This Day in Pop Culture for October 10

1871: The Great Chicago Fire

Although not confirmed, it has been long speculated that it was Mrs. O’Leary’s cow who knocked over a lantern at about 9 p.m. which started a barn fire. Others say that a group of men who were gambling in said barn that knocked over that lantern. In either case, it was the start of the Great Chicago Fire which burned the city to ground from from October 8 to this day in 1871. It is estimated that 3.3 square miles of wooden buildings were destroyed, 300 people killed and over 100,000 people left homeless. More lives and building could have been saved had the firefighters not been sent to the wrong location initially.

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