October 7
The most devastating fire in United States history is ignited in Wisconsin. Over the course of the next day, 1,200 individuals lose their lives and 2 billion trees were consumed by flames. – 1871.
A U.S.-led coalition begins attacks on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with an intense bombing campaign by American and British forces. The invasion of Afghanistan was the opening salvo in the president George W. Bush-led United States war on terrorism and a response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. East Coast. – 2001.
October 8
Flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary and ignite a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 residents, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless, and causes an estimated $200 million, equivalent of $3.8 billion in today’s dollars, in damages. – 1871.
A massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes the Kashmir border region between India and Pakistan. An estimated 70,000 persons were killed and 70,000 more were injured. More than three million were left homeless and damages exceeded $5 billion. – 2005.
The U.S. House of Representatives votes to proceed toward impeaching president Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in alleged involvement in several scandals, including allegedly improper Arkansas real-estate deals, suspected fundraising violations, claims of sexual harassment, and accusations of cronyism involving the firing of White House travel agents. – 1998.
October 9
Harnessing the power of the mighty Colorado River, Hoover Dam begins to send electricity over transmission lines spanning 266 miles to Los Angeles. – 1936.
Some 3,300 sanitation workers who work for private haulers in Chicago win a nine-day strike featuring a 28% wage increase over five years. – 2003.
October 10
Six days into a cotton field strike by 18,000 Mexican and Mexican-American workers in Pixley, Calif., four strikers are killed and six wounded; eight growers were indicted and charged with murder. – 1933.
A former U.S. postal worker kills his former supervisor with a three-foot samurai sword, shoots the supervisor’s fiance, and shoots two former co-workers to death at the post office in Ridgewood, N.J.. His violent outburst was one of several high-profile attacks by postal workers that resulted in the addition of the phrase “going postal” to the American lexicon. – 1994.
October 11
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” – 2002.
October 12
After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sees a Bahamian island, and thinks he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. -1492.
Bavarian Crown Prince Louis, later King Louis I of Bavaria, marries Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The Bavarian royalty invited the citizens of Munich to attend the festivities, and the decision to repeat the festivities in the subsequent year gave rise to the tradition of the annual Oktoberfest, – 1810.
More than one million Canadian workers demonstrate against wage controls. – 1976.
Three bombings shatter the peace in the town of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The blasts, the work of militant Islamist terrorists, left 202 dead and more than 200 injured, many with severe burns. – 2002.
October 13
The cornerstone is laid for a presidential residence in the newly-designated capital city of Washington. In 1800, president John Adams became the first president to reside in the executive mansion, which soon became known as the White House because its white-gray Virginia freestone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings. – 1792.
More than 1,100 office workers strike Columbia University in New York City. The mostly female and minority workers win union recognition and pay increases. – 1985.
The last of 33 miners trapped nearly a half-mile underground for more than two months at a caved-in mine in northern Chile, are rescued. The miners survived longer than anyone else trapped underground in recorded history. – 2010.