Today is Thursday, Aug. 11, the 224th day of 2016. There are 142 days left in the year.

Today’s birthdays: Actress Arlene Dahl is 91. Former Mass. speaker Sal DiMasi is 71. Singer Eric Carmen is 67. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is 66. Wrestler-actor Hulk Hogan is 63. Singer Joe Jackson is 62. Playwright David Henry Hwang is 59. Actress Viola Davis is 51. Actress Anna Gunn is 48. Actress Merritt Wever is 36.

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

In 1934, the first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz Island (a former military prison) in San Francisco Bay.

In 1954, formal peace took hold in Indochina after seven years of fighting between the French and Communist Viet Minh.

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

In 1984, during a voice test for a paid political radio address, President Reagan joked that he had ‘‘signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.’’

In 1997, President Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. (The Supreme Court later struck down the veto as unconstitutional.)

In 2014, Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams, 63, killed himself in Tiburon, Calif.

Last year, federal authorities charged that an international web of hackers and traders had made $100 million on Wall Street by stealing a look at corporate press releases before they went out and then trading on that information.