Today is Tuesday, October 21, the 294th day of 2025. There are 71 days left in the year.
**Today in History**
– On October 21, 1959, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum opened in New York City.
– 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 Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson was fatally wounded during the battle.
– 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 (pronounced AH’-kuhn), the first German city to fall to American forces in World War II.
– In 1966, a tragic coal waste landslide engulfed a school and about 20 houses in Aberfan, Wales, killing 144 people, including 116 children.
– 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 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.
– In 2021, actor Alec Baldwin was pointing a gun on the set of the Western movie *Rust* in New Mexico when it discharged, 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 U.S. Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny, who was charged for placing a man acting erratically on a New York City subway in a deadly chokehold in May 2023. In December 2024, Penny was cleared of all charges, including criminally negligent homicide.
**Today’s Birthdays:**
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https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/10/21/today-in-history-october-21-frank-lloyd-wrights-modernist-icon-opens-in-new-york/