http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Aug 11, 1934: Federal prisoners land on Alcatraz
A group of federal prisoners classified as "most dangerous" arrives at Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop situated 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay. The convicts--the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary--joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island's days as a U.S. military prison.
Alcatraz was an uninhabited seabird haven when it was explored by Spanish Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775. He named it Isla de los Alcatraces, or "Island of the Pelicans." Fortified by the Spanish, Alcatraz was sold to the United States in 1849. In 1854, it had the distinction of housing the first lighthouse on the coast of California. Beginning in 1859, a U.S. Army detachment was garrisoned there, and from 1868 Alcatraz was used to house military criminals. In addition to recalcitrant U.S. soldiers, prisoners included rebellious Indian scouts, American soldiers fighting in the Philippines who had deserted to the Filipino cause, and Chinese civilians who resisted the U.S. Army during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1907, Alcatraz was designated the Pacific Branch of the United States Military Prison.
In 1934, Alcatraz was fortified into a high-security federal penitentiary designed to hold the most dangerous prisoners in the U.S. penal system, especially those with a penchant for escape attempts. The first shipment of civilian prisoners arrived on August 11, 1934. Later that month, more shiploads arrived, featuring, among other convicts, infamous mobster Al Capone. In September, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, another luminary of organized crime, landed on Alcatraz.
In the 1940s, a famous Alcatraz prisoner was Richard Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz." A convicted murderer, Stroud wrote an important study on birds while being held in solitary confinement in Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. Regarded as extremely dangerous because of his 1916 murder of a guard at Leavenworth, he was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942. Stroud was not allowed to continue his avian research at Alcatraz.
Although some three dozen attempted, no prisoner was known to have successfully escaped "The Rock." However, the bodies of several escapees believed drowned in the treacherous waters of San Francisco Bay were never found. The story of the 1962 escape of three of these men, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, inspired the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz. Another prisoner, John Giles, caught a boat ride to the shore in 1945 dressed in an army uniform he had stolen piece by piece, but he was questioned by a suspicious officer after disembarking and sent back to Alcatraz. Only one man, John Paul Scott, was recorded to have reached the mainland by swimming, but he came ashore exhausted and hypothermic at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Police found him lying unconscious and in a state of shock.
In 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Alcatraz closed, citing the high expense of its maintenance. In its 29-year run, Alcatraz housed more than 1,500 convicts. In March 1964 a group of Sioux Indians briefly occupied the island, citing an 1868 treaty with the Sioux allowing Indians to claim any "unoccupied government land." In November 1969, a group of nearly 100 Indian students and activists began a more prolonged occupation of the island, remaining there until they were forced off by federal marshals in June 1971.
In 1972, Alcatraz was opened to the public as part of the newly created Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is maintained by the National Park Service. More than one million tourists visit Alcatraz Island and the former prison annually.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
3114 BC - The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins.
2492 BC - Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.
480 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Battle of Artemisium - Persian naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought near promontory on the north coast of Euboea. Greek fleet holds its own against the Persians in three days of fighting but withdraws upon news of the defeat at Thermopylae.
355 - Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II.
1304 - Sea battle of Zierikzee
1492 - Rodrigo de Borja becomes Pope Alexander VI
1522 - Uprising of adel/burgerij in Austria fails
1597 - Germany throws out English sales people
1611 - Emperor Rudolf forces out king of Bohemia
1674 - 1st Battle of at Seneffe (Louis II Condé vs Willem III)
1695 - English & Dutch fleet capture Dunkerk
1718 - Battle at Cape Passaro: English fleet destroys Spanish
1772 - Explosive eruption blows 4,000' off Papandayan Java, kills 3,000
1780 - Barbados hurricane begins
1786 - Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia
1804 - Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria
1835 - George B Airy begins 46-year reign as England's Astronomer Royal
1858 - First ascent of the Eiger.
1860 - US's 1st successful silver mill (Virginia City, Nev)
1863 - Cambodia becomes French protectorate
1866 - World's 1st roller rink opens (Newport RI)
1874 - Harry S Parmelee patents sprinkler head
1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Mars's moon Deimos
1884 - 1st double-century stand in Test cricket, McDonnell/Murdoch 207 Aust
1885 - $100,000 raised in US for pedestal for Statue of Liberty
1888 - California Theatre closed (now a Pac Tel Phone Store)
1896 - Harvey Hubbell patents electric light bulb socket with a pull chain
1904 - German-ltalian General Von Trotha defeats Herero in SW Africa
1907 - St Louis Card Ed Karger pitches perfect game vs Braves, 4-0 in 7 inn
1909 - SOS 1st used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC
1909 - Warren Bardsley (136 & 130) 1st to get twin tons in a Test
1914 - France declares war on Austria-Hungary
1914 - Jews are expelled from Mitchenick Poland
1914 - John Wray patents animation
1914 - Mitchenick Poland, expels Jews
1918 - Battle of Amiens ends in WW I, Allieds beat Germans
1919 - Green Bay Packers football club founded
1919 - Weimar Republic begins in Germany
1920 - 1st peace of Riga-Soviet Union recognizes Independence of Latvia
1923 - Dutch Premier de Geer resigns
1924 - 1st newsreel pictures of presidential candidates were taken
1924 - US presidential candidates make 1st film for bio-scoop news
1926 - Cleve Indian Tris Speaker hits his 700th double
1928 - Carl Hubbell's 1st major league victory is a 4-0 shutout of Phils
1928 - Georges Ronsse becomes world champion cyclists
Baseball Great Babe RuthBaseball Great Babe Ruth 1929 - Babe Ruth becomes 1st to hit 500 homers (off Willis Hudlin of Cleve)
1929 - Persia & Iraq sign friendship treaty
1929 - Russian-Chinese border fights
1933 - Temp reaches 136°F (57.8°C) at San Luis Potosi, Mex (world record)
1934 - 1st federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in SF Bay
1935 - Nazi mass demonstration against German Jews
1936 - Chaing Kai-shek's troops conquers Kanton
1939 - Sergei Rachmaninovs last appearance in Europe
1940 - 38 German aircrafts shot down above England
1940 - German air raid on British harbors Portland/Weymouth
1942 - - Sept 30] SS begins exterminating 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz Poland
1942 - 999 Jews are taken from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium
1942 - British aircraft carrier Eagle torpedoed & sinks
1942 - Lt-gen Montgomery makes landing on Gibraltar
1943 - Red Army recaptures Tchukujev, at Kharkov
1943 - Richard Strauss' 2nd Horn Concert, premieres
1943 - US amphibians land at Brolo on north coast of Sicily
British war time Prime Minister Winston ChurchillBritish war time Prime Minister Winston Churchill 1944 - British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Italy
1944 - French 5th Armour division recaptures Sées
1944 - Klaus Barbie, Gestapo head of Lyon France leaves for Auschwitz
1944 - US air raid on Palembang
1945 - Allies refuse Japan's surrender offer to retain Emperor Hirohito
1948 - Summer Olympics opens in London
1949 - 1st Naples-Capri swim, 17 miles (27 km) (Giovanni Gambi)
1949 - Gaston Eyskens forms Belgiangovernment
1950 - 17th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 17, Philadelphia 7 (88,885)
1950 - Boston Brave Vern Bickford no-hits Bkln Dodger, 7-0
1950 - Hitting just .279, Yank great Joe DiMaggio is benched for 1st time
1950 - King Boudouin I takes oath as royal prince of Belgium
1951 - 100,000 acres flooded from Mississippi R in Ks, Oklahoma, Mo & Ill
1951 - 1st color baseball game (Braves vs Dodgers) telecast (WCBS-NYC)
1951 - NY Giants (NFL) beat Ottawa Roughriders (CFL) 38-6 in Ottawa
Yankee Clipper Joe DiMaggioYankee Clipper Joe DiMaggio 1951 - NY Giants lose to go 13½ games behind Bkln Dodgers, later win pennant
1952 - Hussein Ibn Talal I, proclaimed King of Jordan
1954 - BC Lions plays its 1st CF game, they lose to Montreal Alouettes, 22-0
1954 - Formal peace takes place, ending 7+ yrs of fighting in Indochina between French & Communist Vietminh
1955 - Indonesia government of Harahap forms
1956 - 1st flight 4-motor Cessna 620
1956 - Elvis Presley releases "Don't Be Cruel"
1957 - Patty Berg wins LPGA All-American Golf Open
1957 - Paul Hindemith' opera "Harmonie der Welt," premieres in Munich
1960 - Chad declares Independence from France
1960 - French colony of Chad became independent
1961 - Warren Spahn records victory #300, beats Cubs 2-1
1962 - Andrian G Nikolayev, becomes 3rd Russian in space aboard Vostok 3
1962 - Beach Boys release "Surfin' Safari"
1962 - Bolotnikov runs world record 10km (28:18.2)
Singer & Cultural Icon Elvis PresleySinger & Cultural Icon Elvis Presley 1962 - Dodgers protest wetting down of Candlestick to slow Maury Wills down
1963 - Kingston Trio are mystery guest on "What's My Line?"
1963 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Waterloo Women's Golf Open Invitational
1964 - Beatles' "A Hard Days Night" opens in NYC
1964 - Race riot in Paterson NJ
1965 - 6 day insurrection starts in Watts section of Los Angeles
1965 - Beatles movie "Help" opens in NYC
1965 - Watts riots begin in Southeast LA, lasts 6 days
1966 - Last Beatle concert tour of US begins
1967 - Al Downing becomes 12th to strike-out side on 9 pitches
1968 - Beatles launch "Apple Records" label
1968 - Satchel Paige, 62, & needing 158 days on a major league payroll to qualify for a pension, is signed by Braves
1968 - The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Rail steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and returns to Liverpool before having their fires dropped for the last time - this working was known as the Fifteen Guinea Special.
1969 - Don Drysdale retires because of damage to his right shoulder
1969 - Pittsburgh Steelers beat NY Giants 17-13 in Montreal (NFL expo)
1970 - Jim Bunning becomes 2nd (Cy Young) to win 100 games in both leagues
1970 - Tony Perez becomes 1st to hit a HR in red seats at Riverfront
1971 - Construction begins on Louisiana Superdome
1971 - Harmon Killebrew hits HRs #500 & 501
1972 - "Cheech & Chong Day" in San Antonio Texas
1974 - 56th PGA Championship: Lee Trevino shoots a 276 at Tanglewood NC
1974 - Coup in East-Timor under UDT
1974 - Head-on collision between two buses kills 21 (Ankara, Turkey)
1975 - Expos' Jose Mangual struck out 5 times in a game
1975 - US vetoes proposed admission of North & South Vietnam to UN
1976 - Keith Moon, drummer for Who, collapses & is hospitalized in Miami
1976 - Race riot in Cape Town, South Africa; 17 die
Rocker Keith MoonRocker Keith Moon 1977 - Geoff Boycott scores his 100th FC hundred, v Aust at Headingley
1978 - Funeral of Pope Paul VI
1978 - Legionnaire's disease bacteria isolated in Atlanta
1979 - 28°F in Embarrass Minnesota
1979 - Phillies Tug McGraw gives up record 4th grand slam of year
1980 - Angola revises its constitution
1980 - Mohammed Ali Radjai appointed premier of Iran
1980 - Yanks Reggie Jackson hits his 400th HR off Chicago's Britt Burns
1982 - Twins Terry Felton loses & runs career to 0-14 (en route to 0-16)
1982 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1984 - 101,799 fans at soccer match Brazil vs France
1984 - Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens' 1936 feat, wins 4 Olym track golds
1984 - Cincinnati Reds retire Johnny Bench's #5 uniform
1984 - During a radio voice test Pres Reagan joked he "signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes"
1984 - Men's choir Maranatha Netherlands forms
Olympic Sprinter and Long jumper Carl LewisOlympic Sprinter and Long jumper Carl Lewis 1984 - USSR performs (underground) nuclear test
1985 - "Tap Dance Kid" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 669 perfs
1985 - 67th PGA Championship: Hubert Green shoots 278 at Cherry Hills Denver
1985 - Challenger flies to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz
1985 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Henredon Golf Classic
1985 - Rudolf Povarnitsin of USSR sets new high jump world record (7'10"12)
1986 - 68th PGA Championship: Bob Tway shoots a 276 at Inverness Club Toledo
1987 - France & Great-Britain send minesweepers to Persian Gulf
1988 - 225 at bats after #299, Met Gary Carter is 59th to hit 300th HR
1988 - Charlotte Colisieum in Charlotte NC opens
1988 - Meir Kahane renounced US citizenship to stay in Israeli Parliament
1988 - Al-Qaeda formed
1989 - "Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child" premieres
1989 - Geoff Marsh & Mark Taylor complete 329 opening stand v England
1989 - Voyager 2 discovers 2 partial rings of Neptune
1990 - Egypt & Morocco troops land in Saudi Arabia to prevent Iraqi invasion
1990 - NY Yankee Kevin Maas is fastest to get 13 HRs (110 at bats)
1991 - 400,000 demonstrate for democracy in Madagascar, 31 killed
1991 - 73rd PGA Championship: John Daly shoots a 276 at Crooked Stick Ind
1991 - Melissa Mcnamara wins Stratton Mountain LPGA Golf Classic
1991 - Shite Moslems release US hostage Edward Tracy
1991 - Space shuttle STS 43 (Atlantis 9) lands
1991 - Wilson Alvarez hurls a no-hitter in his 1st big league start
1992 - Oakland A's rip Jose Canseco for leaving stadium before end of game
1993 - Director Oliver Stone files for divorce from Elizabeth
1993 - NY Islander Brian Mullen, 31, suffers a mild stroke
264th Pope John Paul II264th Pope John Paul II 1993 - Pope John Paul II visits Mexico
1993 - Red Sox Roger Clemens pitches 2,000th strike out (Danny Tartabul-NY)
1994 - Joao B "Nino" Vieira elected pres of Guinee-Bissau
1996 - "Thousand Clowns," closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 32 performs
1996 - 78th PGA Championship: Mark Brooks shoots a 277 at Vallhalla GC KY
1996 - Emilee Klein wins LPGA Ping Welch's Golf Championship
1997 - Benin legalizes Jan 10th as a voodoo holiday
1999 - Total solar eclipse in India-North -France (2m23s)
1999 - The Salt Lake City Tornado tears through the downtown district of the city, killing one.
2003 - Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
2003 - A heat wave in Paris results in temperatures rising to 112°F (44° C), leaving about 144 people dead.
2003 - NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
2012 - 153 people are killed and 1300 injured in Tabriz and Ahar, Iran after two earthquakes of up to 6.4 magnitude
2012 - 13 people are killed and 15 injured by a lightning strike at a Mosque in Bangladesh
1860 - The first successful silver mill in America began operations. The mill was in Virginia City, NV. 1874 - A patent for the sprinkler head was given to Harry S. Parmelee. 1877 - The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. He named them Phobos and Deimos. 1896 - Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain. 1909 - The American ship Arapahoe became the first to ever use the SOS distress signal off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC. 1924 - Newsreel pictures were taken of U.S. presidential candidates for the first time. 1934 - Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, received federal prisoners for the first time. 1941 - The Atlantic Charter was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. 1942 - During World War II, Pierre Laval publicly announced "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war." 1945 - The Allies informed Japan that they would determine Emperor Hirohito's future status after Japan's surrender. 1951 - The first major league baseball game to be televised in color was broadcast. The Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves 8-1. 1954 - Seven years of fighting came to an end in Indochina. A formal peace was in place for the French and the Communist Vietminh. 1962 - Andrian Nikolayev, of the Soviet Union, was launched on a 94-hour flight. He was the third Russian to go into space. 1965 - The U.S. conducted a second launch of "Surveyor-SD 2" for a landing on the Moon surface test. 1971 - Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins got his 500th and 501st home runs of his major league baseball career. 1975 - The U.S. vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations. The Security Counsel had already refused to consider South Korea's application. 1984 - Carl Lewis won his fourth gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics. 1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." 1984 - The Cincinnati Reds honored major league All-Star and Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench by retiring his uniform (#5). 1988 - Dick Thornburgh was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the next attorney general. He succeeded Edwin Meese III. 1990 - Egyptian and Moroccan troops joined U.S. forces in Saudia Arabia to help protect from a possible Iraqi attack. 1991 - The space shuttle Atlantis ended its nine-day journey by landing safely. 1992 - In Bloomington, MN, the Mall of America opened. It was the largest shopping mall in the United States. 1994 - The Tenth International Conference on AIDS ended in Japan. 1994 - A U.S. federal jury awarded $286.8 million to about 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. 1995 - All U.S. nuclear tests were banned by President Clinton. 1997 - U.S. President Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. 1998 - British Petroleum became No. 3 among oil companies with the $49 billion purchase of Amoco. It was the largest foreign takeover of a U.S. company. 2002 - US Airways announced that it had filed for bankruptcy. 2002 - Jason Priestly crashed his car during practice for a race in the Infiniti Pro Series. He suffered a spinal fracture, a moderate concussion, a broken nose, facial lacerations and broken bones in both feet. 2003 - Charles Taylor, President of Liberia, flew into exile after ceding power to his vice president, Moses Blah. 2003 - In Kabul, NATO took command of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
1909 Arapahoe became the first American ship to use the S.O.S. distress signal. 1934 The first inmates arrived at the federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. 1952 King Hussein of Jordan ascended the throne after his father had been declared mentally unfit. 1954 More than seven years of fighting in Indochina formerly ended with the cessation of French control. 1956 Abstract artist Jackson Pollock died in an automobile accident. 1960 Chad gained its independence from France. 1965 Following the arrest of a young black motorist, the predominately black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles erupted in riots that lasted six days and left 34 dead. 2003 Charles Taylor, president of Liberia, formally relinquished his office to Moses Blah and left for Nigeria.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug11.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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