8 th October

1838 John Hay was born.

1871 The Great Chicago Fire started. (Celebrated as the start of Fire Prevention Week)

1941 The Reverend Jesse Jackson was born.

Let us pause for a moment to remember Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. That bovine supposedly kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary bam on this day in 1871, and started the Great Chicago Fire. In sixteen hours, 3.5 squares miles of that growing city was razed to the ground.

John Hay combined a distinguished diplomatic career with an equally distinguished career as a poet and author. Since he was born on this day in 1838, We are reminded of some of his more famous maxims. For example, he once wrote: “Who would succeed in the world should be wise in the use of his pronouns. Utter the you twenty times where you once utter the I.” He wrote something else which is very good advice for anyone tempted to stay too long at the fair. “True luck,” he said, “consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.”

America’s first African-American presidential candidate was born in Greenville, South Carolina on this day in 1941. During the 1960s civil-rights movement, Jesse Jackson

Was asked by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to head the Chicago branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Council’s economic arm—Operation Breadbasket. Jackson quickly became the project’s national director. He had convinced African - American businesses to supply employment for young people and to feature African - American products in key neighborhoods. In 1968, Jackson was ordained as a Baptist minister at the Chicago Theological Seminary. And three years later, Jackson headed Operation PUSH which was dedicated to combating racism, and promoting scholarship and hard work among youth. In 1983, he became the nation’s first African-American Presidential candidate; and although he didn’t win the election, Jackson made his point to the entire world.