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Great Chicago Fire begins

Born on This Day

R. L. Stine

1943 -

American author who reimagined horror fiction for children in the bestselling Goosebumps and Fear Street series.

Sigourney Weaver

1949 -

Actor who redefined the action star in the Alien franchise. Also starred in hits like Working Girl and the Avatar movies.

Bruno Mars

1985 -

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who blends pop, R&B and soul on hits like “Just the Way You Are” and “Uptown Funk.”

R. L. StineGetty Images

Sigourney WeaverGetty Images for IMDb

Bruno MarsWireImage

1871

OCT8

Of 37 separate fires that break out on the same day in the Great Lakes region, three are massive. The Great Chicago fire killed 300, the Great Michigan fire 300-500, and the Wisconsin Peshtigo fire—history’s deadliest—killed least 1,200.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on October 8th

Hawaii adopts its first constitution

The 1840 document granted all Hawaiian citizens equal rights.

Massive Peshtigo fire burns in Wisconsin

On October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire, now considered the most devastating fire in United States history, burns in Wisconsin. Some 1,200 people lost their lives and 2 billion trees were consumed by flames. Despite the massive scale of the blaze, it was overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire, which began later that night about […]

U.S. soldier Alvin York displays heroics at Argonne

On October 8, 1918, United States Corporal Alvin C. York reportedly kills more than 20 German soldiers and captures an additional 132 at the head of a small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. The exploits later earned York the Medal of Honor. Born in 1887 in a log cabin […]

First patent filed for the microwave

On October 8, 1945, Raytheon Manufacturing Company filed a patent for what’s now a staple kitchen appliance in homes around the world: the microwave oven.

The first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States opens

On October 8, 1956, the nation’s first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall opens in a Minneapolis suburb. Southdale Mall was designed to lure shoppers during harsh winters.

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New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitches only World Series perfect game

On Oct. 8, 1956, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect game in World Series history. “I was so happy. I felt like crying,” he tells reporters after New York’s 2-0 win in Game 5 over the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Yankees go on to win the World Series in seven games. By […]

Jerry Lee Lewis records “Great Balls Of Fire” in Memphis, Tennessee

On October 8, 1957, bible-school-dropout-tuned-rockabilly-pianist Jerry Lee Lewis laid down the definitive version of “Great Balls Of Fire,” amid a losing battle with his conscience—and with the legendary Sam Phillips, head of Sun Records. Lewis was not the only early rock-and-roller from a strict Christian background who struggled to reconcile his religious beliefs with the […]

Che Guevara captured by Bolivian army

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 […]

Communists reject Nixon’s peace proposal

The Communist delegation in Paris rejects President Richard Nixon’s October 7 proposal as “a maneuver to deceive world opinion.” Nixon had announced five-point proposal to end the war, based on a “standstill” cease-fire in place in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. He proposed eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces, unconditional release of prisoners of war, and […]

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in Literature

On October 8, 1970, one of Russia’s best-known contemporary writers, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. A leading writer and critic of Soviet internal oppression, he was awarded the prize, the Nobel committee wrote, “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature.” Born in 1918 in […]

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The Office of Homeland Security is founded

The Office of Homeland Security is founded on October 8, 2001, less than one month after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Now a cabinet department, Homeland Security is now one of the largest organs of the federal government, charged with preventing terror attacks, border security, immigrations and customs, disaster relief and prevention and other related […]

Kenyan environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai wins Nobel Peace Prize

On October 8, 2004, Kenyan environmental justice organizer Wangari Maathai receives a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her “contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace,” becoming the first African woman to win the award. Maathai was born to peasant farmers in 1940, and grew up in a rural community in Kenya. She received her […]

Self-help guru’s sweat lodge ceremony turns deadly

On October 8, 2009, two people die and more than a dozen others are hospitalized following a botched sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat run by motivational speaker and author James Arthur Ray near Sedona, Arizona. A third participant in the ceremony died nine days later. The sweat lodge exercise was part of a five-day […]

First person in U.S. diagnosed with Ebola dies

On October 8, 2014, Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with a case of the Ebola Virus Disease in the U.S., dies at age 42 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Shortly before his death, Duncan, who lived in Liberia, had traveled to America from West Africa, which was in the throes of […]

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