Today in History - October 21

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October 21

1797 - The navy frigate USS Constitution, known as "Old Ironsides," was launched in Boston Harbor.

1805 - A British fleet commanded by Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French and Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson was killed in the battle.

1837 - Seminole Indian Chief Osceola was captured as he carried a white flag of truce during the Second Seminole War.

1879 - Thomas Edison invented a working incandescent electric lamp at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1892 - Schoolchildren across the U.S. observed Columbus Day by reciting, for the first time, the original version of “The Pledge of Allegiance,” written by Francis Bellamy for The Youth’s Companion.

1917 - American soldiers first saw action in World War I on the front lines in France.

1941 - Superheroine "Wonder Woman" made her debut in All-Star Comics issue No. 8, published by All-American Comics, Inc. of New York.

1945 - Women in France were allowed to vote in parliamentary elections for the first time.

1959 - The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, opened to the public in New York City.

1960 - Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clashed in their fourth and final presidential debate in New York.

1966 - A coal waste landslide in Aberfan, Wales engulfed a school and at least 20 homes, killing 144 people, with at least 116 of them being children.

1967 - The Israeli destroyer INS Eilat was sunk by Egyptian missile boats near Port Said; 47 Israeli crew members were lost.

1967 - Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters marched in Washington, D.C.

1971 - President Richard Nixon nominated Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1988 - Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were indicted in New York on charges of fraud and racketeering.

2001 - Washington, D.C., postal worker Thomas L. Morris Jr. died of inhalation anthrax as officials began testing thousands of postal employees.

2002 - A car packed with explosives blew up next to a bus in northern Israel during rush hour; 14 people were killed in addition to two suicide attackers.

2003 - Invoking a hastily-passed law, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reinserted into Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die battle.

2010 - Eight current and former officials pleaded not guilty to looting millions of dollars from California’s modest blue-collar city of Bell. (Seven defendants ended up being convicted, and received sentences ranging from home confinement to 12 years in prison.)

2012 - Former U.S. Senator and 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, died at age 90 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

2014 - North Korea abruptly freed Jeffrey Fowle, an American, nearly six months after he was arrested for leaving a Bible in a nightclub.

2019 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a second term in Canada’s national elections; his Liberal party took the most seats in Parliament, but fell short of a majority.

2019 - The nation’s three biggest drug distributors and a major drugmaker agreed to a $260 million settlement related to the toll from opioids in two Ohio counties; the settlement averted the first federal trial over the opioid crisis.

Birthdays
27 - Kane Brown (country singer)
27 - Louriza Tronco (actress)
32 - Glenn Powell (actor)
32 - Blanca Suarez (actress)
37 - Aaron Tveit (actor)
37 - Charlotte Sullivan (actress)
37 - Amber Rose (model)
38 - Matt Dallas (actor)
40 - Kim Kardashian-West (reality star)
42 - Michael McMillian (actor)
42 - Will Estes (actor)
43 - Matthew Ramsey (country singer)
44 - Jeremy Miller (actor)
44 - Andrew Scott (actor)
60 - Melora Walters (actress)
61 - Ken Watanabe (actor)
63 - Julian Cope (singer)
71 - Benjamin Netanyahu (Israeli prime minister)
71 - LaTanya Richardson Jackson (actress)
72 - Dick Christie (actor)
75 - Everett McGill (actor)
78 - Judge Judy Sheindlin (reality star)
78 - Elvin Bishop (singer)
96 - Joyce Randolph (actress)

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Today in Sports History - October 21

1956 - Billy Howton (Green Bay Packers) caught seven passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns against the Los Angeles Rams. The final score was 42-17.

1966 - Congress approved the AFL-NFL merger.

1973 - Fred Dryer (Los Angeles Rams) became the first NFL player to record two safeties in a single game. The Rams defeated the Green Bay Packers 24-7.

1973 - The Oakland Athletics defeat the New York Mets in seven games to win the World Series.

1975 - Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk hit a ball that struck the left field foul pole in Boston's Fenway Park for a home run, giving the Red Sox a 7-6 victory in 12 innings over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 6 of the World Series.

1976 - The Cincinnati Reds sweep the New York Yankees to win the World Series.

1976 - The New York Knicks retire Willis Reed's #19.

1980 - The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Kansas City Royals in six games to win their first World Series in franchise history and the last of the original 16 MLB teams to win a World Series.

1984 - Steve Cox (Cleveland Browns) kicked a 60-yard field goal against the Cincinnati Bengals. It was the second longest field goal in NFL history. The Browns lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 12-9.

1997 - Ray Bourque (Boston Bruins) became the fifth defenseman in NHL history to play in 1,300 regular-season games.

1998 - The New York Yankees sweep the San Diego Padres to win the World Series; the Yankees set a major league record with 125 regular season and postseason combined victories.

2000 - The New York Yankees defeated the New York Mets 4-3 in 12 innings in the longest World Series game on record at 4 hours and 51 minutes.

2004 - The CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) ruled that Paul Hamm could keep his Olympic gold medal. They decided that Hamm was the rightful champion in the men's all-around gymnastics competition at the Athens Games. South Korea had challenged the medal.

2007 - Tennessee Titans kicker Rob Bironas set an NFL record for most points scored in a game (non touchdowns) with 26 in the TItans' 38-36 win over the Houston Texans.
 
A first cousin of my great great great grandfather was a midshipman on the USS Constitution. Later, in the War of 1812, he was a 2nd Lt. on each of Commodore Chauncey's flagships in the Great Lakes campaigns. He followed Chauncey to the Mediterranean Squadron aboard the USS Washington and died in Tunisia enforcing a treaty after the Second Barbary War.
 
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