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This Day in Pop Culture

Pop Culture Flashback: The Great Chicago Fire (Oct. 10)

The Great Chicago Fire, a princess from Mars and Laverne & Shirley joined the army

October 10, 2026

Many people lost their lives on this day all because a cow started The Great Chicago Fire. Or did she?

1871 – What Started The Great Chicago Fire? A Cow?

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 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.

OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY:

1917 – A Princess of Mars

A Princess of Mars book cover — *(Wikimedia Commons)*

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars was first published on the pages on All-Story Magazine in a serialized format from February-July, 1912. The story told the tale of Confederate veteran of the Civil War, John Carter with this adventure beginning after the war in Arizona and ending on the planet of Mars.

Due to the planet’s lesser gravity, Carter finds to have great strength, and he gets along with a tribe of green, six-limbed creatures. Meanwhile, Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium (a red Martian race) is kidnapped and soon John is found stuck in the middle of a political war between the two races.

On this day in 1917, the story became a book, the first after three previous Tarzan novels. In 2012, Walt Disney Pictures brought the story to the big screen but with a different name: John Carter. Unlike the sci-fi book, the movie did not fare well.

1981 – Laverne & Shirley Get Animated

Animated Laverne and Shirley — An animated Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams from *Laverne & Shirley (ABC via TVDB)*

In addition of working on their sitcom, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams voiced their counterpart characters for the Saturday morning cartoon series, Laverne & Shirley in the Army which debuted on this day. Loosely based on two episodes of the original series, the girls decided to join the U.S. Army serving at Camp Filmore under the direction of Sgt. Squealy, a pig voiced by Ron Palillo. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon ran for two seasons on ABC.