Birds on the Brain

pbsthisdayinhistory:

October 8, 1871: The Great Chicago Fire

On this day in 1871, a fire broke out in a barn in Chicago, spreading rapidly due to winds from nearby prairies. The fire eventually consumed a four-mile-long and two-third-mile-wide area of Chicago.

When the Great Fire was finally extinguished two days later, nearly 300 people were dead, one hundred thousand were homeless and the downtown area was burned to ashes. Fortunately, much of Chicago’s essential industrial infrastructure was unharmed, and Chicago quickly regained its status as the economic center of the American West.

To learn more about The Great Chicago Fire and its effects on the city, explore Chicago: City of the Century.

Photo: Library of Congress