Today in History - History - August 11th

1950Hitting just .279, Yank great Joe DiMaggio is benched for 1st time

1993Red Sox Roger Clemens pitches 2,000th strike out (Danny Tartabul-NY)

1929Babe Ruth becomes 1st to hit 500 homers (off Willis Hudlin of Cleve)

1984During radio voice test US President Reagan jokes he "signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes"

1985Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Henredon Golf Classic

1998Palestine Liberation Organisation and Palestinian National Authority president, Yasser Arafat, arrives in Cape Town on his first state visit to South Africa at the invitation of President Nelson Mandela

1919Green Bay Packers football club founded by George Calhoun and Curly Lambeau - named after sponser Indian Packing Company

1984Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens' 1936 feat, wins 4 Olympic track golds

1944British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Italy

1993Pope John Paul II visits Mexico

1858Christiaan Eijkman, Nijkerk Netherlands, physician and bacteriologist (Nobel Prize in Medicine-1929), (d. 1930)

1921Alex Haley, Ithaca New York, writer (Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots), (d. 1992)

1886Education pioneer Booker T. Washington (30) weds Olivia Davidson (32) Athens, Ohio

1949Molecular biologist Francis Crick (33) weds artist Odile Speed (29)

1919Andrew Carnegie, US steel industrialist/philanthropist, dies of bronchial pneumonia at 83

1937Edith Wharton [-Jones], US Pulitzer prize-winning author (House of Mirth), dies at 75

2003Herb Brooks, American ice hockey coach, dies in a car accident at 66

2014Robin Williams, American actor and comedian (Mork & Mindy, Good Will Hunting), commits suspected suicide at 63

1986Chuck McKinley, American tennis player (1963 Wimbledon), dies of a brain tumour at 45

1994Peter Cushing, actor (Star Wars, Dr Who), dies of cancer at 81