October 5 in history — On This Day

A photograph taken after the 1871 fire can make Chicago look as though its future had been decided by a wall of flame. A view from around 1905 tells a different story: tall offices, busy transport routes and commercial streets crowded again.

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Melbourne’s Herald appears for the last time as a separate paper

Also on October 5

Chilean voters reject another term for Pinochet

The FLQ kidnaps James Cross in Montréal

Louis XI makes concessions at Conflans

This Week in History

Jamal Khashoggi is killed in Istanbul

Catalonia holds a disputed independence referendum

Nadine Gordimer is named Nobel literature laureate

East and West Germany reunify

AI History Recreations

Politics

Chilean voters reject another term for Pinochet

War & Conflict

Poland’s final organized resistance at Kock ends

Space

Discovery launches with the Ulysses probe

Technology

USS Nautilus Enters Commission

History

Melbourne’s Herald appears for the last time as a separate paper

Stanislav Petrov Assesses a False Nuclear Alarm

China Conducts Its First Nuclear Test

Crime & Justice

Al Capone’s Tax Verdict: The Document Behind the Downfall

Tombstone’s Gunfight: The Event Behind the O.K. Corral Legend

France uses the guillotine for the last time

Science

Mayor and Queloz announce a planet around 51 Pegasi

William Lassell discovers Neptune’s moon Triton

Eight People Entered Biosphere 2

Medicine & Health

An electron microscope reveals the shape of Ebola virus

Ether Day: The Demonstration That Changed Surgery

Surgeons Perform the First Partial Face Transplant

Nature & Disasters

Loma Prieta: The Earthquake That Shook the Bay Area

Aberfan: A Mining Waste Tip Collapses Onto a Village

The Lisbon Earthquake and the Destruction of a Capital

Exploration

Cabrillo Enters San Diego Bay

Stanley Meets Livingstone at Ujiji

Abel Tasman's Expedition Reaches Tasmania

Sport

Don Larsen’s Perfect Game: No Hits, No Walks, No Baserunners

Reggie Jackson’s Three Home Runs Seal a World Series

Muhammad Ali Wins the Rumble in the Jungle

Art & Literature

Annie Ernaux is named Nobel literature laureate

Nadine Gordimer is named Nobel literature laureate

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in Literature

Music

Peri’s Euridice is performed in Florence

The Phantom of the Opera opens in London

Mahler’s Eighth Symphony premieres in Munich

Film & TV

Thomas the Tank Engine makes his British television debut

A Four-Page Contract Starts the Disney Studio

The first completed Cannes Film Festival opens

The Story Behind the Photo

Chicago After the Fire: From Burned Blocks to a New Skyline

Collections

The Road to the Moon

Fires That Changed Cities

The Age of Invention

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