This Day in History

On Oct. 21, 2014, Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for shooting and killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The conviction was later upgraded to murder; Pistorius was released on parole in January 2024.

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In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as "Old Ironsides," was christened in Boston's harbor.

In 1805, a British fleet commanded by Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, was killed.

In 1940, Ernest Hemingway's novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was first published.

In 1944, U.S. troops captured the German city of Aachen (AH'-kuhn) — the first German city to fall to American forces in World War II.

In 1959, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum opened in New York.

In 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and some 20 houses in Aberfan, Wales.

In 2013, a seventh grader at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nevada, shot and killed a teacher and wounded two classmates before taking his own life.

In 2021, Actor Alec Baldwin was pointing a gun on the set of the Western movie "Rust" in New Mexico when it went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Charges of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin were dropped in July 2024.

In 2024, jury selection began in the trial of a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Daniel Penny, for placing a man who was acting erratically on a New York City subway train in May 2023 in a deadly chokehold. In December 2024, Penny was cleared of all charges, including criminally negligent homicide.

Today's Birthdays: Rock singer Manfred Mann is 85. TV's Judge Judy Sheindlin is 83. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 76. Former first daughter Patti Davis is 73. Film director Catherine Hardwicke is 70. Actor Ken Watanabe (wah-tah-NAH'-bee) is 66. Republican Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina is 54. Actor Will Estes is 47. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian (kahr-DASH'-ee-uhn) is 45. Actor Glenn Powell is 37. Country singer Kane Brown is 32. Singer Doja Cat is 30.