4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Cubs shine in first Wrigley Field night game that counted
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Aug. 9, according to the Tribune's archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: The entire transcript of President Richard Nixon's Watergate tapesWeather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
1922: A 20-year-old Louis Armstrong arrived at Illinois Central Station from New Orleans — but he wasn't sure he made the right decision.
100 years ago, Louis Armstrong arrived in Chicago. What happened next would change jazz forever.'Anybody watching me closely could have easily seen that I was a country boy,' he wrote in his first memoir, 'My Life in New Orleans.' 'I had a million thoughts as I looked at all those people waiting for taxi cabs. … As I waved goodbye I thought to myself: 'Huh. I don't think I am going to like this old town.''
Thank heavens, then, that Joe 'King' Oliver — his idol — extended him an invitation to play second cornet in his band here. The rest, as they say, is history — and thus began the years, 1922 to 1929, that Armstrong would later call 'some of (his) finest days.'
1973: Lincoln Mall held its grand opening, becoming the first enclosed mall in the far south suburbs of Chicago. It predated by nearly three years the opening of Orland Square in Orland Park.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Shopping malls!!!!!The mall closed in January 2015, with the exception of Carson Pirie Scott, which shut its doors abruptly in March 2018. Demolition followed and now there is little evidence the mall ever existed with the exception of memories and old photos.
1985: Bruce Springsteen played Soldier Field during his 'Born in the U.S.A.' tour. Seven people were killed on their way to the show when a CTA articulated bus struck a 1975 Cadillac.
1988: Night ball, at long last, had reached Clark and Addison. After a rainout the previous night, Mike Bielecki fired a called strike to Lenny Dykstra to start the game.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: How Wrigley Field got lights and why Cubs fans had to wait past 8-8-88 to raise 'W' flagThe Cubs hit the Mets with four runs in the seventh inning, then held on for a 6-4 victory before 36,399 very noisy people.
'It might have been louder last night,' said Mark Grace, who drove in one of the runs in the decisive seventh. 'But that's the loudest for a complete game that I've ever been associated with.'
1993: The Sox's Bo Jackson broke a bat over his knee after striking out against Oakland Athletics pitcher Bobby Witt in the bottom of the fifth inning at Comiskey Park. Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura — in the middle of the batting order — had six hits. Thomas broke a 4-4 tie with a game-winning solo home run.
Subscribe 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.
