There were two great fires on this day, in the same year. One is famous, the other was far more destructive but didn't have a good story behind it. The story about Mrs O'Leary's cow kicking over the lamp is certainly possible but not supported by contemporary records, although the fire did start in the cowshed behind the O'Leary home. Due to the direction of the fierce winds, Mrs O'Leary had a place to sleep that night while 17,400 other buildings were lost. It had been a dry year, only five inches of rain had fallen since July. When the winds blew the Peshtigo fire the same night it burned across six counties.
The primary creed of the Christian church was basically completed at a conference that opened on this day, and the most important holy day of the Jewish faith begins at sundown tonight.
Sergeant York made his name (and got his promotion) based on an amazing performance in the Argonne Forest during World War I, Peru celebrates a holiday based on a battle that they lost against great odds, and Ozzie and Harriet were married.
Americans have learned to appreciate a fiery style of cooking called Cajun over the last several years, and it's all because a British colonial governor didn't trust the French settlers in Nova Scotia. The Acadians were hard working farmers and fishermen that really didn't want anything to do with the battles between the French and the English, they had settled in North America a century before. The British demanded a loyalty oath and scattered the Acadians, many of whom ended up in Louisiana and were called Cajuns.
451 - The Council of Chalcedon opened, near Constantinople. Dealing mainly with the Eutychian Christological heresy relating to the human and divine nature of Jesus, the council modified the Nicene Creed originally drafted at Nicaea in 325 and modified at Constantinople in 384 to the form in use by much of the Christian church today. (The phrase "and the Son" relating to the source of the Holy Spirit has been added and deleted in various disputes since then.)
1755 - Charles Lawrence, British governor of Nova Scotia, saw the French settlers in Acadia as a security risk and ordered them deported if they would not sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to the English crown. Of the 10,000 in the area, 8,000 were expelled over the next six years, as recorded in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem "Evangeline."
1871 - More than a million acres near Peshtigo, Wisconsin were destroyed by fire, 1200 people died. The previous winter had a low snowpack, the summer had little rain, the village was destroyed within an hour of the first sign. Some survivors spent the evening and into the next morning submerged in the Peshtigo River with flames filling the air above them.
1871 - Fire broke out about 9 pm in the cowshed behind the O'Leary home on DeKoven Street in Chicago, a dispatcher sounded the fire alarm almost a mile away from the site, by the time fire crews were at the right location the fire was out of control. In 29 hours a third of the city was homeless, all the theaters, stores, and newspapers were gone, most hotels including the Palmer House, 20 churches, and ships in the Chicago River were burned. About 300 people died, property damage was calculated at $192 million.
1918 - During the battle for the Argonne Forest in France, Corporal Alvin C. York of the 328th Infantry personally killed at least 25 Germans and, with the remains of his battalion, marched 132 German prisoners back through the German front line into the American camp. He was promoted to sergeant and given the Distinguised Service Cross (and the Medal of Honor a year later), the French Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor, the Italian Croce di Guerra, and the War Medal of Montenegro.
1935 - Bandleader Ozzie Nelson married the would-be actress Harriet Hilliard who had been singing in his popular band for three years. Nine years later, also on this date, the first radio broadcast of "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" was broadcast on the CBS network.
Combat of Angamos, Peru - Commemorates the heroic defeat of Peru's only ironclad, the Huascar, by a Chilean force with three times the ships and over five times the gunnery. The battle took place off Punta Angamos in 1879, both Admiral Miguel Grau and Captain Elias Aguirre died before the Huascar surrendered.
Yom Kippur, The most holy day of the Jewish year, begins at sundown today and lasts until sundown tomorrow. Jews fast throughout the observance and ask forgiveness of their sins against God. The observance begins with the chanting of the Kol Nidre ("All Vows") prayer and ends with the blowing of the shofer, or ram's horn, which is symbolic of reaching out to new insights and more meaningful living. According to ancient tradition the Book of Life is closed at the end of Yom Kippur, determining who will live for the next year.
The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns your self more than him.
- Chinese proverb
We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to
the fire.
- Eric Hoffer
Let me leap out of the frying-pan into the fire; or, out of God's blessing
into the warm sun.
- Miguel de Cervantes
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can
one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in
to his neighbor's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
- Proverbs 6:27-29
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