Deaths, Disturbances, Disasters and Disorders in Chicago

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1871: The Great Chicago Fire



Photograph: Panoramic view looking east along Randolph Street toward the shell of the Court House and City Hall. The nearest cross street is Franklin, while the street at the extreme right corner is Market (now Wacker). Reconstruction is just beginning: a contractor's shack is in the middle ground, and several larger temporary store structures are under construction. Special Collections & Preservation Division CCW 1.115.

At about 9 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, 1871, a blaze began at 137 DeKoven Street on Chicago's West Side. By midnight the fire had jumped the river's south branch and less than 2 hours later the business district was in flames. Shortly thereafter the fire raced northward across the main river.

During Monday the fire burned as far as Fullerton Avenue. Rainfall which started about midnight helped put out the last of the flames. By that time 300 Chicagoans were dead, 90,000 homeless, and the property loss was $200 million.


Additional Resources
Prior to 1850
1812: Fort Dearborn Massacre
1837-41, 1857-58: Financial Panics
1849-1855, 1866-67: Early Cholera Epidemics
19th and Early 20th Century: Other Epidemic Diseases
1850 to 1899
1855, March-April: Lager Beer Riots
1863, November 3: Rush Street Bridge Collapse
1861-65: Civil War (The Great Rebellion)
1871, October 8-10: Great Chicago Fire
1886, May 4: Haymarket Tragedy
1890-1894: "H. H. Holmes", Serial Killer
1893: Death of Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr.
1894: Pullman Strike
1900 to 1949
1903, December 30: Iroquois Theater Fire
1909, January 20: Dunne (at 68th St) Water Crib Fire
1910, December 22-23: Chicago Stock Yards Fire
1915, July 24: Sinking of the Eastland
1915, 1916: Heat Waves
1917-1918: World War I (The Great War)
1918-19: Influenza Epidemic
1919 July 21: Dirigible (Balloon) Crash
1919: Race Riots
1929, February 14: St. Valentine's Day Massacre
1933: Death of Mayor Anton Cermak
1937, May 30: Memorial Day Incident, Strikers Killed at Republic Steel
1941-45: World War II
1950 to 2000
1950, May 25: Green Hornet Accident, Streetcar Collision with Gasoline Tanker
1955: Heat Wave
1958: Our Lady of Angels School Fire
1961, 1967: Tornados
1966-1977: Riots
1966: Homicide Epidemic Onset
1967, January 16: McCormick Place Fire
1967: Major Snow Storm
1968: Disturbances at the Democratic National Convention
1972, October 30: Illinois Central Gulf Commuter Train Crash
1972, December 8: Crash of United Flight 553 at Midway
1976, January 30: Wincrest Nursing Home Fire
1976: Death of Mayor Richard J. Daley
1977, February 4: El Crash
1979: Major Snowstorm
1979, May 25: American Airlines Flight 191
1981: AIDS Epidemic Onset
1987, November 25: Death Of Mayor Harold Washington
1992, April 13: Freight Tunnel Flood
1995: Heat Wave