Browsing: October 8

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on October 8th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On October 8, 1480, Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, stood up to the Tatars led by Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, the successor to the “Golden Horde,” in an epic stand known as the “Great Stand on the Ugra River,” one of the high points of Russian military history. On October 8, 1806, British forces fighting the French at Boulogne employed…

A Brief History On October 8, 1982, actor Fernando Lamas died, probably best remembered for the Billy Crystal impression saying the phrase, “You look marvelous!”  Many other actors and celebrities have been attributed quotations they did not really say, and today we look at a few of those. Digging Deeper PT Barnum, showman and huckster, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Julius Caesar, Roman dictator, “Et tu, Brute?” Albert Einstein, physicist and genius, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” Greta Garbo, actress, “I vant to be alone…”…

A Brief History On October 8, 1480, Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, stood up to the Tatars led by Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, the successor to the “Golden Horde,” in an epic stand known as the “Great Stand on the Ugra River,” one of the high points of Russian military history.  This great battle occurred before Russia was a unified country or group of countries led by a single monarch which came to be known as the Czar or Tsar, a Russian adaptation of the Roman title “Caesar.”  (Note: The Germans also appropriated the title of Caesar…

A Brief History On October 8, 1918, 2nd Lt. Ralph Talbot of Massachusetts earned the coveted Medal of Honor, the highest American military honor.  Talbot was the first US Marine Corps aviator to be so honored. Digging Deeper Born in 1897 in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, Talbot was both an excellent student and a natural athlete.  After high school he attended Mercersburg Academy (Pennsylvania), a college preparatory school, and then went on to Yale University.  While at Yale, Talbot attended flying school in Delaware, and served in the Artillery Training Corps at Yale, somewhat similar to today’s ROTC. A Patriotic American,…

A Brief History On October 8, 1871, the shores of Lake Michigan were the scene of four major fires, including the Great Chicago Fire, perhaps the most famous fire in American History. (Other fires took place in Manistee, Michigan and Holland, Michigan.) Unfortunately, on that same day, the Peshtigo Fire in the woods around Peshtigo, Wisconsin also occurred, killing between 1500 and 2500 people! This death total, even the lower estimate, makes this the deadliest wildfire in history, and the deadliest fire of any type in American history. In addition to these 4 fires, there was other unrelated fires the…