Today is Wednesday, October 21, the 294th day of 2015. There are 71 days left in the year.
On this date:
In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” was christened in Boston’s harbor.
In 1879, Thomas Edison perfected a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
In 1917, members of the 1st Division of the U.S. Army training in Luneville, France, became the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I.
In 1945, women in France were allowed to vote in parliamentary elections for the first time.
In 1959, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened to the public in New York.
In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clashed in their fourth and final presidential debate in New York.
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