October 21st

Today's Highlight in History:
On October 21st, 1879, Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

On this date:
In 1797, the US Navy frigate "Constitution," also known as "Old Ironsides," was launched in Boston's harbor.

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

In 1917, members of the First Division of the US Army training in Luneville, France, became the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War One.

In 1944, during World War Two, US troops captured the German city of Aachen.

In 1945, women in France were allowed to vote for the first time.

In 1959, the Guggenheim Museum in New York opened to the public.

In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clashed in their fourth and final presidential debate.

In 1966, more than 140 people, mostly children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and several houses in south Wales.

In 1967, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters marched in Washington DC.

In 1971, President Nixon nominated Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the US Supreme Court.

Ten years ago: A Palestinian stabbed three Israelis to death during a rampage in a Jerusalem neighborhood in retaliation for the police killings of 17 Arabs on the Temple Mount.

Five years ago: Rioting inmates surrendered control of a prison dormitory in Greenville, Illinois, ending a one-day uprising that began after the government ordered federal prisons locked down nationwide. The Atlanta Braves won game one of the World Series, defeating the visiting Cleveland Indians 3-to-2. Maxene Andrews of the Andrews Sisters died in Hyannis, Massachusetts, at age 79.

One year ago: France's highest court upheld the conviction of Maurice Papon, the former Vichy official who had fled France rather than face prison for his role in sending Jews to Nazi death camps; Papon was captured in Switzerland and deported the following day.

"There are three things which the public will always clamor for, sooner or later: namely, Novelty, novelty, novelty."

-- Thomas Hood, British poet (1799-1845).