On This Day - What Happened On October 8 - Encyclopedia Britannica

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1871 Great Chicago Fire On this day in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire began in the barn of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary, and, by the time the blaze died out two days later, a large swath of the city had been devastated and some 300 people killed. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital id: cph 3g03936)

Featured Biography

Jesse Jackson American minister and activist bornOctober 8, 1941 (age 84)Greenville, South CarolinaRon Edmonds—AP/REX/Shutterstock.com 1970 Matt Damon American actor, screenwriter, and producer 1960 Reed Hastings American entrepreneur 1943 R.L. Stine American author 1941 Jesse Jackson American minister and activist 1920 Frank Herbert American author See All Biographies On This Day

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2013 I Am Malala, a memoir by Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, was published. In 2014 she became the youngest person to win a Nobel Prize.© Andrew Cowie—AFP/Getty Images 2005 An earthquake struck the Pakistan-administered portion of the Kashmir region and the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, killing at least 79,000 people.Paula Bronstein/Getty Images 2004 American domestic lifestyle innovator Martha Stewart reported to a federal prison in West Virginia to begin her five-month sentence for insider trading.Chris Hondros/Getty Images 2001 In Italy's worst civilian air disaster in nearly 30 years, a Cessna took a wrong turn on a taxiway at Linate Airport in Milan and crashed into an SAS airliner about to take off, which exploded, killing 118 people, including 4 airport workers. Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about aircraft and air travelEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1982 The Polish legislature dissolved the trade union Solidarity, which subsequently became an underground organization and played a key role in ending communist rule in Poland, with its various leaders, notably Lech Wałęsa, later holding important government posts. How much do you know about European history?Copyright Wesolowski/Sygma 1970 Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Test your knowledge of Nobel laureates in literatureGilbert Uzan/Gamma Liaison 1967 British politician Clement Attlee—who, while serving as prime minister of the United Kingdom (1945–51), presided over the establishment of a welfare state in his country and the granting of independence to India—died at age 84. Take our quiz about notable prime ministers© Karsh—Rapho/Photo Researchers 1967 A prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution and a South American guerrilla leader, Che Guevara was captured and later shot to death by a Bolivian army. Take our quiz about plots and revolutionsLee Lockwood/Black Star 1957 An accident at the Windscale nuclear facility in northwestern England caused a fire that burned for 16 hours and left 10 tons of radioactive fuel melted in the reactor core.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1918 Corporal Alvin York single-handedly captured 132 Germans and killed another 25 during the Meuse-Argonne offensive of World War I. Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War IBettmann/Corbis 1895 Argentine politician Juan Perón, who served as president of Argentina (1946–52, 1952–55, and 1973–74) and founded and led the Peronist movement, was born. Take our quiz about South AmericaCourtesy of the OAS (Columbus Memorial Library) 1871 The city of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, burned to the ground in hours, killing 1,152 people. Test your knowledge of historical disastersU.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region 1856 In Canton (Guangzhou), Chinese officials boarded a British-registered ship, the Arrow, arrested several Chinese crew members (who were later released), and allegedly lowered the British flag; the event contributed to the start of the second Opium War, in which Britain and France battled China. Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about ChinaPublic Domain 1809 Klemens von Metternich was named foreign minister of Austria; he revived the country's standing in European affairs, and his organization of the Congress of Vienna maintained a balance of power in Europe.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fletcher Fund, 1941 (41.67), www.metmuseum.org SIGN UP FOR History's Biggest Headlines Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors. SIGN UP Thanks for signing up for Today in History. Your first newsletter will arrive soon! SIGN UP By clicking "Sign Up" you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.