Today in Chicago History: Sears Tower becomes the world's tallest building

Chicago Tribune

03-05-2025

Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 3, according to the Tribune's archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
High temperature: 92 degrees (1955)
Low temperature: 30 degrees (2004)
Precipitation: 1.59 inches (1919)
Snowfall: 0.8 inches (1907)
1973: Ironworkers bolted the last girder into place, making Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) the world's tallest building. Sears Tower ended the Empire State Building's four-decade reign as the world's tallest and transformed the West Loop into a glittering office corridor.
The 1,451-foot Willis Tower lost its crown as the world's tallest when it was surpassed in 1996 by Malaysia's Petronas Towers, and the American title in 2013 when New York City's One World Trade Center was completed. After decades of construction in Asian countries, it's now the 25th tallest in the world.
1976: The Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in special local reporting for two major investigations, one demonstrating the devastating effect of FHA loans on inner-city neighborhoods, the other exposing shoddy conditions and practices at several Chicago hospitals.
2009: The Chicago Cubs retired the No. 31 jersey worn by Hall of Fame pitchers Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux at Wrigley Field.
If Jenkins had his druthers, he'd have worn No. 30 when he joined the Cubs after a trade with Philadelphia in 1966.
'That was my number with the Phillies, but Yosh Kawano informed me that was Mr. Ken Holtzman's number,' Jenkins recalled. 'He offered me 31, and I said, 'Fine.''
Kawano, the colorful longtime potentate of the Cubs clubhouse, was still around when Maddux showed up 20 years later. Perhaps he knew something when he gave Maddux No. 31. 'They told me it was Fergie's number,' Maddux said. 'I thought, 'That's pretty cool.''
Jenkins was the fifth Cubs player to have a statue unveiled outside Wrigley Field.
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