On Oct. 8, 1956, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees (above) threw
the only perfect game in World Series history. “I was so happy. I felt
like crying,” he tells reporters after New York’s 2-0 win in Game 5
over the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Yankees went on to win the World
Series in seven games.

By 1956, Larsen had pitched for three teams in four seasons, the
low point being his 3-21 won-loss record with the lowly Baltimore
Orioles in 1954. Although he settled down in New York—he was a
combined 20-7 in 1955 and 1956—Larsen did not pitch well in
Game 2 of the 1956 Series. In the second inning at Ebbets Field,
the Dodgers knocked Larsen from the game in their 13-8 win.

Larsen didn’t know he would start Game 5 three days later until he
found a fresh baseball in one of his cleats in the locker room—that
was Yankees manager Casey Stengel’s way of telling a pitcher
that it was his day to pitch.

Don James Larsen (August 7, 1929 – January 1, 2020)

On October 8, 1871, flames sparked 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;
roughly $4 billion in 2021 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, including its business district, in ruins.

Dry weather and an abundance of wooden buildings, streets and
sidewalks made Chicago vulnerable to fire. The city averaged two
fires per day in 1870; there were 20 fires throughout Chicago the
week before the Great Fire of 1871.

A sketch of the Zodiac Killer is compared to Gary Poste.
(Courtesy of The Case Breakers). 

(Fox News) – A team of specialists who investigate cold cases says
it has identified the Zodiac Killer, one of America’s most prolific
serial murderers who terrorized communities in the San Francisco
area in the late 1960s with a series of brutal slayings and riddles 
that went unsolvable.

The Case Breakers identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who passed away in 2018. The team’s years of digging uncovered
new forensic evidence and photos from Poste’s darkroom. The team
said one image features scars on the forehead of Poste that match
scars on a sketch of the Zodiac (below).

From left: Chet Huntley (December 10, 1911 – March 20, 1974).
David Brinkley (July 10, 1920 – June 11, 2003).

The Huntley–Brinkley Report (sometimes known as The Texaco
Huntley–Brinkley Report for one of its early sponsors) was a
evening news program that aired on NBC from October 29, 1956,
to July 31, 1970. It was anchored by Chet Huntley in New York
City, and David Brinkley in Washington, D.C. It succeeded the
Camel News Caravan, anchored by John Cameron Swayze. The
program ran for 15 minutes at its inception but expanded to 30
minutes on September 9, 1963, exactly a week after the CBS
Evening News with Walter Cronkite did so. (From Wikipedia)

David Brinkley on the Washington Studio set.

1960

Chet Huntley in New York.

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Alan Kalter, the quirky, red-headed
announcer for David Letterman for two decades who frequently
appeared in the show’s comedy bits, has died.

Kalter passed Monday at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut with
his wife, Peggy, and their two daughters at his side. The cause
of death was not announced.