12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for October 21, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1520 – Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet sights and enters the passage later named the Strait of Magellan.
- 1797 – USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) is launched in Boston.
- 1805 – Battle of Trafalgar: Admiral Nelson’s Royal Navy defeats the Franco-Spanish fleet.
- 1879 – Thomas Edison tests a long-lasting practical incandescent light bulb at Menlo Park.
- 1944 – Aachen surrenders to Allied forces, the first major German city captured in WWII.
- 1945 – Women vote in French parliamentary elections for the first time.
- 1959 – The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York City.
- 1966 – Aberfan disaster: a coal tip collapses in Wales, killing 144 people, most of them children.
- 1967 – “March on the Pentagon” draws tens of thousands protesting the Vietnam War.
- 1983 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures redefines the meter via the speed of light.
- 1983 – Grenada’s government is overthrown in a coup six days before the U.S.-led invasion.
- 2019 – Canada’s Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau wins a minority in the federal election.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1949 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister (76)
- 1959 – Ken Watanabe, actor (“The Last Samurai,” “Inception”) (66)
- 1971 – Jade Jagger, jewelry designer and model (54)
- 1976 – Andrew Scott, actor (“Sherlock,” “Fleabag,” “Ripley”) (49)
- 1980 – Kim Kardashian, media personality and entrepreneur (45)
- 1983 – Amber Rose, model and television personality (42)
- 1995 – Doja Cat, rapper/singer-songwriter (30)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1422 – Charles VI of France, king during the Hundred Years’ War (53)
- 1805 – Horatio Nelson, British admiral, killed at Trafalgar (47)
- 1969 – Jack Kerouac, American novelist (“On the Road”) (47)
- 1984 – François Truffaut, French film director (“The 400 Blows”) (52)
- 1995 – Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon (28)
- 2003 – Elliott Smith, singer-songwriter (34)
- 2012 – George McGovern, U.S. senator and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee (90)
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