Today in Chicago History: Italian Gen. Italo Barbo leads 24 seaplanes in splash down at Navy Pier
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1850: Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini — the first American saint — was born in Italy. The youngest of 13 children of Italian farmers, she dreamed of serving as a missionary. Her poor health, however, meant she was rejected by several orders. That's why Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini — who was born 175 years ago this month — founded her own, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Pope Leo XIII encouraged Cabrini to expand her mission to the United States.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Mother Cabrini's Chicago milestones on her path to sainthood
When she arrived in America, Cabrini didn't speak English and was told by the archbishop of New York that her trip was a mistake. Yet Cabrini persisted and even became a naturalized citizen in 1909.
Before her death in Chicago at age 67, Cabrini founded 67 schools, orphanages, hospitals, convents and places of worship in North and South America. Her order has a presence today on six continents and Cabrini is revered by the faithful as patron saint of immigrants.
1875: Balloonist Washington Donaldson and his passenger, newspaper reporter Newton Grimwood, disappeared during an attempt to cross Lake Michigan in a balloon.
What became of them? 'Unless there shall arrive a speedy and convincing denial, it can be taken as the story of their doom,' the Tribune reported two days later.
1933: Twenty-four seaplanes, led by Italian Gen. Italo Balbo, landed on Lake Michigan near Chicago's Navy Pier for the Century of Progress exposition.
'Seagulls flew ahead of the planes as if to show them how to do it,' wrote a Tribune reporter who watched them pass over the site of Chicago's 1933 World's Fair and the Loop. 'One large gull circled and banked and soared near the planes as they came down lower and lower, facing North and heading for the shelter of the breakwater.'
2018: Sears closed its last store in Chicago.
The Six Corners store, on the edge of Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood, shut its doors for the last time two months shy of its 80th anniversary.
Sears timeline: Rise, fall and restructuring of a Chicago icon over 130 yearsSubscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
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