You've surely heard the story of the Great Chicago Fire (which wasn't really started by a cow). Strangely though, the fire really wasn't that big—at least when compared to many of the others that broke out on that same terrible night of October 8, 1871. The story you probably haven't heard is how that 24-hour period was the most fire-ridden day in American history. The same day as the Great Chicago Fire, another blaze, the Peshtigo Fire, was burning throughout rural Wisconsin. The Peshtigo Fire may... READ ON

Yesterday Levon Helm, the multi-instrumentalist best known as the singer and drummer for The Band, died after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 71. Helm was a southern gentleman, owner of one of rock and roll’s all-time great beards, easily the genre’s best singing drummer and, as Esquire’s Charles Pierce wrote, the “real voice of America”: “I wanted to thank him for the way he sang, and for the throb of his drums, and for the way he helped point the way home for all of us who... READ ON

Clement Laird Vallandigham was never a household name, but during the era of the Civil War, he led an interesting and amazing life that ended abruptly and bizarrely. Over the course of his career, Vallandigham edited the Dayton Empire, practiced law, served as a brigadier general in the Ohio militia, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In Congress, he earned a reputation as an aggressive states-rights advocate and earned the nickname “wily agitator” from Abraham Lincoln. In... READ ON

John Cazale passed away on this date in 1978. His brief stay in Hollywood generated one of the more interesting bodies of work in modern... READ ON