TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Oct. 21, 1917

Members of the 1st Division of the U.S. Army training in Luneville, France, became the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1797

The U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” was christened in Boston’s harbor.

1805

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

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

Legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina.

1941

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

1942

The MGM musical “For Me and My Gal,” starring Judy Garland and featuring the film debut of Gene Kelly, premiered in New York.

1959

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened to the public in New York.

1966

144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and some 20 houses in Aberfan, Wales.