CAMILLE BOHANNON

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996)

The Our Lady of Angels School was operated by the Sisters of Charity in
Chicago. In 1958, there were well over 1,200 students enrolled at the school,
which occupied a large, old building. Unfortunately, little in the way of fire prevention was done before December 1958. The building did not have any sprinklers and no regular preparatory drills were conducted. When a small
fire broke out in a pile of trash in the basement, it led to disaster on this
day in 1958.

The fire probably began about 2:30 p.m. and, within minutes, teachers on
the first floor smelled it. These teachers led their classes outside, but did
not sound a general alarm. The school’s janitor discovered the fire at 2:42
and shouted for the alarm to be rung. However, he was either not heard or
the alarm system did not operate properly, and the students in classrooms
on the second floor were completely unaware of the rapidly spreading
flames beneath them.

It took only a few more minutes for the fire to reach the second floor where
panic ensued.

When the fire was finally extinguished several hours later, the authorities
found that 90 students and 3 nuns had been killed in the fire.

Panicked parents raced to Our Lady of the Angels from all over
the city, and the police soon had to set up barriers to restrain
the anxious crowd of about 5,000 parents and onlookers.

Officials inspect a classroom after the 1958 fire at Our Lady of the
Angels School.

Flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, igniting
a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450
buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless and causes an estimated $200 million
(in 1871 dollars; $3 billion in 2007 dollars) in damages.

Legend has it that a cow kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary barn and started
the fire, but other theories hold that humans or even a comet may have been responsible for the event that left four square miles of the Windy City and its
business district in ruins.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

The Japanese surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri.

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (center) signs
the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, Gen. Richard K. Sutherland
(left) observes.

Japan surrendered to the U.S. aboard the USS Missouri, ending
World War II. The war ended six years and one day after it began.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur signs the Japanese surrender document.

President Harry S. Truman proclaiming this day in 1945 as V-J Day.

During the War of 1812 between the United States and England, British troops
enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the
American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1812.

When the British arrived at the White House, they found that President James Madison and his first lady Dolley had already fled to safety in Maryland.

Soldiers reportedly sat down to eat a meal made of leftover food from the
White House scullery using White House dishes and silver before ransacking
the presidential mansion and setting it ablaze.

James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751– June 28, 1836)

Remains of the White House after the fire of 1814.