| 876 |
|
Charles the Bald is defeated at the Battle of Andernach. |
| 1690 |
|
Belgrade is retaken by the Turks. |
| 1840 |
|
King William I of Holland abdicates. |
| 1855 |
|
Arrow, a ship flying the British flag, is boarded by Chinese who arrest the crew, thus beginning the Second Chinese War. |
| 1862 |
|
The Union is victorious at the Battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War combat to take place in Kentucky. |
| 1871 |
|
The Great Chicago Fire begins in southwest Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O’Leary. Fanned by strong southwesterly winds, the flames raged for more than 24 hours, eventually leveling three and a half square miles and wiping out one-third of the city. Approximately 250 people were killed in the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were destroyed. |
| 1897 |
|
Journalist Charles Henry Dow, founder of the Wall Street Journal, begins charting trends of stocks and bonds. |
| 1900 |
|
Maximilian Harden is sentenced to six months in prison for publishing an article critical of the German Kaiser. |
| 1906 |
|
Karl Ludwig Nessler first demonstrates a machine in London that puts permenant waves in hair. The client wears a dozen brass curlers, each wearing two pounds, for the six-hour process. |
| 1919 |
|
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pass the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement Bill. |
| 1922 |
|
Lilian Gatlin becomes the first woman pilot to fly across the United States. |
| 1956 |
|
Don Larson of the New York Yankees pitched the first perfect game in World Series history against the Brooklyn Dodgers. |
| 1968 |
|
U.S. forces in Vietnam launch Operation Sealord, an attack on North Vietnamese supply lines and base areas. |
|
Born on October 8 |
| 1810 |
|
James Wilson Marshall, discoverer of gold in California. |
| 1890 |
|
Eddie Rickenbacker, U.S. fighter pilot in World War I, aviation pioneer. |
| 1895 |
|
Juan Peron, Argentinean dictator. |
| 1917 |
|
Rodney Porter, British biochemist and Nobel Proze winner. |
| 1926 |
|
Cesar Milstein, molecular biologist. |
| 1941 |
|
Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader. |
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