AP US HistoryThis Day in American History

October 21

1797 – The USS Constitution, a 44-gun U.S. Navy frigate built to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of

Tripoli, is launched in Boston Harbor. The vessel performed commendably during the Barbary

conflicts, and in 1805 a peace treaty with Tripoli was signed on the Constitution's deck.

AP US HistoryThis Day in American History

October 21

1910 – A massive explosion destroys the Los Angeles Times building in the city's downtown area, killing

21 and injuring many more. Since Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Otis, a virulent opponent of

unions, believed that the bomb was directed at him, he hired the nation's premier private detective,

William J. Burns, to crack the case.

AP US HistoryThis Day in American History

October 21

1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivers a speech in Alabama in which he condemns lynchings

—illegal hangings committed primarily by white supremacists against African Americans in the Deep

South.

AP US HistoryThis Day in American History

October 21

1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring the brilliant rocket designer Wernher von Braun and his team from the U.S. Army to

the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Von Braun, the mastermind of the U.S. space program, had developed the lethal V-2

rocket for Nazi Germany during World War II.