It was on this date in 1917, Americans were involved in their first World War I battle. And on this date in 1944 , U.S. troops captured the first city inside Germany of World War II, Aachen.
Mark Pennell sits at the helm of his time machine.Mark's Almanac is a 90-second time travel that highlights the world's history from the very serious to the sometimes sublime.
Mark's Almanac for October 21, 2020
![Photo of U.S. Signal Corps. 155 mm artillery cooperating with the 29th Division in position on a road just taken from the Germans.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/11d7ade/2147483647/strip/true/crop/660x503+0+0/resize/880x671!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F94%2F23%2F8e4fe43c4395899aaa19f4ebd0a4%2Fwwi0118-standard.jpg)
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