Today in History, August 11th
On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc's Bronx party gave birth to hip-hop. Plus the Watts Rebellion and Alcatraz's first federal prisoners.
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August 11 is best known for 1973, when DJ Kool Herc spun records at a back-to-school party in the Bronx and, by most accounts, gave birth to hip-hop. The date also saw the Watts Rebellion begin in Los Angeles in 1965 and the first federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in 1934.
The big story: Hip-hop is born at a Bronx party (1973)
The building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the west Bronx had a recreation room, and on August 11, 1973, it held a back-to-school party thrown by the sister of Clive Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, who ran the music. Herc had moved to the Bronx from Kingston, Jamaica, as a boy, and he had been honing an idea for about a year. He had noticed that dancers went wild during the break, the short stretch of a record where the singing drops out and the drums carry the beat. So he set up two copies of the same record on two turntables and switched between them, stretching that break out as long as the crowd wanted. He called it the “Merry-Go-Round.” The party drew his biggest crowd yet and ran on his most powerful sound system. The break beat became the backbone of a new music, and the word “hip-hop” caught on about six years later.
More events on August 11
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1806 | Explorer Meriwether Lewis was shot in the thigh while hunting elk along the Missouri River. |
| 1919 | Friedrich Ebert signed the Weimar Constitution, making Germany a parliamentary democracy for the first time. |
| 1929 | Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hit his 500th career home run, in a game against the Cleveland Indians. |
| 1934 | The first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison of Alcatraz. |
| 1942 | Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for a radio guidance system for torpedoes, an idea that later proved important to wireless technology. |
| 1943 | German forces began a six-day evacuation of Sicily, after the Allied invasion in July. |
| 1952 | Jordan’s parliament declared King Talal unfit to rule, and Prince Hussein was proclaimed king. |
| 1965 | A roadside arrest in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles set off unrest in which 34 people died. |
| 1972 | The last U.S. ground combat unit in South Vietnam was deactivated, though about 43,500 U.S. advisers, airmen and support troops stayed on. |
| 1984 | Carl Lewis won his fourth gold medal of the Los Angeles Olympics. |
| 2014 | Actor and comedian Robin Williams, known for his manic stand-up and wide range of film roles, died at age 63. |
Born on August 11
- 1865: Gifford Pinchot, pioneer of American forestry and conservation and later governor of Pennsylvania, born in Simsbury, Connecticut.
- 1921: Alex Haley, author of Roots and co-author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, born in Ithaca, New York.
- 1965: Viola Davis, American actress, born in Saint Matthews, South Carolina.
Sources
- Hip-hop is born at a party in the Bronx, History.com
- This Day in History: August 11, History.com
- On This Day: August 11, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Gifford Pinchot, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Alex Haley, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Viola Davis, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Again, forgot a good one:
2013- Kristen Oster graduates nursing school.
Haha, I’m waiting for September 9th…Kristen starts a job…
That will be EPIC!! Lol