TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT Oct. 21, 1971

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

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1797

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

1879

Thomas Edison perfected a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J.

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

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.

1941

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

1962

The Seattle World’s Fair closed after six months and nearly 10 million visitors.

1966

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

1967

The Israeli destroyer INS Eilat was sunk by Egyptian missile boats near Port Said; 47 Israeli crew members were lost. Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters began two days of demonstrations in Washington, D.C.