Today is October 8th, the 281st day of the year, but what happened today in history?
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire began, destroying roughly 3.3 square miles (9 square kilometers) of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 100,000 people homeless. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the fire started in or around a small barn owned by the O’Leary family that bordered an alley near 137 W. The popular tale that people believed for the cause of fire was with the popular legend with Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, who kicked over a lantern while Catherine O’Leary was milking it, but its largely considered a myth. Another legend was with Daniel Sullivan, a neighbor who first reported the fire, suggesting he might have dropped his own cigar or lantern. The cause of the fire is widely speculated, but the fire spread so quickly do a number of factors including structures like sidewalks, buildings, and streets were made out of wood, a severe drought in the months leading up to the fire create extremely dry conditions, a strong southwest wind fanned over the city which allowed the fire to spread deeper into the city, and the city’s fire department was overworked and potentially hindered by a faulty fire-system. The fire engulfed the city in flames, but it ended on October 10th, 1871. The fire killed 300 people and took 2 years to build Chicago back up again, this is known as the “Great Rebuilding”.
In 1918, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York reportedly kills more than 20 Germans and captures an additional 132 at the head of the small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. He later received a Medal of Honor for his service. In 1917, when the United States entered World War 1, York was drafted into the United States Army. York was enlisted into the 82nd Infantry Division and in May 1918, he arrived in France and fought on the Western Front. He served in a successful Saint-Mihiel offensive in September of that year, and was promoted to corporal and command and his own squad. He was a part of the final Allied push against German forces on the Western Front on October 8th, 1918. Germans were stationed at a machine-gun nest and fired up on the 17 American troops, killing 9 in the process. Several soldiers followed the commands of York and 90 Germans surrendered to York’s forces. On his way back to the Allied lines, York and his squad took more prisoners, for a total of 132 men. He was promoted to sergeant and remained on the front lines until November 1st.
In 1945, Raytheon Manufacturing Company filed a patient for the microwave. The inventor named Percy Spencer invented the microwave when playing with a magnetron. He found that the microwave radiation emitted melted the peanut and caramel-filled chocolate bar in his pocket. He tried other consumables like unpopped popcorn, cold food, and water. He discovered that the microwaves could reheat them through materials like wax paper, plastic, and glass. He created a machine that could be used by people and got the patent for Raytheon on January 24th, 1950. By 1975, the microwave was in more homes than the gas-powered stove.
