On this day in history - October 8

What Happened On This Day – October 8

• 1956 The first perfect game in Major League Baseball World Series

  New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitched the only no-hitter game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the history of the World Series.

• 1948 World’s first internal pacemaker implanted

  A 43-year-old man called Arne Larsson was the recipient of the pacemaker which worked only for a few hours. However, Larsson lived long after the pacemaker stopped working. He died in 2001 at the age of 86.

• 1919 World’s first transcontinental air race

  63 airplanes – 15 from San Francisco and 48 from New York – took part in this 5400-mile round-trip race. The winner, Lieutenant Belvin Maynard, took 3 days and 21 hours to return to New York.

• 1912 First Balkan war begins

  Montenegro started the conflict by declaring war on the Ottoman Empire. A few days later Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia joined the war and created the Balkan League. The 7-month long war ended with a decisive Balkan League victory. Dissatisfaction over the spoils of the war led to the Second Balkan War a year later.

• 1871 Great Chicago fire begins

  The fire that destroyed most of Chicago’s business district began in a barn on the evening of October 8, 1871. A very dry summer and an early autumn fanned the fire, which raged for 2 days. It killed over 300 people and destroyed property worth millions of dollars.