"life and personality of Magellan and his eventual death in the Philippines in an attempt to convert the natives to Catholicism there. Manchester's argument is ultimately that Magellan's voyage was concurrent with and, on several levels, symptomatic of changing ways in which Renaissance people thought. ""A World Lit Only by Fire"" became a ""New York Times"" bestseller and was praised for its lively storytelling in some journalistic reviews. Ron Grossman of the ""Chicago Tribune"", for instance, wrote that ""by taking readers along on Magellan's voyage, Manchester provides them with easy access to a fascinating age when our modern mentality was"
"barn was the first building to be consumed by the fire. City officials never determined the exact cause of the blaze, but the rapid spread of the fire due to a long drought in the prior summer, strong winds from the southwest, and the rapid destruction of the water pumping system explain the extensive damage of the mainly wooden city structures. There has been much speculation over the years on a single start to the fire. The most popular tale blames Mrs. O'Leary's cow, who allegedly knocked over a lantern; others state that a group of men were gambling inside"
"of the lumber to rebuild Chicago. As a result, the area was so heavily deforested that the land deteriorated into barren sand dunes that buried the town, and the town had to be abandoned. Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the"
"building were destroyed, the bell tower of St. James Cathedral survived the fire and was incorporated into the rebuilt church. The stones near the top of the tower are still blackened from the soot and smoke. A couple of wooden cottages on North Cleveland Avenue also survived the blaze. Almost from the moment the fire broke out, various theories about its cause began to circulate. The most popular and enduring legend maintains that the fire began in the O'Leary barn, as Mrs. O’Leary was milking her cow. The cow kicked over a lantern (or an oil lamp in some versions),"
"few feet of the Larocque & Co. flour mills, which the Oregon City fire department saved from destruction. The ""Morning Oregonian"" had a somewhat different report, according to which the fire started about 10:00 p.m. on the Saturday before May 5, 1873, on board the ""Shoo Fly"", which, shortly after a light was observed coming from the boiler area, burst into flames. Within five minutes after the fire was first noticed, it had spread to the ""Alice"". Both boats were nearly consumed within ten minutes. The steamers had been moored next to the Imperial Mill building, and it had been"
"Port Huron Fire of 1871 The Port Huron Fire of Sunday October 8, 1871 (one of a series of fires known collectively as the Great Fire of 1871 or the Great Michigan Fire) burned a number of cities including White Rock and Port Huron, and much of the countryside in the ""Thumb"" region of the U.S. state of Michigan (a total of 1.2 million acres, or 4,850 km²). On the same day, other fires burned the cities of Holland and Manistee, Michigan, as well as broad swaths of forest in various areas of the state. At least 50 people died"
"erupted in Illinois, and the Peshtigo Fire burned a large tract in Wisconsin, including the city of Peshtigo. Windsor, Ontario met a similar fate four days later. Much of the area burned by the Port Huron Fire was swept by another deadly conflagration 10 years later, under similar conditions. Port Huron Fire of 1871 The Port Huron Fire of Sunday October 8, 1871 (one of a series of fires known collectively as the Great Fire of 1871 or the Great Michigan Fire) burned a number of cities including White Rock and Port Huron, and much of the countryside in the"
"Great Fire of 1873 The Great Fire of 1873 was a major fire which swept through the downtown of Portland, Oregon on August 2, 1873, destroying twenty-two blocks on the west side of the Willamette River, including along Yamhill and Morrison Streets. A mix of mansions, tenements, and commercial property were destroyed. Many businesses were not insured, and many others were only partially insured. At 4:20 am on morning of August 2, 1873 a fire started on First Street near Taylor, behind the Metropolitan Hotel. By 4:40 am, just twenty minutes after its start, the fire had spread a block"
"Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the city lead to a conflagration. The fire leapt the south branch of the Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago, and then leapt the main branch of the river consuming the near north"
"the east, the town of Holland, Michigan, and other nearby areas burned to the ground. Some to the north of Holland, the lumbering community of Manistee also went up in flames in what became known as The Great Michigan Fire. Farther east, along the shore of Lake Huron, the Port Huron Fire swept through Port Huron, Michigan and much of Michigan's ""Thumb"". On October 9, 1871, a fire swept through the city of Urbana, Illinois, south of Chicago, destroying portions of its downtown area. Windsor, Ontario, likewise burned on October 12. The city of Singapore, Michigan, provided a large portion"
"setting fire to the barn. The O'Leary family denied this, stating that they were in bed before the fire started, but stories of the cow began to spread across the city. Catherine O'Leary seemed the perfect scapegoat: she was a poor, Irish Catholic immigrant. During the latter half of the 19th century, anti-Irish sentiment was strong throughout the United States and in Chicago. This was intensified as a result of the growing political power of the city's Irish population. Furthermore, the United States had been distrustful of Catholics (or ""papists"", as they were often called) since its beginning, carrying over"
"a few weeks when (according to legend) Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern and set a barn ablaze. The Great Chicago Fire destroyed the entirety of the McCormick factory, along with most of Chicago. All of the office staff lost their homes, but most escaped with their lives. Spring along with wife Eugenia and teenage daughter Kittie, fled from the inferno to the shores of Lake Michigan, where they spent the night waist-deep in the water, dodging flaming pieces of debris. They passed the following two nights holed up in a nearby lighthouse. Within a few days, Spring and"
"Great Fire of 1892 The Great Fire of 8 July 1892 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador is remembered as the worst disaster ever to befall that city. Previous ""Great Fires"" had occurred in St. John's, during 1819 and 1846. At approximately 4:45 in the afternoon of July 8, 1892, a dropped pipe in Timothy O'Brien's stable, atop Carter's Hill on Freshwater Road, began what would become the worst fire in the history of St. John's. Initially, the fire did not cause any widespread panic; however, a series of catastrophic coincidences caused the fire to spread and devour virtually all"
"side. Help flowed to the city from near and far after the fire. The City of Chicago improved building codes to stop the rapid spread of fire, and re-built rapidly to those higher standards. A donation from the United Kingdom spurred the establishment of the Chicago Public Library, a free public library system, a contrast to the private, fee for membership libraries common before the fire. The fire started at about 9:00 p.m. on October 8, in or around a small barn belonging to the O'Leary family that bordered the alley behind 137 DeKoven Street. The shed next to the"
"a large percentage of the city, an event known as the Great Chicago Fire. After the Great Fire, ""Chicago Tribune"" reporter Michael Ahern published a claim that the fire had started when a cow kicked over a lantern while it was being milked. The owner was not named, but Catherine O'Leary was soon identified, since the fire had begun in her family's barn. Illustrations and caricatures soon appeared depicting Mrs. O'Leary with her cow. The idea captured the popular imagination and is still widely circulated even today. However, in 1893 Ahern finally admitted he had made the story up. The"
"ran across northern Harrison County at Crandall, and remained open to passenger traffic until 1996. As of 2008, the line was owned by Lucas Oil. A major fire broke out in 1871, in which the Kintner House Tavern was destroyed, along with the entire block from Cherry to Beaver Streets. The county jail also burned in the blaze. A second major fire broke out in Corydon on April 20, 1883, in the west end of Corydon; seven businesses, stables, and multiple homes were destroyed. The fire would have spread further, but it slowed as it spread through a lumber yard"
"the city's east end. Two people died in the fire. Ten thousand people were made homeless and 1,800 buildings were burned to the ground. This included the federal Exchange Building by which was replaced with the custom house. Soon after the fire, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described his old home town: ""Desolation! Desolation! Desolation! It reminds me of Pompeii, the 'sepult city'."" 1866 Great fire of Portland, Maine The great fire of Portland, Maine sometimes known as the 1866 Great fire of Portland in Maine occurred on July 4, 1866—the first Independence Day after the end of the American Civil"
"The Great Fire (children's novel) The Great Fire is a story for children and young adults, written by Jim Murphy about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which caused the destruction of most of the city of Chicago. ""The Great Fire"" was a Newbery medal honor book in 1996. The novel ""The Great Fire"" is about the great fire that happened in Chicago. The huge fire started in the O'Learys' barnyard and lasted for thirty hours. Daniel ""Pegleg"" Sullivan was the first to notice the fire and ran to save the cows in the barn and to tell the O'Learys"
"8, 1871, news of this, one of the worst conflagrations to ever strike an American city, reached company officials Henry Willing and Levi Leiter, who decided to load as much of their expensive merchandise as possible onto wagons and take it to Leiter's home, which was out of the path of the fire. The Company's drivers and teams were ordered out of the barns. Horace B. Parker, a young salesman, rushed to the store's basement, broke up boxes, and built a fire in the furnace boiler so that the steam-powered elevators could be operated. These employees worked feverishly through the"
"for Burke's resignation, Burke sponsored a resolution exonerating Kate O'Leary and her cow Daisy of culpability for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The resolution cited research blaming the fire on an O'Leary neighbor, Daniel ""Peg Leg"" Sullivan. Burke argued in favor of passage of the resolution, In 1871, journalists, eager to sensationalize the events of the Great Fire, were quick to find in Mrs. Kate O'Leary an easy scapegoat for the calamitous inferno. As a working-class immigrant and a woman, Kate O'Leary was an easy target for those publications who always found it comfortable to vilify Irish Catholics who"
"Great Michigan Fire The Great Michigan Fire was a series of simultaneous forest fires in the state of Michigan in the United States in 1871. They were possibly caused (or at least reinforced) by the same winds that fanned the Great Chicago Fire; some believe lightning or even meteor showers may have started the fires. Several cities, towns and villages, including Alpena, Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron, suffered serious damage or were lost. The concurrent Great Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin also destroyed several towns in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In 1881, much more than half of ""the Thumb"" region"
"1861 Tooley Street fire The 1861 Tooley Street fire, also called the Great Fire of Tooley Street, started in Cotton's Wharf on Tooley Street, London, England, on 22 June 1861. The fire caused £2million worth of damage, and during the fire, James Braidwood, superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment, was killed. The fire started at Cotton's Wharf on Tooley Street, near to St Olave's Church, Southwark, London. The wharf was around , and contained around 5,000 tons of rice, 10,000 barrels of tallow, 1,000 tons of hemp, 1,100 tons of jute, 3,000 tons of sugar and 18,000 bales of"
"1866 Great fire of Portland, Maine The great fire of Portland, Maine sometimes known as the 1866 Great fire of Portland in Maine occurred on July 4, 1866—the first Independence Day after the end of the American Civil War. Five years before the Great Chicago Fire, this was the greatest fire yet seen in an American city. It started in a boat house on Commercial Street, likely caused by a firecracker or a cigar ash. The fire spread to a lumber yard and on to a sugar house, then spread across the city, eventually burning out on Munjoy Hill in"
"Annie McLaughlin, whose family lived next to the O'Learys at the time of the fire. They were the parents of two sons and three daughters. James Patrick O'Leary died in Chicago of natural causes at the age of 56 on January 23, 1925. James Patrick O'Leary James Patrick O'Leary (1869 – January 23, 1925) was a gambling boss and saloon owner in Chicago. His parents were Patrick and Catherine O'Leary, in whose barn the Great Chicago Fire is alleged to have begun. O'Leary was born at 137 DeKoven Street, the house his family lived in and where the Great Chicago"
"to east. A build-up of slash from loggers had not been burned off properly in the preceding two summers. On September 8 a fire was started by boys trying to burn a nest of hornets near Eagle Creek, Oregon. Other large fires there occurred independently or combined with other fires started soon thereafter, including one started by a locomotive in Dodson, Oregon. Other accounts cite lightning as the genesis of the fire as well as careless campers and berry pickers, hunters, and loggers cutting slash. The fire spread rapidly, extending from Bridal Veil, Oregon to Cascade Locks, Oregon before burning"
"with the fire. Mrs O'Leary's son James Patrick did achieve success as a gambler and saloon owner comparable to that of Dion in the film. The film was released and restored to its full length on DVD in 2005. In Old Chicago In Old Chicago is a 1938 American drama film directed by Henry King. The screenplay by Sonya Levien and Lamar Trotti was based on the Niven Busch story, ""We the O'Learys"". The film is a fictionalized account about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and stars Alice Brady as Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of the cow which started"
"reference to a local Menominee band known as ""Pesh-tiko"". On October 8, 1871, a forest fire driven by strong winds totally consumed Peshtigo and a dozen other villages, killing between 1,200 and 2,500 people and engulfing approximately 1.5 million acres (6,000 km²). This fire, known as the Peshtigo Fire, was the deadliest in American history. Unidentifiable remains of hundreds of residents were buried in a mass grave at the Peshtigo Fire Cemetery. The Peshtigo Fire Museum features several items that survived the fire, plus other artifacts from the area's history. This fire happened on the same day as the Great"
"Batestown became a part of the city of Troy. Lansingburgh was visited by its first serious fire Sunday, July 9, 1843, when nearly two entire blocks in the central part of the village were destroyed. The fire originated about 4 P. M. in the stables of the Rensselaer house and spread with great rapidity. The fire companies of Troy, Cohoes and Waterford responded to the call for assistance and their presence doubtless prevented the flames from destroying the entire village. About twenty five buildings were totally destroyed and several others damaged. The burned area was located between State and Congress"
"village. The fire of April 1848 destroyed the entire business district. With no facilities for extinguishing fires, the residents attempted to put out the fire using a bucket brigade, but to no avail, as the fire burned for four hours. None of the town's 1,159 residents perished from the fire, but the townspeople failed to budget for the needed firefighting equipment and in April 1870, another large fire, which started in a wooden building with a barber shop, destroyed 45 buildings (all but two blocks of the business district), and nearly wiped out the entire town. Despite the second calamitous"
"and right the wrong done to Smith by awarding him a posthumous commission as a second lieutenant. From October 8, 1871 to October 10 a devastating fire burned and destroyed much of Chicago, killing hundreds of people and causing $200,000,000 in damages (nearly $4 billion in 2018). Over 100,000 citizens were left destitute and homeless. Belknap took prompt action on October 9, ordering food sent from St. Louis, tents from Jefferson Barracks, and two companies of troops from Fort Omaha to help keep peace and order. On October 10, Belknap in writing a dispatch to Lt. General Philip Sheridan stated"
"woods of Wisconsin, leaving piles of sawdust and branches as they produced lumber and wood products. The night of October 8, 1871, a firestorm began near Peshtigo, Wisconsin that spread through the woods and towns, consuming everything in its path. Unable to outrun the flames, nearly 2,000 people died in the inferno. Some people assume that, driven by strong winds, the conflagration leaped across Green Bay of Lake Michigan and began burning huge sections of the Door Peninsula. When the firestorm – of whatever origin – threatened the Chapel, Adele Brise refused to leave and instead organized a procession to"
"Montreal, Detroit, and New England. On October 25, 1872, ""The New York Times"" reported on the extent of the outbreak, claiming that nearly all public stables in the city had been affected, and that the majority of the horses owned in the private sector had essentially been rendered useless to their owners. Only days later, the ""Times"" went on to report that 95% of all horses in Rochester, New York, had been affected, while the disease was also making its way quickly through the state of Maine and had already affected all fire horses in the city of Providence, Rhode"
"the great fire of October, 1871: ""On Sunday, October 8, a collection was taken in the church for the benefit of the sufferers from a severe conflagration which had visited the West Side on Saturday night. It was Communion Sunday; none realized that it was the last one in the old church, around which so many precious memories clustered. That night a fire broke out in the West Division, crossed to the South Side, and then to the North, destroying a large portion of the city. Early on Monday morning, our beautiful church home, as well as its beautiful chapel"