nationalist Party.
- 1921 - Alex Haley, genealogist and author of Roots.
- 1933 - Jerry Falwell, founder of the conservative political lobbying organization, the Moral Majority.