TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Oct. 21, 1966

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

ON THIS DATE

1805

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

1879

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

1944

During World War II, U.S. troops captured the German city of Aachen.

1969

Beat poet and author Jack Kerouac died in St. Petersburg, Fla., at age 47.