Video: 'Rodriguez and The Great New Orleans Fire'

(Good Friday, March 21, 1788, 1:30 p.m. local time) — Fire broke out today in New Orleans, Louisiana (a colony of Spain at this time), at the home of Army Treasurer Don Vincente Jose Nuñez, less than a block from Jackson Square (Plaza de Armas).

Within five hours the fire had destroyed 856 out of more than 1,100 structures, fed by a strong wind from the southeast.

One death was reported.