Following are some of the major events to have occurred on October 21
Reuters
1945 - Women vote for the first time in France.
1966 - A colliery slag heap slid and buried a school in the Welsh village of Aberfan, killing 116 children and 28 adults.
1967 - The Egyptian navy sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat off Sinai.
1993 - Burundi's President Melchior Ndadaye died in an abortive military coup.
1994 - The United States and North Korea signed a landmark deal under which North Korea would freeze and then dismantle its nuclear programme.
1997 - Detroit's historic Gem Theatre becomes heaviest building moved on wheels when it relocates five blocks.
1998 - The ex-communist Massimo D'Alema took over as Italy's prime minister, heading a Social Democrat-dominated government that included the first Marxist ministers in half a century.
1999 - More than 110 people were killed and about 400 injured in a rocket attack on a crowded market in Grozny, capital of the restive Russian region of Chechnya.
2000 - New York Yankees' batter Jose Vizcaino drives home the winning run marking the longest duration for a World Series game in baseball history.
2005 - Shirley Horn, the American Grammy-winning jazz vocalist and pianist known for her intimate, whispery vocals and virtuoso piano playing, died aged 71.
2012 - Kateri Tekakwitha becomes first-ever native American declared a saint.