http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Oct 8, 1871: Great Chicago Fire begins
On this day in 1871, flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary, igniting a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless and causes an estimated $200 million (in 1871 dollars; $3 billion in 2007 dollars) in damages. Legend has it that a cow kicked over a lantern in the O'Leary barn and started the fire, but other theories hold that humans or even a comet may have been responsible for the event that left four square miles of the Windy City, including its business district, in ruins. Dry weather and an abundance of wooden buildings, streets and sidewalks made Chicago vulnerable to fire. The city averaged two fires per day in 1870; there were 20 fires throughout Chicago the week before the Great Fire of 1871.
Despite the fire's devastation, much of Chicago's physical infrastructure, including its water, sewage and transportation systems, remained intact. Reconstruction efforts began quickly and spurred great economic development and population growth, as architects laid the foundation for a modern city featuring the world's first skyscrapers. At the time of the fire, Chicago's population was approximately 324,000; within nine years, there were 500,000 Chicagoans. By 1893, the city was a major economic and transportation hub with an estimated population of 1.5 million. That same year, Chicago was chosen to host the World's Columbian Exposition, a major tourist attraction visited by 27.5 million people, or approximately half the U.S. population at the time.
In 1997, the Chicago City Council exonerated Mrs. O'Leary and her cow. She turned into a recluse after the fire, and died in 1895.
Oct 8, 1967: Che Guevara defeated
A Bolivian guerrilla force led by Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is defeated in a skirmish with a special detachment of the Bolivian army. Guevara was wounded, captured, and executed the next day.
Born in Argentina, Guevara believed that a man of action could revolutionize a people. He played a pivotal role in the Cuban Revolution of 1956-59 and encouraged Fidel Castro to pursue his communist, anti-American agenda. After holding several positions in Castro's government, he disappeared from Cuba in 1965. He secretly traveled to the Congo, where he trained rebels, and in 1966 resurfaced in Bolivia as leader of another guerrilla group. Since his death, Guevara has been idolized as a hero of leftist Third World revolution.
Oct 8, 1941: Germans overrun Mariupol, in southern Russia
On this day in 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union begins a new stage, with Hitler's forces capturing Mariupol. The Axis power reached the Sea of Azov.
Despite the fact that Germany and Russia had signed a "pact" in 1939, each guaranteeing the other a specific region of influence without interference from the other, suspicion remained high. Despite warnings from his advisers that Germany could not fight the war on two fronts (as Germany's experience in World War I proved), Hitler became convinced that England was holding out against repeated German air assaults, refusing to surrender, because it had struck a secret deal with Russia. Fearing he would be "strangled" from the East and the West, he created, in December 1940, "Directive No. 21: Case Barbarossa"--the plan to invade and occupy the very nation he had actually asked to join the Axis only a month before. On June 22, 1941, after having postponed the invasion of Russia when Italy's attack on Greece forced Hitler to bail out his struggling ally in order to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold in the Balkans, three German army groups struck Russia hard by surprise. The Russian army was larger than German intelligence had anticipated, but they were demobilized. Stalin had shrugged off warnings from his own advisers, even Winston Churchill himself, that a German attack was imminent. By the end of the first day of the invasion, the German air force had destroyed more than 1,000 Soviet aircraft. And despite the toughness of the Russian troops, and the number of tanks and other armaments at their disposal, the Red Army was disorganized, enabling the Germans to penetrate up to 300 miles into Russian territory within the next few days.
Hitler's battle for Stalingrad and Moscow still lay ahead, but the capture of Mariupol, at the sea's edge, signaled the beginning of the end of Russia-as least as far as Hitler's propaganda machine was concerned. "Soviet Russia has been vanquished!" Otto Dietrich, Hitler's press chief, announced to foreign journalists the very next day.
Oct 8, 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in literature
The best-known living Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wins the Nobel Prize for literature. Born in 1918 in the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn was a leading writer and critic of Soviet internal oppression. Arrested in 1945 for criticizing the Stalin regime, he served eight years in Russian prisons and labor camps. Upon his release in 1953 he was sent into "internal exile" in Asiatic Russia. After Stalin's death, Solzhenitsyn was released from his exile and began writing in earnest. His first publication, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1963), appeared in the somewhat less repressive atmosphere of Nikita Khrushchev's regime (1955-1964). The book was widely read in both Russia and the West, and its harsh criticisms of Stalinist repression provided a dramatic insight into the Soviet system.
Eventually, however, Soviet officials clamped down on Solzhenitsyn and other Russian artists, and henceforth his works had to be secreted out of Russia in order to be published. These works included Cancer Ward (1968) and the massive three-volume The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 (1973-1978). The Soviet government further demonstrated its displeasure over Solzhenitsyn's writings by preventing him from personally accepting his Nobel Prize in 1970. In 1974, he was expelled from the Soviet Union for treason, and he moved to the United States. Although celebrated as a symbol of anticommunist resistance, Solzhenitsyn was also extremely critical of many aspects of American society; particularly what he termed its incessant materialism. He returned to Russia in 1994. Solzhenitsyn died of heart failure in Moscow on August 3, 2008. He was 89.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
314 - Battle at Cibalae: emperor Constantine beats emperor
Licinius
451 - Council of Chalcedon (4th ecumenical council) opens
876 - Battle at Andernach: Louis the Young beats Charles the
Bare
1075 - Dmitar Zvonimir is crowned king of Croatia.
1085 - San Marcos minstery in Venice initiated
1480 - Great standing on the Ugra river, a standoff between
the forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Duke Ivan III
of Russia, which resulted in the retreat of the Tataro-Mongols and eventual
disintegration of the Horde.
1492 - Columbus' fleet about 400 sea miles from Puerto Rico
1600 - San Marino adopts constitution
1604 - Supernova "Kepler's nova" 1st sighted
1625 - Admiral George Villiers' fleet sails from Plymouth to
Cadiz
1633 - Massachusetts Bay Colony forms its 1st government
1690 - Turkish troops occupy Belgrade
1712 - French hijacker Jacques Cassard seen on Suriname
coast
1740 - Chinese assault on Diestpoort Batavia
1769 - Captain James Cook is the first European to land in
New Zealand (Poverty bay)
1775 - Officers decide to bar slaves & free blacks from
Continental Army
1806 - British forces lay siege to French port of Boulogne
using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve
1813 - Treaty of Ried between Bayern & Austria
1815 - Joachim Murats forces lands at Pizzo Italy
Captain/Explorer James CookCaptain/Explorer James Cook 1818
- 2 English boxers are 1st to use padded gloves
1821 - The government of General José de San Martín
establishes the Peruvian Navy.
1822 - 1st eruption of Galunggung (Java) sends boiling
sludge into valley
1835 - Charles Darwin reaches James Island, Galapagos
archipelago, on HMS Beagle
1840 - 1st Hawaiian constitution proclaimed
1856 - The Second Opium War or 2nd Anglo-Chinese War: begins
with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
1860 - Telegraph line between LA & SF opens
1862 - Battle of Perryville, KY-Confederate invasion halted
1862 - Otto von Bismarck becomes chancellor of the German
Empire
1865 - Earthquake in Santa Cruz Mountains
1871 - Gas explosion destroys Peshtigo, Wisconsin
1871 - Great Fire kills 200, destroys over 4 square miles
(10 square km) of Chicago buildings, & original Emancipation Proclamation
1873 - 1st women's prison run by women opens at Indiana
Reformatory Institute
1879 - War of the Pacific: the Chilean Navy defeats the
Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos, Peruvian Admiral Miguel Grau is killed
in the encounter.
1886 - Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Noble
Bachelor" (BG)
Politician Otto Von BismarckPolitician Otto Von Bismarck
1887 - Phillies set club record 16th straight victory
1892 - Sergei Rachmaninoff 1st performs "Prelude in
C-sharp-Minor" in Moscow
1895 - Ohio Valley Improvement Association forms
1896 - Dow Jones starts reporting an average of selected
industrial stocks
1897 - Emperor Karl Joseph I named Gustav Mahler director of
Opera
1898 - 1st Canadian Intercollegiate football game: McGill
beats Queen's, 3-2
1903 - J M Synge's "In the Shadow of the Glen,"
premieres in Dublin
1904 - 1st Vanderbilt Cup auto race (Hicksville, Long
Island, NY)
1906 - Karl Nessler demonstrates 1st 'permanent wave' for
hair, in London
1908 - NY Giants set season attendance record at 910,000
(broken in 1920)
1909 - Chicago Cubs beat NY Giants 4-2 in a playoff to win
NL pennant
1912 - Montenegro declares war on Turkey, beginning 1st
Balkan War
1915 - Battle of Loos, almost 430,000 French, British &
Germans killed
1915 - Phillies win their 1st & only World Series game
before 1980, beating
1915 - Red Sox, 3-1, with an 8th inning 2 run rally
1917 - Trotski named chairman of Petrograd Soviet
1918 - Sgt Alvin York single-handedly kills 25, captures 132
Germans
1922 - NY Giants beat Yankees, 4 games to 0, with a tie in
19th World Series
1924 - British Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald falls
to Conservatives
1927 - NY Yankees sweep Pirates in 24th World Series
1927 - Sea battle at Navarino (Greece freed of Ottoman
occupation)
1928 - Cole Porter & E Ray Goetz' musical
"Paris," premieres in NYC
1928 - Eastern Soccer League forms in US
1928 - Joseph Szigeti debuted Alfredo Casella's Violin
Concerto.
1929 - A's Howard Ehmke (7-2) sets World Series record
striking out 13 Cubs
1929 - Mohammed Nadir Khan occupies Kabul Afghanistan/drives
out H Ghazi
1930 - Phila A's beat St Louis Cards, 4 games to 2 in 27th
World Series
1932 - The Indian Air Force is established.
1933 - Coit Tower dedicated in SF, a monument to
firefighters
1933 - Martinez Barrios forms new Spanish government
1934 - Bruno Hauptmann is indicted for murder of Lindbergh's
son
Playwright Moss HartPlaywright Moss Hart 1938 - G Kaufman
& Moss Hart's "Fabulous Invalid," premieres in NYC
1939 - Germany annexes Western Poland
1939 - NY Yankees sweep Reds in 36th World Series, 4th
straight WS win
1940 - Cin Reds beat Detroit Tigers, 4 games to 3, in 37th
World Series
1940 - German troops occupies Romania
1941 - Concentration camp Birkenau begins being built
1942 - Fight at Matanikau, Guadalcanal (John Hersey-Into the
Valley)
1943 - Great Britain establishes bases on Azores
1944 - "Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" debut
on CBS radio
1944 - Samuel Barber's "Capricorn Concerto,"
premieres
1945 - Harry Truman announced atomic bomb secret shared with
Britain and Canada
1946 - Kwo-less-shrew selects Gen Chiang Kai-shek as
president of China
1946 - Milt plane crashes at Christian HBS, 24 die
1950 - 4th NHL All-Star Game: Detroit beat All-Stars 7-1 at
Detroit
1950 - Cleveland Browns play Pittsburgh for 1st time, beat
Steelers 30-17
33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman
1951 - "Music in the Air" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 56
performances
1951 - Ford C Frick replaces Happy Chandler as 3rd
commissioner of baseball Warren C Giles becomes president of baseball's
National League
1952 - Chinese offensive in Korea
1952 - Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash kills 112 people.
1953 - Birmingham Alabama, bars Jackie Robinson's
Negro-White All-Stars from playing there Robinson gives in & drops white
players from his group
1953 - WTAP TV channel 15 in Parkersburg-Marietta, WV (NBC)
begins
1955 - World's most powerful aircraft carrier, USS Saratoga,
launched
1956 - Don Larsen, NY, pitches only perfect World Series
game, vs Brooklyn
1957 - Brooklyn Dodgers announce move to Los Angeles
1957 - Procter & Gamble-director N McElroy becomes US
Min of Defense
1957 - Soviet spy Jack Sobel sentenced to 7 years (NYC)
1957 - Turkish & Syrian border guards exchange fire
1958 - Braves Eddie Mathews strikes out for World Series
record 11th time
1958 - Dr Ake Senning installs 1st pacemaker (Stockholm)
1958 - KCMT TV channel 7 in Alexandria, MN (CBS/NBC/ABC)
begins broadcasting
Baseball Player Jackie RobinsonBaseball Player Jackie
Robinson 1958 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1959 - "At the Drop of a Hat" opens at John Golden
Theater NYC for 216 perfs
1959 - Conservatives win British general election
1959 - LA Dodgers beat Chicago White Sox, 4 games to 2 in
56th World Series
1960 - Bobby Richarson hits a World Series grand slammer
1961 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Bill Brannin's Swing Parade
Golf Tournament
1961 - US Constellation crashes at Richmond Virginia, 74 die
1961 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1961 - Whitey Ford breaks Babe Ruth's World Series record of
29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, running his streak to 32
1962 - Algeria admitted as 109th member of UN
1962 - N Korea reports 100% election turnout, 100% vote for
Workers' Party
1962 - Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes the article
"Bedingt abwehrbereit" ("Conditionally prepared for
defense") about a NATO manoeuver called "Fallex 62", which
uncovered the sorry state of the Bundeswehr (Germany's army) facing the
communist threat from the east at the time. The magazine was soon accused of
treason.
1963 - Sultan of Zanzibar cedes his mainland possessions to
Kenya
1964 - Gilroy Roberts becomes 1st US chief engraver to
retire (than die)
1964 - Ringo Starr takes & passes his driving test
Beatles Drummer Ringo StarrBeatles Drummer Ringo Starr 1965
- Djakarta Moslems set fire to PKI-headquarter
1965 - Post Office Tower opens in London, tallest building
in England
1965 - Once-Hertogenbosch soccer team FC de Bosch forms
1965 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1966 - Wyoming's Jerry DePoyster kicks 3 field goals over 50
yds (54, 54, 52)
1967 - Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured
in Bolivia.
1968 - Dutch aircraft carrier Karel Doorman (formerly Britsh
HMS Venerable) sold to Argentina
1969 - The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs,
organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago, Illinois.
1970 - Soviet author Alexander I Solzhenitsyn wins Nobel
Prize for Literature
1971 - John Lennon releases his megahit "Imagine"
1971 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1972 - "From Israel with Love" closes at Palace
Theater NYC after 8 perfs
1972 - Harold Carmichael begins NFL streak of 127
consecutive game receptions
1972 - In Game 2 of ALCS, A's Bert Campaneris fires his bat
at Det pitcher
1972 - Lerrin LaGrow Campy, who had been hit by a pitch, is
fined & suspended
Musician and Beatle John LennonMusician and Beatle John
Lennon 1973 - NLCS game 3 brawl between Cins' Pete Rose & NY Met Bud
Harrelson
1973 - Spyris Markezinis forms government in Greece
1974 - Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and
mismanagement; at the time it was the largest bank failure in the history of
the United States.
1976 - Sex Pistols sign with EMI
1977 - Largest baseball crowd in Penns, 64,924 see Dodgers
beat Phillies 4-1 in 4th NL championship game (Dodgers win pennant)
1978 - Ken Warby set world water speed record at 319.627 mph
(514 kph)
1978 - Yanks win 3rd straight AL Championship, all against
Kansas City
1979 - "Sugar Babies" opens at Mark Hellinger
Theater NYC for 1208 perfs
1979 - 13th Country Music Association Award:[Approx]
1979 - J McHugh & A Malvin's musical "Sugar
Babies," premieres in NYC
1980 - After playing two shows at the Madison Square Garden,
Bob Marley collapsed in Central Park while jogging, brought to Sloan-Kettering
Hospital
1980 - British Leyland starts selling Mini Metro
1980 - USSR & Syria sign peace treaty
1980 - USSR performs nuclear test
1981 - 1st broadcast of "Cagney & Lacey" on
ABC-TV
Reggae Musician Bob MarleyReggae Musician Bob Marley 1981 -
USAC appeals panel restores disputed Indy 500 victory to Bobby Unser
1981 - President Reagan greeted predecessors Jimmy Carter,
Gerald R Ford & Richard Nixon before sending them to Egypt for Anwar
Sadat's funeral
1982 - NJ Devils 1st victory, beating NY Rangers 3-2 at
Meadowlands
1982 - Poland bans Solidarity & all labor unions
1983 - 1st regular season Islander OT game beat Caps 8-7
1983 - Washington Capitals 1st NHL overtime game losing to
NY Islanders 8-7
1984 - 18th Country Music Association Award: Alabama wins
1985 - "Rembrandt & Hitler or Me" premieres in
Amsterdam
1985 - Alain Boubil/Herbert Kretzner's "Les
Miserables," premieres in London
1985 - Little Richard seriously injured in a car accident
1986 - Mike Scott ties playoff record of 14 strikeouts,
beats Mets 1-0
1986 - RUN DMC calls for a day of peace among LA street
gangs
1988 - Fire in Seattle's Space Needle causes evacuation,
$2,000 damage
1988 - Jay Howell ejected in NLCS game 3 for having pine tar
on his glove
1989 - Oakland beats Toronto, 4-3 in Game 5, to advance to
the World Series
38th US President Gerald Ford38th US President Gerald Ford
1990 - 24th Country Music Association Award: George Strait wins
1990 - Israeli police kill 17 Palestinian rioters
1990 - US doctors Joseph E Murray & E Donnall Thomas win
Nobel Prize
1991 - The Croatian Parliament cuts all remaining ties with
Yugoslavia
1992 - Nobel Prize for literature is given to West Indies
poet Derek Walcott
1992 - Ottawa Sentors 1st NHL game
1992 - Pioneer Venus Orbiter (1st Venus orbiter-1978),
crashes into Venus
1993 - Howard Stern releases his 1st book "Private
Parts"
1993 - UN lifts remaining economic sanctions against South
Africa
1994 - BPAA US Women's Bowling Open won by Aleta Sill
1995 - Dolphin's Dan Marino breaks Tarkenton's NFL career
completions record
1995 - Edgar Martinez drives home tying & winning runs
to rally Mariners to 6-5 win in bottom of 11th to beat Yankees & win AL
Division Series
1998 - Oslo Gardermoen airport opening after the close down
of Fornebu.
1999 - New Coligny Calendar, NCC, The beginning of a new era
of the Coligny calendar, the oldest material Celtic calendar.
2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush announces the
establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
43rd US President George W. Bush43rd US President George W.
Bush 2001 - A twin engine Cessna and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS)
jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy killing 118.
2005 - The Kashmir earthquake hits parts of northern South
Asia at 03:50 UTC.
2012 - 35 people are killed by a Nigerian military bomb
struck a convoy in Maiduguri
2012 - Hugo Chávez is re-elected as president of Venezuela
for a fourth term
2012 - Mustafa A.G. Abushagur, the first elected Libyan
Prime Minister, is voted out of office by the Libyan parliament
2012 - John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka win the 2012 Nobel
Prize for Medicine for their work on reprogramming end stage cells to become
pluripotent
1895 - The Berliner Gramophone Company was founded in Philadelphia, PA. 1904 - "Little Johnny Jones" opened in Hartford, CT. 1915 - During World War I, the Battle of Loos concluded. 1918 - U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France. York had originally tried to avoid being drafted as a conscientious objector. After this event his was promoted to sergeant and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. 1919 - The first transcontinental air race in the U.S. began. 1935 - "The O’Neills" debuted on CBS radio. 1938 - The cover of "The Saturday Evening Post" portrayed Norman Rockwell. 1944 - "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" debuted on CBS radio. 1945 - U.S. President Truman announced that only Britain and Canada would be given the secret to the atomic bomb. 1950 - U.N. forces crossed into North Korea from South Korea. 1952 - "The Complete Book of Etiquette" was published for the first time. 1956 - Donald James Larsen (New York Yankees) pitched the first perfect game in the history of the World Series. 1957 - The Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that it had accepted a deal to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles. 1966 - The U.S. Government declared that LSD was dangerous and an illegal substance. 1970 - Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature. 1979 - "Sugar Babies" opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway. 1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon to the White House. The group was preparing to leave for Egypt to attend the funeral of Anwar Sadat. 1982 - In Poland, all labor organizations, including Solidarity, were banned. 1991 - A slave burial site was found by construction workers in lower Manhattan. The "Negro Burial Ground" had been closed in 1790. Over a dozen skeletons were found. 1993 - The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, TX, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed as many as 85 people. 1996 - Pope John Paul II underwent a successful operation to remove his inflamed appendix. 1998 - Taliban forces attacked Iranian border posts. Iran said that three border posts were destroyed before the Taliban forces were forced to retreat. The Taliban of Afghanistan denied the event occurred. 1998 - Canada and Netherlands were voted into the U.N. Security Council. 2001 - Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania, was sworn in as director of the new U.S. department of Homeland Security. 2001 - Rush Limbaugh announced to his listeners that he was totally deaf in his left ear and had only partial hearing in his right ear. The condition had happened in a three month period. 2001 - Two Russian cosmonauts made the first spacewalk to be conducted outside of the international space station without a shuttle present. 2002 - A federal judge approved U.S. President George W. Bush's request to reopen West Coast ports, to end a caustic 10-day labor lockout. The lockout was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day. 2003 - China announced that it would have a human crew orbit the Earth briefly on October 15. 2003 - Vietnam and the United States reached a tentative agreement that would allow the first commercial flights between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War. 2003 - It was announced that Vivendi Universal and General Electric Co. had reached an agreement to merge. The name for the combined company was NBC Universal. 2003 - Siegfried Fischbacher and his manager announced that the "Siegfried and Roy" show at the Mirage was canceled permanently. It was also said that if Roy Horn survived, after a tiger attack on October 3, the duo would continue to work together. 2004 - The first-ever direct presidential elections were held in Afghanistan.
1869 The 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, died in Concord, N.H. 1871 The Great Fire of Chicago started. That same day in Peshtigo, Wis., the worst forest fire in U.S. history also began. 1934 Bruno Hauptmannn was indicted for the murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby. 1945 President Harry Truman announced the U.S. would share the secret of the atomic bomb only with Great Britain and Canada. 1956 Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the first and only perfect game in a World Series. 2004 Martha Stewart began her prison sentence at Alderson Federal Prison Camp. 2005 A 7.6 magnitude earthquake centered in the Pakistani-controlled part of the Kashmir region killed more than 80,000 and injured 65,000.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/oct08.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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