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Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux records 3,000th strikeout at a wet Wrigley
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 26, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1964: Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was found guilty in Chicago on three of 20 counts of fraud related to the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund and one count of conspiracy. He was convicted of jury tampering earlier that year. 1985: Old St. Patrick's Church held its first 'World's Largest Block Party.' Tickets were $15 and entertainment included Stanley Paul & His Orchestra and the Jesse White Tumblers. The church discontinued the annual event in 2020. 2005: After a lengthy rain delay, Chicago Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux recorded his 3,000th career strikeout. Maddux caught San Francisco Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel looking at a third strike to end the third inning. Maddux, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2014, became the 13th member of the 3,000 strikeout club and the ninth pitcher in history with both 3,000 strikeouts and 300 victories. 2016: Park Ridge native Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated to lead a major American political party in a run toward the White House. 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.
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: 844 people drowned aboard the Eastland in the Chicago River
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 24, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Here are Chicago's hottest days — with temperatures of 100 degrees or higher — on recordWeather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1915: The SS Eastland — packed with Western Electric Co. employees and their families for a day trip to Michigan City, Indiana — rolled to its side in the Chicago River between LaSalle Drive and Clark Street. More than 840 people of the 2,500 aboard died, many of them trapped inside the vessel as water poured in when the ship tipped over only a few feet from the riverbank. 1934: Chicago recorded its hottest temperature — 105 degrees. 1939: Columbia University halfback and future Hall of Famer Sid Luckman signed his first contract with the Chicago Bears after he was selected by the team with the second pick of the 1939 NFL draft. The 6-foot, 197-pound Brooklyn native was voted first-team All-Pro five times in the 1940s. The Bears have won nine championships in their 99-year history. Luckman was the quarterback for four of them, in 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946. In 1943 he won the Joe F. Carr Trophy as the NFL's most valuable player. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. The dark secret behind the success of Sid Luckman, the greatest Bears quarterback everSubscribe 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.
Chicago Tribune
13-07-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Temperature hit 106 degrees at Midway Airport during 1995 heat wave
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 13, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1787: Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for the organization of the Northwest Territory, which included Illinois. 1894: Patrick Eugene Prendergast was hanged for shooting and killing Chicago Mayor Carter Henry Harrison on Oct. 28, 1893. Mirroring his father's political career, Carter Henry Harrison Jr. also served as Chicago's chief executive. Both former mayors are buried in Graceland Cemetery. 1904: A train full of children returning home from a Sunday school picnic was hit by a freight train in Glenwood in what is known as the Picnic Wreck. Eighteen were killed and scores were injured, most of them packed into the second and third cars. The toll was horrible, with some families suffering multiple deaths and injuries. Louisa Geringer, her 15-year-old stepson and 3-year-old daughter all died; a daughter and cousin were injured. Bridgeport, home of the Doremus Congregational Church, was hit hard by the tragedy. 1912: U.S. Sen. William Lorimer of Illinois was expelled from the U.S. Senate for election rigging following Tribune's reports of corruption. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Summer Olympians from the area who won goldAlso in 1912: Harry Hebner, who learned how to swim at a YMCA in Chicago, won a gold medal during the Olympics in Stockholm with a time of 1 minute, 21 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke. Not bad for a man who as a child thought he might be 'too heavy for swimming.' 30 years after deadly Chicago heat wave, threats persist as climate change elevates risks1995: The temperature hit 106 degrees at Chicago's Midway Airport and hovered between the high 90s and low triple digits for the next five days. Dozens of bodies filled the Cook County medical examiner's office. On a single day — July 15 — the number of heat-related deaths reached its highest daily tally of 215; refrigerated trucks were summoned to handle the overflow of corpses. 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.
Chicago Tribune
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Jerry Garcia's last show with the Grateful Dead takes place at Soldier Field
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 9, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1893: The first successful open-heart surgery took place at Provident Hospital — the city's first interracial hospital — on Chicago's South Side. The patient was James Cornish, a young man with a knife wound to the chest from a barroom brawl. The surgeon, who had gone into medicine because he disliked earlier work as a shoemaker's apprentice, was Daniel Hale Williams. Both patient and surgeon were Black. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Inventions and innovations by Black ChicagoansMedical textbooks of the time said that operating on a human heart was too dangerous, and there was no precedent for opening the chest, longtime Tribune science and medical reporter Ronald Kotulak wrote more than a century later. Despite lacking X-rays, antibiotics, adequate anesthesia or other tools of modern surgery, Williams stepped in. Cornish lived, and Williams went on to acclaim. In 1894, Williams was appointed chief surgeon at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., which gave care to formerly enslaved Blacks. 1995: Jerry Garcia's final show with the Grateful Dead took place at Soldier Field in front of a sold-out crowd. Tribune critic Greg Kot wrote Garcia's voice 'sounded tired, he muffed lyrics and he sometimes dispensed with entire verses altogether in a remote performance.' Garcia died exactly a month later from a heart attack. 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.
Chicago Tribune
05-07-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Winds reach 82 mph and leave 100,000 homes without power
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 5, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1980: Derecho! The temperature reached a high of 94 degrees — surpassing the previous high for July 5 — at 4 p.m., but dropped to a chilly 64 degrees when a cold front swept in around 11 p.m. Winds reached 82 mph and left 100,000 homes in the area without power. The most violent wind report came from Northbrook, where half of a roof on a 20-car garage was lifted and then dropped, damaging at least seven cars in a parking shelter for a condominium. No injuries were reported in the Chicago area due to the storm. 2019: The Chicago Defender announced it was ceasing print publication and switching to a digital-only format. It still exists at The newspaper was founded in 1905 by Robert Sengstacke Abbott, who called it 'The World's Greatest Weekly.' He encouraged Black Americans born and raised in the South — like himself — to move north during the Great Migration of the 20th century. More than two-thirds of the newspaper's readership base was located outside of Chicago by the start of World War I, according to the Defender. 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.
