Today in History: Oct. 21

Today is Monday, Oct. 21, the 295th day of 2024. There are 71 days left in the year.

Today 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.

Also on this date:

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 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 — 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 a movie set in New Mexico when it went off and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza. Charges of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin were dropped in July 2024.

Today’s Birthdays: Rock singer Manfred Mann is 84. TV’s Judge Judy Sheindlin is 82. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 75. Former first daughter Patti Davis is 72. Film director Catherine Hardwicke is 69. Actor Ken Watanabe is 65. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., is 53. Actor Will Estes is 46. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian is 44. MLB pitcher Zack Greinke is 41. Actor Glenn Powell is 36. Country singer Kane Brown is 31. Singer Doja Cat is 29.