TODAY IN HISTORY

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.

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.

1945

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

1966

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