October 8

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada (2007). 1823: The Erie Canal was inaugurated. 1860: A telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco was placed in operation. 1871: The Great Fire of Chicago broke out destroying about 17,450 buildings, killing 250 people and leaving 90,000 homeless. 1873: Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung, who co-developed the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram relating star temperatures with brightness, was born. 1904: Clemens Winkler, discoverer of the element germanium, died. 1913: Robert Gilruth, developer of the Bell X-1 supersonic airplane, was born. 1958: Dr. Ake Senning implanted the first internal heart pacemaker. 1973: Britain's first independent radio station, London Broadcasting Company (LBC) began broadcasting today on VHF and medium wave. 2001: Two Russian cosmonauts made the first spacewalk to be conducted outside of the International Space Station (ISS) without a shuttle present.