At about nine o’clock at night, a fire starts in the O’Leary barn, on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. Because of the ongoing drought, and most buildings being built of wood, the fire jumps the two branches of the Chicago River and spreads throughout the entire city.
Postscript: The Great Fire lasted for a week, destroyed 196,000,000 Dollars worth of property, left 90,000 homeless, and claimed 300 lives.
NOTE: No one gave a thought that the federal government was responsible for disaster relief.
[restored 5/7/2022]
Subsequent Events:
References:
Calvin D. Linton, ed., The Bicentennial Almanac: 200 Years of America, 1776-1976, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1975), 202-03.
Great Chicago Fire – Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire
Current U.s. National Debt:
