Today in History: October 21, Pistorius convicted in shooting death

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2026. There are 71 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 21, 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.

Also on this date:

In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” was christened in Boston Harbor.

In 1805, a British fleet commanded by Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, was killed.

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 (AH’-kuhn) — the first German city to fall to American forces in World War II.

In 1959, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum opened in New York.

In 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and some 20 houses in Aberfan, Wales.

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 2021, Actor Alec Baldwin was pointing a gun on the set of the Western movie “Rust” in New Mexico when it went off, 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 a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Daniel Penny, for placing a man who was acting erratically on a New York City subway train in May 2023 in a deadly chokehold. In December 2024, Penny was cleared of all charges, including criminally negligent homicide.

In 2025, Japan’s parliament elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister.

Today’s Birthdays: Rock singer Manfred Mann is 86. TV’s Judge Judy Sheindlin is 84. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 77. Film director Catherine Hardwicke is 71. Actor Ken Watanabe is 67. Republican Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina is 55. Actor Andrew Scott is 50. Actor Will Estes is 48. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian (kahr-DASH’-ee-uhn) is 46. Model Amber Rose is 43. Actor Glenn Powell is 38. Country singer Kane Brown is 33. Singer Doja Cat is 31. Actor Ashley Liao is 25.