October 21 in history:

On October 21st, 1520, Ferdinand Magellan and his crew discovered the strait at the tip of South America which would later bear his name.  The strait was the connection which took them from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Another famous ocean explorer was remembered on this date in 1892, when the Columbian Exposition was dedicated in Chicago.  The fair designed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the New World actually opened in May of 1893.  New products and inventions introduced at the fair included the Ferris Wheel, Cream of Wheat cereal, and Juicy Fruit gum.

October 21st was the day in 1797 that the U.S.S. Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” was launched.  The ship (pictured), docked in Boston, is still maintained as an active Navy vessel.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge began writing his epic poem about the sea, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” in 1797.  Coleridge was born October 21st, 1772.