VOICE-OVER SCRIPT:

August 11th, 1965:

In Los Angeles, six days of deadly rioting and looting erupt in the predominantly Black section of Watts. Thirty-four people are killed, more than a thousand others are injured, and hundreds of buildings are devastated before order is restored.

It's a turning point for America's Civil Rights Movement, as peaceful protests in the South give way to violent clashes in the nation's major cities.

1984: A joke by President Ronald Reagan during a voice test for a paid political radio address causes a Cold War flap.

SOT - President Ronald Reagan

1992: The Mall of America --- at the time, the biggest indoor mall in the United States and still one of the nation's largest --- opens in Bloomington, Minnesota.

1921: Alex Haley --- author of 'Roots,' the African-American family saga that became a hit TV miniseries --- is born in Ithaca, New York.

And, 1956: Abstract painter Jackson Pollock dies in an auto accident on New York's Long Island. He was 44.

Today in History, August 11th --- ___ ___, The Associated Press.