Shimla Oct. 21 Keekli Bureau
2018
American actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who starred in such sitcoms as Seinfeld and Veep, was officially awarded the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the highest award in comedy.
2012
American politician and liberal activist George McGovern, who ran unsuccessfully as a reformist Democratic challenger in the 1972 presidential race against incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, died in South Dakota.
1964
The American musical film My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, had its world premiere, and it later won eight Academy Awards, including that for best picture.
1960
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon debated for the fourth and final time before the 1960 U.S. presidential election.
1959
The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City.
1940
American novelist Ernest Hemingway published his classic novel For Whom the Bell Tolls; it was later adapted into an acclaimed film.
1907
Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow opened in New York City.
1805
A fleet of 33 ships (18 French and 15 Spanish) under Admiral Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve fought and was defeated by a British fleet of 27 ships under Admiral Horatio Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar (combat was waged west of Cape Trafalgar, Spain).
1797
One of the first frigates built for the U.S. Navy, the Constitution (byname Old Ironsides) was launched in Boston.
