By: History.com Editors

1871

Great Chicago Fire begins

History.com Editors

Great Chicago Fire

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Published: November 24, 2009

Last Updated: March 13, 2025

On October 8, 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; more than $4 billion today) 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.

Chicago Fire of 1871

Find out what a cow has to do with the Chicago fire of 1871 in this animated tale of disaster and destruction in the windy city.

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.

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

1871

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 250 miles away.

1918

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.

1945

First patent filed for the microwave

On Oct. 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 appliance, invented by Raytheon employee Percy Spencer, now sits in more than 90 percent of American homes.

1956

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.

1957

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.

1967

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.

1970

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.”

1970

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."

2001

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.

2004

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.

2009

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.

2014

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 the largest outbreak of the often-fatal disease since its discovery in 1976. After Duncan passed away, two nurses who’d cared for him at the Dallas hospital contracted Ebola; however, both recovered.

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Citation Information

Article title
Great Chicago Fire begins
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 24, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
March 13, 2025
Original Published Date
November 24, 2009

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