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Third time holds: Constitution finally slides into Boston Harbor

Two failed launches in September gave way to a bottle of Madeira and a long-awaited splash.

Boston's North End had already watched the Constitution fail to launch twice, on September 20 and 22, 1797, with President John Adams present for the first attempt. On October 21, after a month of rebuilding the ways, shipwrights at Edmund Hartt's yard tried again, and the 44-gun frigate finally slid into the harbor, though she stalled partway and needed another month of repairs before floating free. Captain James Sever broke a bottle of Madeira wine across her bowsprit to mark it. The month of rebuilding the ways had already happened before October 21; on that date she slid cleanly into Boston Harbor…

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More from October 21

A sitting senator falls at Ball's Bluff; his men are driven into the Potomac

Boats swamp under the weight of fleeing soldiers as a Mississippi regiment breaks the Union line at dusk.

Wright's spiral museum opens its doors on Fifth Avenue

The architect died in April; the building he fought sixteen years to see built opened without him in October.

Eisenhower signs over the Army's rocket men; von Braun now works for NASA

The order strips most of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and hands its hardware and people to the year-old civilian space agency.

The banner still flies the King's colors, with Liberty and Union stitched across the bottom.

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Read the full October 21 edition →Everything that happened on October 21 →

More from Revolution & Founding

Congress votes: these colonies are free and independent states

Jefferson's declaration passes without dissent; Dunlap's print shop runs off copies tonight for readings across the region.

West Point opens; the republic trains its own officers at last

A small class of cadets enrolls under superintendent Jonathan Williams on ground above the Hudson the Continental Army has held since 1778.

Scott's regulars break Riall's line at Chippawa; the British general had taken them for militia

After 25 minutes of volley fire on open ground near the Niagara, the Right Division's lines collapse and American regulars prove they can stand against British veterans.

St. Clair abandons Ticonderoga overnight; the garrison slips out without firing a shot

Burgoyne's engineers spent three days hauling cannon up Mount Defiance, and by dawn the fort's heaviest guns, its cattle, and its invalids are left behind.

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