TODAY IN HISTORY (8th October)

Great Chicago Fire begins, 1871

American Revolution

Continentals raid Unadilla, 1778

Automotive

Frank Duryea, winner of the first American "horseless carriage" race, is born, 1869

Civil War

Union troops stop Rebels at the Battle of Perryville, 1862

Cold War

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in literature, 1970

Crime

Self-help guru's sweat lodge ceremony turns deadly, 2009

Disaster

Fire rips through Chicago, 1871

General Interest

First transcontinental air race, 1919

Che Guevara defeated, 1967

Massive earthquake hits Kashmir region, 2005

Hollywood

Matt Damon born, 1970

Literary

Lord Peter Wimsey marries Harriet Vane, 1937

Music

Jerry Lee Lewis records "Great Balls Of Fire" in Memphis, Tennessee, 1957

Old West

The Great Fire destroys much of Chicago, 1871

Presidential

U.S. House of Representatives initiates Clinton impeachment inquiry, 1998

Sports

Don Larsen is perfect in World Series, 1956

Vietnam War

U.S. and South Vietnamese navies commence Operation Sealords, 1968

Communists reject Nixon's peace proposal, 1970

Possible breakthrough at Paris peace talks, 1972

World War I

U.S. soldier Alvin York displays heroics at Argonne, 1918

World War II

Germans overrun Mariupol, in southern Russia, 1941