The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about 3.3 square miles (9 km2) in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S. disasters of the 19th century, the rebuilding that began helped develop Chicago as one of the most populous and economically important American cities.
On the flag of Chicago, the second star commemorates the fire. The exact cause was never determined. The popular account dreamed up by a reporter, attributing it to Mrs. Catherine O'Leary and her cow, survived his confession of fiction in 1893.
Read more about Great Chicago Fire: Origin, Spread of The Blaze, After The Fire, Questions About The Fire, Surviving Structures, Related Events, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words chicago and/or fire:
“Must we really see Chicago in order to be educated?”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Forty years after a battle it is easy for a noncombatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to have to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)