Timeline Chicago
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Chicago Hist. Soc: http://www.chicagohs.org/
Chicago Hist. Files: http://www.chicagohs.org/history/index.html
Hypertext Timeline: http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/chihist.html
Sun Times: http://www.suntimes.com
Chicago was founded by Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a black man from Haiti. He was a pioneer trader.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1674 Dec 4, Father Marquette built the 1st dwelling at what is now Chicago.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1675 May 18, Jacques Marquette (37), Jesuit, missionary in Chicago, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1772 Jun 6, Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe DuSable settled Chicago. [see Mar 12, 1773]
(MC, 6/6/02)
1773 Mar 12, Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable settled what is now known as Chicago. [see Jun 6, 1772]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1800 Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a pioneer trader, sold his holdings and moved to a Missouri farm.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1804 Fort Dearborn was erected on the Chicago River on the site of present-day downtown Chicago. With the outbreak of the War of 1812, the garrison of 67 soldiers, their dependents and settlers were ordered to evacuate to Fort Wayne. Most of them were massacred en route by Potawatomi Indians, who then burned the fort. Fort Dearborn was rebuilt in 1816 and around it grew the settlement that would become Chicago. Abandoned in 1837, Fort Dearborn was demolished in 1856.
(HNQ, 2/13/00)
1818 Aug 28, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, trader, founder of Chicago, died.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1830 Aug 4, Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.
(AP, 8/4/97)
1830 Chicago land sold for about $800 per acre (in 2012 dollars).
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.88)
1831 Robert A. Kinzie paid $127.68 for 102 acres of land that became much of Chicago.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.B3)
1833 Aug 12, Chicago incorporated as a village of about 350.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago)
1835 Aug 18, The last Potawatomi Indians left Chicago.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1836 Three Chicago commissioners wrote that what is now Grant Park should be “Public Ground – A Common to Remain Forever Open, Clear and Free of any Buildings, or other Obstruction Whatever." Aaron Montgomery Ward later used this statement to keep developers off the 320-acre lake-front property.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
1837 Mar 4, The Illinois state legislature granted a city charter to Chicago.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1847 Jun 10, Chicago Tribune began publishing.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1847 The population of Chicago numbered about 20,000 people.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.4)
1848 Jun 10, The 1st telegraph link between NYC & Chicago was established.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1848 The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) began trading grain futures. [see Jun 10,1848]
(Econ, 9/20/03, p.68)
1848 A canal was completed that linked the Chicago River to the Illinois River.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.4)
1850 Jul 20, John Graves Shedd, president of Marshall Field and Company, was born. He was the first Chicago merchant to give his employees a half-day off on Saturdays.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1850 Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884) partnered with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in forming the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency. "We never sleep" was their motto. The company’s emblem—a wide open eye—inspired the term "private eye. In 1999 the agency was sold to a Swedish company, Securitas AB.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug25.html)(HNQ, 8/7/98)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.C4)
1850 The population of Chicago approached 30,000.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1850s Polish immigrants began arriving in Chicago as job opportunities abounded.
(WSJ, 6/2/03, p.A1)
1855 Marshall Field (21) moved to Chicago from Pittsfield, Mass. Potter Palmer, owner of a retail and wholesale operation, later sold his business to Marshall Field and bookkeeper Levi Z. Leiter. In 1947 John Tebbel authored "The Marshall Fields: A Study in Wealth." In 2002 Axel Madsen authored "The Marshall Fields: The Evolution of an American Business Dynasty."
(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.D8)
1855-1875 The "raising of Chicago" took place. The town, built on mud, had begun to sink and forced new foundations and new drainage lines. The work was hailed as one of the wonders of the 19th century.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, Z1 p.2)
1860 May 16, The Republican convention operned in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Republican_National_Convention)
1860 May 18, The Republican Convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln for US president and Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine as Vice President. Other presidential candidates included William Seward and Salmon Chase.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Republican_National_Convention)(Econ, 12/1/12, p.75)
1860 Sep 6, Jane Addams (d.1935), known for her work as a social reformer, pacifist, and founder of Hull House in Chicago in 1889, first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1931), was born. "The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of one’s self." "You do not know what life means when all the difficulties are removed! I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. It is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning."
(AHD, 1971, p.15)(AP, 8/28/97)(HN, 9/6/98)(AP, 10/4/98)
1861 Mayor John Wentworth fired all the 60 policemen, 3 sergeants and 1 captain as his last official act. For 12 hours the city was without police as the Board of Commissioners worked to replace them.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.B4)
1864 Aug 28, The Democratic National Convention began in Chicago. General George B. McClellan's campaign platform called the war in America a failure. [see Aug 31]
(WSJ, 9/25/03, p.A18)
1864 Aug 31, At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan was nominated for president.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1865 Apr 20, Chicago's Crosby Opera House opened.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1865 Spiegel began as a Chicago home-furnishing store. It branched into mail order for rural customers in 1905 and abandoned its retail outlets in 1954. In 1982 it was purchased by the German Otto family.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.A6)
1866 Nov 30, Work in Chicago began on 1st US underwater highway tunnel.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1866 Dec 6, Chicago’s water supply tunnel into Lake Michigan was completed.
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.C12)(http://tinyurl.com/7zmyr6v)
1867 Sep 5, The first shipment of cattle left Abilene, Kansas, on a Union Pacific train headed to Chicago.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1868 May 20, The Republican National Convention met in Chicago and nominated Grant.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1868 In Chicago the 1st Marshall Field’s store opened at Washington and State Street under the name Field, Leiter & Co. in a building owned by Potter Palmer. The building was destroyed in the great fire of 1871.
(http://chicago.urban-history.org/sites/d_stores/fields.htm)(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A16)
1869 Chicago city officials were paid for painting City Hall but used cheaper whitewash and pocketed the difference.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.24)
1870 The population of Chicago reached 300,000.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1871 Oct 8, Around 9 p.m. on Sunday a fire broke out in or near Patrick and Catherine O'Leary's barn in the crowded southwestern section of Chicago. Fanned by high winds, the fire burned out of control in the tinder-dry city for more than 24 hours, until rain on Tuesday morning finally extinguished the flames. Three and a half square miles were leveled wiping out one-third of the city. The business district, the courthouse and the central water pumping station, burned to the ground. Thousands of Chicagoans fled the flames over the Randolph Street Bridge. Approximately 250 people were killed in the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were destroyed. The original Emancipation Proclamation was destroyed. Yet in spite of the devastation, the city was so quickly rebuilt that by 1875, few traces of the fire remained. Many people still believe that Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern which started the fire. The Chicago City Council once passed a resolution exonerating the cow and apologizing to the O'Leary family. Pegleg O’Sullivan kicked over a lantern after breaking into the O’Leary dairy barn to steal milk for a whiskey punch party.
(HNPD, 10/8/98)(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)(SFC, 1/11/03, p.D6)
1871 Oct 8, The 1938 film "In Old Chicago," with Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, was a musical that built up to the Chicago fire.
(HFA, ‘96, p.40)(Hem., 7/95, p.83)(AP, 10/8/97)(TVM, 1975, p.276)(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.C8)
1871 Oct 11, The Great Chicago Fire was finally extinguished after 3 days. Over 300 were killed. [see Oct 8]
(MC, 10/11/01)
1871 Edward Roos founded a lathe works in Chicago where he produced chests and other products. A younger Edward Roos founded his own firm in 1916.
(SFC, 12/28/05, p.G5)
1872 Oct 9, Aaron Montgomery Ward (1844-1913), a young traveling salesman of dry goods, started his mail-order business. The catalog of Aaron Montgomery Ward was the first to be called a "Wish Book." The 1871 Chicago fire had destroyed his initial inventory.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Montgomery_Ward)(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/30/99, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 12/29/00, p.A12)
1873 In Chicago bonds were issued for the Saginaw & Canada Railroad Co. The operation built 40 miles of track and went broke in 1876. The worthless bonds were later found and given to the Public Museum of Grand Rapids in 1992, where they were sold in the gift shop for $22.95. Scam artists acquired a large quantity in bulk and sold them as real bonds to investors for a total scam of some $12 million.
(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A1,8)
1873 Adam Schaaf opened a piano company in Chicago. Pianos were made at his 6-story building on Wabash Ave until 1926.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.G6)
1875 Sep 1, Edgar Rice Burroughs, novelist, was born in Chicago. He created Tarzan, the Ape Man.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1876 Apr 25, The Chicago White Stockings (later Chicago Cubs) beat Louisville 4-0 (1st NL shutout) in the 1st NL game. Albert G. Spalding (1850-1915), former pitcher for the Boston Red Stocking, had joined the Chicago White Stockings after helping form the new National League. His move effectively ended the National Association, baseball’s first professional league. Spalding managed the White Stockings from 1876-1877 and continued as a player to 1878.
(http://tinyurl.com/yb7u9ou)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spalding)
1876 Albert G. Spalding, former pitcher for the Boston Red Stocking, joined the Chicago White Stockings in the newly formed National League. His move effectively ended the National Association, baseballs first professional league. He managed the team from 1876-1877 and continued as a player to 1878.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spalding)
1877 In Chicago 17 businessmen founded their Commercial Club.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1879 Aug 12, The 1st National Archery Association tournament was held in Chicago.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1879 Armour & Co., a Chicago meat processor founded in the 1860s, introduced canned meats. Canned condensed milk was introduced in 1912. The “Armour’s Star" trademark was first used in 1931.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1880 Jul 30, Robert Rutherford ("Colonel") McCormick, US, editor, publisher (Chicago Tribune), was born.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1880 George M. Pullman established his own industrial community at Lake Calumet, south of Chicago. His company town provided homes for 2,500 workers along with schools, parks churches and a hotel.
(SFC, 7/1/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1881 Sep 18, The Chicago Tribune reported on a televideo experiment.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1881 Marshall Field (47) bought out his partner and renamed their Chicago’s State Street store from Field, Leiter & Co. to Marshall Field & Co.
(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A16)
1882 May 20, Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1882 Oct 18, Alexander Graham Bell made his historic telephone call to the mayor of Chicago.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1982 Anthony Porter was convicted of shooting to death an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman. He was sentenced to death and spent 16 years on death row until 1999, when Prof. David Protess and journalism students found a witness who identified her ex-husband, Alstory Simnon, as the killer.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A3)
1882 Electric streetcars began running and created havoc with the telephone system.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1883 Mar 24, Long-distance telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York. [see Mar 27, 1884]
(AP, 3/23/97)
1883 Jun 2, Chicago's "El" opened to traffic.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1883 Jun 9, The 1st commercial electric railway line began operation Chicago.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1884 May 1, Construction began on the first steel-skeleton skyscraper, a 10-story structure in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney and built by the Home Insurance Co. of New York. It was completed in 1885. It stood 9 stories and had 2 added in 1891.
(HT, 5/97, p.23)(SFEC, 11/22/98, Z1 p.8)(AP, 5/1/99)
1884 Jul 1, Allan Pinkerton (b.1819) founder of the Pinkerton Agency, died in Chicago. In 1996 James Mackay authored “Allan Pinkerton."
(http://aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=918)(ON, 7/06, p.12)
1886 May 1, A labor strike began across the US to support an 8-hour work day.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1886 May 3, Police arrived outside the McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago, where 1,400 IWPA workers were on strike. They opened-fire on the crowd while anarchist August Spies was making a speech, killing four of the workers.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1886 May 4, At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. Seven policemen were killed and some 60 others injured. Only one policeman was killed in the strike. 3 labor leaders were executed Nov 10, 1887, for the bombing. The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important influence on the origin of international May Day observances for workers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot)(AP, 5/4/97)(WSJ, 2/6/98, p.A20)
1886 May 5, A bomb exploded on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1886 Charles T. Yerkes acquired a primitive horse-car company on Chicago’s North Side. He acquired another the following year on the West Side and proceeded to develop the city’s streetcar system. His accomplishments included the Northwestern Elevated, the Consolidated Traction network of suburban lines and the Union Loop.
(WSJ, 8/29/06, p.D5)
1886 Web site on labor strikes of this year.
(http://www.execpc.com/~blake/)
1887 Nov 11, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fisher and George Engel were hanged for their participation in the May 4, 1886, Chicago Haymarket riot. As the noose was placed around his neck, Spies shouted out: "There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1887 The first softball game on record was held indoors at the Farragus Boat Club.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.E5)
1887 In Chicago some 63 hobos gathered at a hobo jungle and formed Tourist Union #63. An ethical code was created by Tourist Union #63 during its 1889 National Hobo Convention in St. Louis Missouri. This code was voted upon as a concrete set of laws to govern the Nation-wide Hobo Body and set forth guidelines of honesty and chivalry.
(http://tinyurl.com/knx3t85)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.30)
1888 Jul 23, Raymond Chandler, writer of detective stories, creator of the character Philip Marlow, was born in Chicago.
(HN, 7/23/98)(SSFC, 12/21/14, p.N3)
1888 Chicago’s 11-story Rookery building at 209 S. La Salle St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1888 Edward Katzinger founded a commercial baking-pan company in Chicago. It later became known as Ecko Housewares Co. By the 1960s it was the country’s largest manufacturer of non-electric kitchen items.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.G3)
1888 In Chicago Louis Glunz set up shop as a wine, beer and spirits merchant at Wells and Division streets. By 2009 the Louis Glunz Beer company represented Chicago-land consumers with the largest portfolio of Micro, Specialty and Import Beers with 665 brands and 172 breweries worldwide.
(www.glunzbavarianhaus.com/glunz-bavarian-chicago.html)
1889 Apr 1, The first dishwashing machine was marketed (in Chicago).
(OTD)
1889 Nov 17, The Union Pacific Railroad Co. began direct, daily railroad service between Chicago and Portland, Ore., as well as Chicago and San Francisco.
(AP, 11/17/97)
1889 The Auditorium Theater, designed by Louis Sullivan, was completed.
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.C12)
1889 Hull House, a Chicago social services organization for immigrants and the poor, was founded by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams. It closed in 2012 after running out of money.
(AP, 1/27/12)
1889 Louis Frederick Nonnast (41), a German immigrant (1865), had his own Chicago furniture factory by this time. In 1914 the firm was renamed Louis F. Nonnast & Sons.
(SFC, 8/31/05, p.G3)
1890 In Chicago Henry C. Niemann organized the H.C. Niemann & Co. to make tables. In 1909 the company moved to the 1800 block of Rockwell Street. It closed in 1929.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.G6)
1890 The population of Chicago reached 1.1 million.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1891 William Wrigley, Jr., born in Philadelphia in 1861, began his business career by selling soap manufactured by his father. In 1891, Wrigley moved to Chicago where he founded and became president of Wm. Wrigley, Jr. Company, manufacturers of chewing gum, earning him the money to acquire the Chicago Cubs and to build Wrigley‘s Stadium. Wrigley is especially noted for his effective advertising techniques.
(AP, 4/9/00)
1892 Jun 23, The Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated former President Cleveland on the first ballot.
(AP, 6/23/02)
1892 Oct 1, The University of Chicago opened.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1892 Oct 18, The first long-distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was formally opened. It could only handle one call at a time.
(AP, 10/18/07)
1892 Oct 20, The city of Chicago dedicated the World's Columbian Exposition.
(AP, 10/20/97)
1892 Oct, The Univ. of Chicago began operations under Pres. William Rainey Harper. It was founded by John D. Rockefeller.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.19)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W11)
1892 The 3-story Georgian mansion, the Reddington House, was built on the "Gold Coast" near Lake Shore Drive. Selling price in 1998 was $2.2 million.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.B12)
1892 Chicago businessman Charles Tyson Yerkes gave $300,000 to fund the wolrd’s largest telescope. A crater on the moon was later named after him.
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.74)
1893 May 1, The World’s Columbian Exposition was officially opened in Chicago by President Cleveland. The El in Chicago was erected to take visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition. It created a section of town called the Loop encircled by the railway. The exposition grounds covered over 600 acres of south Chicago along Lake Michigan. The exposition attracted over 21 million visitors who saw such wonders as the Ferris Wheel and electricity (first displayed in the Paris Exposition in 1889, but still unknown to most Americans). It was the first American exposition to make a profit. In 2003 Erik Larson authored "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and madness at the Fair That Changed America."
(AP, 5/1/97)(Hem. 7/96, p.25)(HNQ, 2/18/01)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.M1)
1893 Jun 21, George Washington Gale Ferris, engineer, completed the construction of a 254-foot high revolving steel wheel with 38 passenger cars, each with 40 plush chairs, for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
(ON, 11/99, p.7)(MC, 6/21/02)
1893 Jul 9, Daniel Hale Williams (1858-1931), an African-American surgeon, performed successful heart surgery on a teenager in Chicago.
(WSJ, 11/17/07, p.W11)(http://tinyurl.com/37gnkk)
1893 Aug 24, A fire in south Chicago left 5,000 people homeless.
(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1893 Mary Cassatt painted a 58-foot "Modern Woman" for the Women’s Building of the World’s Fair.
(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)
1893 Chicago’s new Monadnock Building carried its 17 stories on ground-floor walls 6 feet thick.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.F4)
1893 The Field Museum of Natural History opened in Chicago. It was founded during the World’s Columbian Exposition and named after department store magnate Marshall Field.
(WSJ, 8/30/04, p.A1)(SFC, 7/6/13, p.A10)
1893 The Chicago Stock Exchange, designed by Louis Sullivan, was completed. It was demolished in 1972.
(WSJ, 10/8/03, p.D6)
1893 Swami Vivekananda was sent to Chicago by his guru, Ramakrishna, from India to spread his teachings on yoga.
(WSJ, 6/23/00, p.A1)
1893 At the Chicago Exposition Milton Hershey was impressed with an exhibition featuring chocolate-making machinery from Germany and commented to his cousin, Frank Snavely, "Caramels are only a fad. Chocolate is a permanent thing." With that, Hershey decided to go into the chocolate business, purchasing the German-made machinery and installing it at his Lancaster Caramel Company in Pennsylvania. With the help of expert chocolate makers, Hershey was soon producing chocolate-covered caramels, called "novelties." In 1900, Hershey sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for $1 million, but retained the chocolate-making machinery. Soon thereafter, he launched the Hershey Chocolate Company and built a town around it, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
(HNQ, 10/31/00)
1893 Charlie Wacker, director of the World's Columbian Exposition and a friend of Louis Glunz, was instrumental in making Louis a bottler of Schlitz beer for the Chicago Exposition.
(www.glunzbavarianhaus.com/glunz-bavarian-chicago.html)
1893 F.W. Rueckheim introduced a confection of popcorn, peanuts and molasses at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was given the name Cracker Jack in 1896.
(AH, 10/04, p.71)
1893 Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared as Little Egypt" at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_%28dancer%29)
1893 Chicago's Mayor Carter Harrison was killed, the 1st US mayor shot in a political killing.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)
1894 Jan 8, Fire caused serious damage at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1894 May 11, Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Illinois went on strike. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, subsequently began a boycott of Pullman that blocked freight traffic in and out of Chicago. Pullman had cut wages due to the recession but left high rents in his company town. Mail cars were coupled to Pullman cars and Pres. Cleveland ordered federal troops onto the trains to insure the delivery of mail. Illinois Gov. John Peter Altgeld opposed Cleveland’s plans. 34 union workers were killed when federal troops intervened.
(AP, 5/11/97)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1894 Jul 20, 2000 federal troops were recalled from Chicago with the end of the Pullman strike.
(MC, 7/20/02)
c1894 Philosopher John Dewey transferred from the Univ. of Mich. to the Univ. of Chicago.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.19)
1895 Feb 4, The 1st rolling lift bridge opened in Chicago.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1895 Nov 28, America's first auto race between gasoline-powered automobiles was staged on Thanksgiving Day. The race, sponsored by the Chicago Times Herald, was to be run along a 52-mile course of muddy, frozen streets from Jackson Park to Waukegan, Illinois. The race attracted 80 entries but only six starters. James Franklin Duryea drove his brother’s car (Charles Edgar Duryea) in the first automobile race from Chicago to Waukegan over 52 miles of snowy roads at an average 7.5 mph. He collected $2,000 from the Chicago Times-Herald. It took him 7 hours and 53 minutes to complete the round trip. The average speed was 7 mph. 80 cars entered the race, 6 started and 2 finished. J. Frank Duryea, driving the Duryea at an average speed of 5 mph, crossed the finish line 10 hours and 23 minutes after the start. One other participant was forced to drop out of the race, suffering from hypothermia.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.E3)(AP, 11/28/97)(DTnet, 11/28/97)(HNPD, 11/28/98)
1895 Chicago’s Marquette Building at 140 Dearborn St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1895 Chicago’s 14-story Reliance Building at 32 N. State St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1895 Philosopher John Dewey founded the Dept. of Education at the Univ. of Chicago. Closure of the dept. was announced in 1997.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.19)
1895 Sears, Roebuck and Co. issued its 1st catalog. Within 2 years it was advertising 6,000 items.
(WSJ, 12/17/03, p.B1)
c1895 In Chicago the Fairbank’s Company introduced “Fairbank’s Fairy Soap." The brand disappeared in the 1930’s when the company was bought out. Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank had begun producing soap following his involvement in the lard-rending business in the 1880s.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.G5)
1896 May 7, Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (b.1860), serial killer, was hanged to death in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmantown, New Hampshire, to a devout Methodist family, Holmes spent much of his childhood torturing animals. He later graduated from the University of Michigan with a medical degree. Holmes financed his education with a series of insurance scams whereby he requested coverage for nonexistent people and then presented corpses as the insured. In 1886, Holmes moved to Chicago to work as a pharmacist. A few months later, he killed the elderly owner of the store but told everyone that the man had left him in charge. With a new series of cons, Holmes raised enough money to build a giant, elaborate home across from the store. The home, which Holmes called "The Castle," had secret passageways, fake walls, and trapdoors. Young women in the area, along with tourists who had come to see the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and had rented out rooms in Holmes' castle, suddenly began disappearing. Medical schools purchased many human skeletons from Dr. Holmes during this period but never asked how he obtained the anatomy specimens. Holmes was finally caught after attempting to use another corpse, his assistant Benjamin Pitezel, in an insurance scam. He confessed, saying, "I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing." Reportedly, authorities discovered the remains of over 200 victims on his property.
(www.thecrimeweb.com/hhholmes.htm)
1896 Jul 7, The Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago. The National Democratic Party formed to run a slate of candidates in 1896 because the Democratic Party had been taken over by the free-silver faction, which called for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the 16 to 1 ratio. They also condemned trusts, monopolies, high protective tariffs and the use of injunctions against labor. The "sound money" or gold Democrats withdrew from the party convention, organized the National Democratic Party and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois its presidential candidate. The gold plank in the Republican Party caused a similar split, with free-silver Republicans bolting the party and forming the National Silver Republicans, who endorsed the Democratic Party candidate for president, William Jennings Bryan. Republican William McKinley won the presidential election.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNQ, 8/23/99)
1896 Jun 8, William Jennings Bryan propelled himself to presidential candidacy when he stood before the Democratic Convention and made his famous "Cross of Gold" speech. The paramount issue in the 1896 presidential election was one of economics—the U.S. government promised to pay the holder of one dollar bill one dollar in gold. Democrats, farmers and westerners demanded that the government redeem paper money in silver as well, while Republicans and easterners protested that this policy would destroy the economy. It was on this dull, technical issue that 36-year-old William Jennings Bryan, a former congressman from Nebraska, launched his national political career. When he made his "Cross of Gold" speech, the Democrats had no strong presidential candidate. His dramatic words—"You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"—electrified his audience and resulted in his nomination for president in 1896. [see Jul 9]
(HNQ, 6/8/98)(MC, 7/8/02)
1896 Nov 26, Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg of Univ. of Chicago created the football huddle.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)(MC, 11/26/01)
1896 F.W. Rueckheim & Brother of Chicago received a trademark for "Cracker Jack." The popcorn and peanuts covered with molasses syrup sold for a nickel a box in 1899.
(HFA, ‘96, p.67)(SFC, 7/29/98, p.)(SFC, 7/29/98, Z1 p.23)(AH, 10/01, p.34)
1898 Jan 1, The consolidation of NYC ended a rivalry with Chicago which had annexed some 20,000 people in the surrounding towns of Hyde Park, Kenwood, Pullman and Woodlawn.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A10)
1898 Jun 7, Social Democracy of America party held its 1st national convention in Chicago.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1898 In Chicago the Pickard China Co. was founded by Wilder Pickard. He hired artists to paint imported China blanks. About 1911 Pickard started acid-etching china pieces and coating them with gold. the "Rose and Daisy" pattern was the most popular.
(SFC, 2/11/98, Z1 p.6)
1898 The Chicago Mercantile Exchange began operations.
(Econ, 9/20/03, p.68)
1899 Jan 17, Notorious gangster Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. The U.S. mobster known as "Scarface Al" later ran most of Chicago and the surrounding area.
(AP, 1/17/99)(HN, 1/17/99)
1899 Feb 20, Illinois Tel & Tel was granted a franchise for a Chicago freight tunnel system.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1899 May 20, John M. Harlan, the 91st Supreme Court justice (1955-71), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1899 Jul 3, The nation's first juvenile court opened on the West Side after reformers like Jane Addams pushed the Illinois legislature to recognized that children were developmentally different from adults.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, Z1 p.1)
1899 Jul 21, Author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Ill.
(AP, 7/20/97)
1900 Jan 29, The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia with teams from Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Z1 p.5)(AP, 1/29/98)
1900 Feb 1, In Chicago Ada and Minna Everleigh opened their Everleigh Club, a high-end brothel. They closed operations in 1911.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.P8)
1900 May 31, Chicago’s Northwestern Elevated began operations, and Charles T. Yerkes, its chief visionary was present to see his project come to fruition.
(www.chicago-l.org/figures/yerkes/)
1900 Chicago reversed the water flow of the Chicago River so that it would flow in from Lake Michigan and carry pollution out to drain into the Mississippi.
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.C12)(Econ, 11/19/11, p.43)
1900 Paul P. Harris met attorney Bob Frank for dinner in a well-off neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago. They took a walk around the area and stopped at shops along the way. Harris was impressed by how Frank had made friends with many of the shopkeepers. Eventually, Harris persuaded other local businessmen to meet and discuss forming a club for commercial trade, community, and fellowship. His vision laid the foundation for the Rotary of today.
(www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/paulharris/Pages/ridefault.aspx)
1900 Charles Comiskey, manager of the National League’s Cincinnati Reds, bought the Western League’s St. Paul team and moved it to Chicago as the White Stockings.
(ON, 6/09, p.11)
1900s In the early 1900s "The Friendly Friends" of Chicago, a group of madams, met periodically to plan protection for one another. They compared client lists and found that they could influence the most powerful men in town.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, Z1 p.2)
1901 Jan 28, Byron Bancroft Johnson announced that the American League would play the 1901 baseball season as a major league and would not renew its membership in the National Agreement. The new league would include Baltimore and Washington, DC, recently abandoned by the National League. The league would also invade 4 cities where National League teams existed: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. The 8 charter teams included: the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Americans, Chicago White Stockings, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Athletics, and Washington Senators.
(ON, 6/09, p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League)
1901 Dec 5, Walter Elias Disney (d.1966), movie producer and animator, was born in Chicago. Walt Disney created a cartoon empire with the character Mickey Mouse.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(HN, 12/5/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Charles R. Walgreen opened his first pharmacy on Chicago’s South side and made his mark by diversifying into housewares and hot food.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.A4)
1902 Mar 4, The American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.
(AP, 3/4/98) (HN, 3/4/98)
1902 May 15, Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago through the 1960s and early 1970's, was born.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1902 Train service between New York and Chicago began. In 1995 Amtrak’s "Broadway Limited" service made its final run.
(AP, 9/9/00)(MC, 9/9/01)
1903 Apr 19, Eliot Ness, Treasury agent, was born. He fought for prohibition in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 4/19/99)
1903 Aug 19, James Gould Cozzens (d.1978), US novelist, was born in Chicago. His novels included "Farewell to Cuba" and "Guard of Honor" for which he won a 1949 Pulitzer.
(MC, 8/19/02)(Internet)
1903 Dec 30, The Iroquois Theater Fire of Chicago killed 602 people. Matinee patrons for "Mr Bluebeard" panicked despite efforts by comedian Eddie Foy (47) to calm the crowd. In 2003 Anthony P. Hatch authored "Tinder Box," an account of the fire.
(HFA, '96, p.70)(AP, 12/30/97)(PCh, 1992, p.652)(WSJ, 3/28/03, p.W9)
1904 Jan 29, The 1st athletic letters were given to the Univ. of Chicago football team.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1904 Jun 17, Ralph Bellamy, actor (Air Mail, Dive Bomber, Trading Places, Sunrise at Campobello, Winds of War, War and Remembrance), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1904 Orchestra Hall was built.
(WSJ, 10/9/97, p.A16)
1904 The Ravinia Festival was founded as a high-class amusement park designed to increase ridership for a railroad company. It became a center for summertime opera but folded during the depression in 1931. It re-opened in 1936 as the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A12)
1905 Feb 23, The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago by lawyer Paul Percy Harris and 3 friends. Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes. When fellow club members began to complain that the design was static and lifeless, Bear added flourishes that made the wheel appear to ride on a bed of clouds. Unfortunately, some members felt the clouds looked like dust, defying the laws of gravity by being kicked up on both sides of the wheel. The service club did not admit women until the 1980s.
(http://tinyurl.com/28kd23m)(AP, 2/23/98)(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.70)
1905 Jun 11, Pennsylvania Railroad debuted the fastest train in world (NY-Chicago in 18 hrs).
(SC, 6/11/02)
1905 Jul 7, The International Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago. The IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were formed partly in response to the American Federation of Labor’s opposition to the unionization of unskilled labor. As an organization that advocated sabotage, they were suppressed and prosecuted by the federal government from 1917-18 and were driven underground by the "Red Scare" that started in the United States in 1919. Ideological disputes with the newly formed U.S. Communist Party dissipated their remaining energies so that they ceased to be a force of any significance past the mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn Dublfsky authored its definitive history "We Shall Overcome."
(HNQ, 10/16/00)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A24)(HN, 7/7/01)
1905 Dec 29, Charles Tyson Yerkes (b.1837), financier, died in New York City. His estate was valued at $4 million. Yerkes developed Chicago’s streetcar system. His life was immortalized in Theodore Dreiser's Cowperwood trilogy: “The Financier’ (1912), “The Titan’ (1914), and “The Stoic" (1947). In 2006 John Franch authored the biography “Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.
(WSJ, 8/29/06, p.D5)(www.chicago-l.org/figures/yerkes/)
1905 James Burnham (d.1987), political activist and author, was born in Chicago.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
1905 Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender newspaper. The paper helped ignite the move of tens of thousands of southern black sharecroppers north to Chicago and other cities. His nephew, John Sengstacke, took over the paper in 1940 and expanded it from a weekly to a daily. In 1991 Nicholas Lemann authored "The Promised Land," an account of the black migrations from the deep South to Chicago.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.B1)(WSJ, 9/29/99, p.A20)
1905 Burrows, Marsh & McLennan was formed by Henry W. Marsh and Donald R. McLennan in Chicago becoming the world's largest insurance agency with annual premiums of $3 million ($59 million consumer price index adjusted). It was renamed Marsh & McLennan in 1906. In 1997, the company merged with Johnson & Higgins.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_&_McLennan)
1906 Jan 16, Marshall Field (71), Chicago department store founder, died in NYC.
(AP, 1/16/06)
1906 Aug 15, The 1st freight delivery tunnel system began underneath Chicago.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1906 Upton Sinclair published "The Jungle," a novel that exposed the intolerable working conditions in the Chicago slaughterhouses.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1906 The Chicago Lighthouse was founded by a group of women volunteers who were both blind and sighted and offered housing, clothing and food assistance to people who were blind.
(www.thechicagolighthouse.org/default.asp?page=aboutus)
1907 Marshall Field expanded his landmark store on Chicago’s State Street to cover the whole block on State St. bounded by Wabash, Washington and Randolph.
(http://chicago.urban-history.org/sites/d_stores/fields.htm)(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A6)
1908 Jun 18, William Howard Taft was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in Chicago.
(AP, 6/18/08)
1908 Aug 8, Arthur J. Goldberg (d.1990), labor lawyer, UN ambassador, Supreme Court justice (1962-65), was born in, Chicago, Illinois. He was instrumental in the merger of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
(HN, 8/8/98)(AP, 8/8/08)
1908 Oct 10, The Chicago Cubs won Game 1 of the World Series with a 10-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Bennett Park.
(AP, 10/10/08)
1908 Oct 11, The Chicago Cubs took a 2-0 lead in the World Series, defeating the visiting Detroit Tigers 6-1 at the West Side Grounds.
(AP, 10/11/08)
1908 Oct 12, The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs 8-3 in Game 3 of the World Series, played in Chicago.
(AP, 10/12/08)
1908 Oct 13, The Chicago Cubs won Game 4 of the World Series, defeating the Detroit Tigers 3-0 to take a 3-1 Series lead.
(AP, 10/13/08)
1908 Oct 14, The Chicago Cubs won the World Series as they defeated the Detroit Tigers in Game 5, 2-0, at Bennett Park.
(AP, 10/14/08)
1908 Chicago’s Robie House, 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave., was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was completed in 1910.
(WSJ, 10/22/04, p.W2)(www.wrightplus.org/robiehouse/robiehouse.html)
1908 A Chicago Auto Show was held. Walter P. Chrysler saw his first "Locomobile" at the show.
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)
1909 Jul 25, Draugas, "The Friend," a Lithuanian newspaper, began publishing in Chicago.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1909 Nov 11, Robert Ryan, actor (Billy Budd, Dirty Dozen, Longest Day), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1910 Feb 28, Vincente Minnelli, director (American in Paris, Gigi), was born in Chicago, IL.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1910 Sep, In Chicago a spontaneous strike by a handful of women workers led to a citywide strike of 45,000 garment workers. That strike was a bitter one and pitted the strikers against not only their employers and the local authorities, but also their own union.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamated_Clothing_Workers_of_America)
1910 Dec 22, In Chicago, Ill., 21 firefighters died when a wall collapsed at the Union Stock Yards fire.
(www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-exchange-1910fire,0,4327692.story)
1911 Aug, Calbraith Perry Rodgers stayed aloft longer than any other contestant at the Chicago International Aviation Meet. Rodgers had recently purchased a new Wright airplane, the 1st ever sold to a private citizen.
(ON, 10/06, p.10)
1911 Sep 29, Walter Brookins set an American record by flying 192 miles from Chicago to Springfield, Ill., making two stops.
(NPub, 2002, p.8)
1911 Oct 25, In Chicago Ada and Minna Everleigh closed their Everleigh Club, a high-end brothel, which they had begun in 1910. In 2007 Karen Abbott authored “Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul."
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.P8)
1911 Nov 11, A man died of heat prostration.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1911 Nov 12, Two people froze to death. The temperature had dropped 61 degrees overnight.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1911-1960s The Diamond T company built high quality trucks in Chicago and Indiana during this period. In 1934 the company shipped a fire truck was shipped to Alcatraz Prison.
(SFC, 9/24/03, p.A25)
1912 Mar 22, Karl Malden (d.2009), later film and TV star, was born as Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago.
(AP, 7/2/09)(SFC, 7/1/09, p.A8)
1912 Jun 27, Audrey Christie, actress (Dorothy-Fair Exchange), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1912 Harriet Monroe, former Chicago Tribune art critic, founded the monthly Poetry Magazine. In 2002 Ruth Lilly (87), great-grandchild of Eli Lilly, gave the magazine a $100 million endowment.
(SFC, 11/19/02, p.A3)
1913 Mar 22, Karl Malden, actor (Mike-Streets of SF, American Express), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1913 Dec 7, Aaron Montgomery Ward, founder of the mail order industry, died.
1913 Dec 27, Charles Moyer, president of the Miners Union, was shot in the back and dragged through the streets of Chicago.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1913 Dec 29, The 1st movie serial, "Adventures of Kathlyn," premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1913 Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg of the Univ. of Chicago instituted numbered jerseys for football players. The Univ. of Pittsburgh introduced the 1st football jerseys with numbers on the back in 1908.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)
1913 Anderson, Delany & Co., an accounting firm, was formed in Chicago. The firm was renamed Arthur Anderson in 1918. Arthur Anderson (28), accounting professor, was a co-founder.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/1/02, p.B1)(WSJ, 6/7/02, p.A6)
1915 Apr 6, Big Bill Thompson (1869-1944) won the general election to become mayor of Chicago. Thompson served 3 terms: 1915-1919, 1919-1923, and 1927-1931.
(www.chipublib.org/004chicago/mayors/thompson.html)
1915 Jun 24, More than 800 people died when the excursion steamer "Eastland" capsized at Chicago’s Clark Street dock.
(AP, 6/24/00)
1915 Aug 19, Ring Lardner Jr., author and screenwriter (A Star Is Born), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1916 Apr 20, The Chicago Cubs, after merging with the Chicago Whales, began playing at Weeghman Park. In 1926 the stadium became known as Wrigley Field.
(http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/nl/WrigleyField.htm)
1917 The Chicago White Sox won the Baseball World Series.
(SFC, 10/28/04, p.A7)
1918 Nov 24, Frank O. King premiered his comic strip "Gasoline Alley" in the Chicago Tribune. He aged his characters over time.
(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)(WSJ, 6/20/01, p.A1)(www.toonopedia.com/gasalley.htm)
1918 Dec 31, Kid Gleason replaced Pants Rowland as White Sox manager.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1918 Frank King premiered his comic strip "Gasoline Alley" in the Chicago Tribune.
(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)
1918 Walter Jacobs opened a rental business in Chicago that grew to become Hertz. In 1923 he sold his business to John Hertz. GM owned Hertz from 1826 to 1953. Ford acquired Hertz in 1985 and in 2005 announced plans to sell it to a consortium of 3 private equity firms in a deal valued at $15 billion.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.60)
1919 Jul 21, A dirigible crashed through a bank skylight killing 13 in Chicago.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1919 Jul 27, In a Chicago race riot 15 whites and 23 blacks were killed with 500 injured.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1919 Jul 30, Federal troops were called out to put down Chicago race riots.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1919 Aug 18, Anti-Cigarette League of America formed in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1919 Aug 31, John Reed formed the Communist Labor Party in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world unite!"
(HN, 8/31/98)(YN, 8/31/99)(MC, 8/31/01)
1919 Oct 1, In baseball’s World Series the Chicago White Sox faced the Cincinnati Reds in a best of 9 games. The White Sox intentionally threw the series to satisfy gamblers in what became known as the Black Sox Scandal. 8 players were banned from baseball for life. In 1963 Eliot Asinof described the events in his book “Eight men Out." The 1988 baseball film "Eight Men Out" was directed by John Sayles.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.8)(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.33)(AH, 10/04, p.14)
1919 Oct 9, The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, defeating the Chicago White Sox 10-5 at Comiskey Park. The victory turned hollow amid charges eight of the White Sox had thrown the Series in what became known as the "Black Sox" scandal.
(AP, 10/9/08)
1919 Draugas, a Lithuanian newspaper, began daily publication. It was published by the congregation of Lithuanian Marion fathers in Chicago.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1919 James Henry Breasted (1865-1935), archeologist, founded the Oriental Institute as part of the Univ. of Chicago. The collection was opened to the public in 1931.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Institute,_Chicago)(WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A25)(AM, 7/05, p.56)
1919 Henry Ford sued the Chicago Tribune for libel after the newspaper called him an "ignorant" anarchist. Ford won the suit and was awarded 6 cents. He soon began amassing material of historical value.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A7)
1920 Feb 14, The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maude Wood Park.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1920 Jun 10, The Republican convention in Chicago endorsed woman suffrage.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1920 Jun 11, The US Republican Senate bosses gathered in rooms 408 & 410 of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago and selected Sen. Warren Harding to break a deadlock. Harding, disregarding his mistress of four years, Nan Britton, declared himself to be of good character. The Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. Britton later wrote a book, "The President’s Daughter," about their relations and claimed that she bore his daughter. Harding had another mistress named Carrie Phillips. In 1999 Martin Blinder published his novel "Fluke" based on Harding's political career and presidency.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(Hem, 8/96, p.84)(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A8)(SFEC, 5/2/99, BR p.8)
1920 Jun 12, Republicans in Chicago nominated Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice president.
(HN, 6/12/98)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1920 Jun 20, Race riots in Chicago, Illinois left two dead and many wounded.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1920 Sep 22, Chicago grand jury convened to investigate charges that 8 White Sox players conspired to fix the 1919 World Series.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1920 Sep 27, Eight Chicago White Sox players were charged with fixing the 1919 World Series. [see Sep 28]
(HN, 9/27/98)
1920 Sep 28, 8 White Sox players were indicted for throwing the 1919 World Series (Black Sox scandal). [see Sep 27]
(MC, 9/28/01)
1920 Oct 23, Chicago grand jury indicted Abe Attell, Hal Chase, and Bill Burns as go-betweens in Black Sox World Series scandal.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1920s Retail tycoon Marshall Field built the Merchandise Mart as a city within a city. The 25 floors of retail space was connected by underground railroad to other important places of commerce.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A1)
1920 Radio station WLS was named after the slogan of Sears, "World's Largest Store."
(WSJ, 7/23/99, p.W7)
1921 Jul 18, The prosecution gave its opening remarks in the trial of the Chicago Black Sox, accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/blacksox/chronology.html)
1921 Aug 2, A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal.
(AP, 8/2/01)
1921 Aug 3, Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to reinstate the former Chicago White Sox players implicated in the "Black Sox" scandal, despite their acquittals in a jury trial.
(AP, 8/3/01)
1921 Grigsby-Grunow began business operations in Chicago. In 1928 they began manufacturing radio receivers under the Majestic brand name. The company went bankrupt in 1933.
(SFC, 3/9/05, p.G4)
1922 Mar 31, Richard Kiley, actor (Man of La Mancha, Endless Love), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1922 Apr 15, Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicago (1983-1987), was born.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1922 Jul 26, Jason Robards Jr, actor (A Thousand Clowns, Any Wednesday), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1922 Aug 26, The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 26-23.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, Z1 p.2)
1922 Oct 28, The 1st coast-to-coast radio broadcast of a football game. WEAF in New York broadcast the first collegiate football game to be heard across the US. Princeton played against the University of Chicago at Stagg Field in Chicago, Illinois. Telephone lines transmitted the game to New York City, where the radio transmission started. Queensboro Realty Co. paid $100 for 10 minutes of air time. (Princeton 21, Chicago 18.)
(http://senior.billings.k12.mt.us/otrannex/history/radio.htm)
1922 W. Clement Stone (1902-2002) began his Combined Registry & Co., an insurance operation, in Chicago, Illinois with $100. In 1987 it was renamed Aon Corp. By the time of his death Combined Int’l. had grown to a $2 billion concern.
(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.D1)(www.combined.com/2130_history.html)
1923 Jan 8, Giorgio Tozzi, basso (Met Opera, Boris, Don Giovanni), was born in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1923 Frank Willard (1958) created the Moon Mullins comic strip for the Chicago Tribune. The strip continued with other artists following Willard’s death until 1991.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.G6)
1924 Apr 11, WLS-AM in Chicago IL began radio transmissions.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1924 Apr 14, Louis Henri Sullivan (67), Chicago architect (Wainwright building St Louis), died. He wrote an autobiography entitled "The Autobiography of an Idea." "Imagination is the greatest of man’s single working powers - and the trickiest; as the intellect is the frailest, the most subject to derangement, the most given to cowardice and betrayal, unless it be held steady and sane by the power of instinct."
(Hem., 7/95, p.82)(MC, 4/14/02)
1924 Apr 19, The "National Barn Dance" premiered on WLS in Chicago.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1924 Apr 30, Sheldon Harnick, lyricist (Fiorello, Fiddler on the Roof), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1924 May 21, Bobby Franks (14) was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. (19) and Richard Loeb (18), two rich college kids of the University of Chicago. The meticulously planned crime might never have been solved had Leopold's unique eyeglasses not been found near Franks' body. They were defended by Clarence Darrow, who pleaded his clients guilty in order to keep the case from a jury. Richard Loeb was a cousin of Bobby Franks. The sensational two-month trial generated an outcry in favor of execution, but Judge John Caverly sentenced the two to life imprisonment. Loeb was killed in a prison fight in 1936. Leopold, with the support of Prosecutor Crowe, was released from prison in 1958 and died of a heart attack in 1971. In 1956 Meyer Levin authored “Compulsion," an account of the case. A play dramatizing the case was written in 1995 by John Logan. In 2008 Simon Baatz authored “For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago."
(AP, 5/21/97)(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-12)(AP, 5/21/97)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W8)
1924 Jun 7, Dolores Gray, singer, actress (Designing Woman, Kismet), was born in Chicago.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1924 Sep 10, Leopold and Loeb were found guilty of deliberate, casual murder in Chicago.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1925 Aug 28, Donald O’Connor (d.2003), dancer, actor (Singing in the Rain, Anything Goes), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 8/28/00)(SSFC, 9/28/03, p.A33)
1925 Chicago's Soldier Field, designed by Holabird & Root, was dedicated. It was built largely for track and field and had over 100,000 seats. In 2003 a new football stadium was completed within the colonnades of the original memorial.
(WSJ, 10/8/03, p.D6)
1925 The Chicago Board of Trade Clearing Corp. became the legal counter-party to buyers and sellers of derivative contracts.
(Econ, 11/14/09, p.94)
1925 The 1st Sears retail store opened on Chicago’s west side.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1926 Apr 9, Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy Magazine, was born in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner)
1926 The Aunt Jemima Mills Co. was purchased by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima)
1926 The Hawthorne Arms Hotel, headquarters for Al Capone, was machine-gunned by rival mobsters.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A13)
1927 Apr, Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded Match Box Blues in Chicago on Okey Records.
(http://tinyurl.com/kenpy7u)
1927 Jul 14, John William Chancellor, news anchor (NBC, VOA), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1927 Sep 22, Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against Jack Dempsey in 10 rounds in the famous "long-count" fight in Chicago. Referee Dave Barry stopped his count in the 7th round. Boxer Gene Tunney was down; but Jack Dempsey, had not yet returned to his corner. By the time the ref was able to resume counting, Tunney was able to get to his feet. He got an extra 2 to 5 seconds....just what he needed. Tunney won the fight and retained his world heavyweight boxing championship.
(http://tinyurl.com/4uqu9o5)(AP, 9/22/97)
1927 Oct 1, Tom Bosley, actor (Howard-Happy Days, Murder She Wrote), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1927 In Chicago Al Capone's support allowed Big Bill Thompson to return to the mayor's office. Pledging to clean up Chicago and remove the crooks, Thompson instead turned his attention to the reformers, whom he considered the real criminals.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hale_Thompson)
1927 Sears launched its Craftsman and Kenmore brands.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1927-1934 The Chicago Tribune published an edition in Paris. In 1987 Waverley Root authored “The Paris Edition."
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.W8)
1928 Mar 19, "Amos & Andy" debuted on radio with the NBC Blue Network, WMAQ Chicago.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1928 The int'l. Early Birds organization for early aviators was founded. Members included solo fliers prior to Dec 17, 1916. The last member, George D. Grundy Jr., died in 1998 at age 99.
(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)
1929 Feb 14, In Chicago the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a garage of the Moran gang as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down. Police found seven men shot to death in a North Chicago garage. With the exception of one, the men were working under George "Bugs" Moran, a well-known bootlegger and gangster, and staunch rival of Al "Scarface" Capone. Members of Capone’s gang lured the victims into the garage under the guise of selling cheap alcohol. Then two of Capone’s men, dressed up as police officers, staged a raid. Believing them to be real, Moran’s outfit turned over its weapons, turned to face the wall and waited for the arrest. It was at that point that the hit on Moran’s men took place. Neighbors heard the gunfire, but assumed the police were involved when Capone’s costumed officers escorted the gunmen outside and together, they all fled the scene.
(TMC, 1994, p.1929)(AP, 2/14/98)(HNQ, 2/14/02)
1929 Sep 11, David S. Broder, journalist (Pulitzer 1973), was born in Chicago Hgts., Ill.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1930 Jan 9, Earth rumbling awakened Chicagoans- no earthquake, seismologists said. The stockyards sprang a leak and a foul stench covered the city for three hours.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1930 Apr 1, Leo Hartnett of the Chicago Cubs broke the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, CA.
(OTD)
1930 May 10, The 1st US planetarium opened in Chicago.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1930 Sep 17, The Daily Illustrated Times of Chicago said that warrants had been issued for the arrest of 26 men named as public enemies. They included Alphonse “Scarface" Capone, Tony “Mops" Volpe, “Machine Gun Jack" McGurn, George “Bugs" Moran, Edward “Spike" O’Donnell, William “Klondike" O’Donnell, George “Red" Barker, and William “Three-fingers" White.
(SFC, 9/16/05, p.F6)
1930 Nov 13, In California the Fresno Bee reported that Al Capone, Chicago gangland leader, had banned the sale of grape juice concentrates in Chicago. The order was said to be a warning to California grape farmers that they need his approval to sell their products in certain markets.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.F7)
1930s William L Shirer succeeded George Seldes as the Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Shirer later wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)
1931 Apr 15, Florian Zabach, violinist (Hot Canary, Club), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1931 Oct 24, Al (Alphonse) Capone, prohibition era Chicago gangster, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion.
(HN, 10/24/98)(MC, 10/24/01)
1931 Sears started Allstate Insurance Co. Employees received group life insurance.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1931 Anton Cermak became mayor of Chicago. He was assassinated March 8, 1933.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)(www.cermak.com/mayor/index3.html)
1932 Jun 16, President Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis were renominated at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
(AP, 6/16/02)
1932 Jul 1, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for president at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
(AP, 7/1/07)
1932 Jul 2, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the nomination for president on the 4th ballot at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
(ON, 12/07, p.3)
1932 Sep 19, Mike Royko, journalist (Chic Daily News) and author (Boss), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1932 Sears opened its first downtown Chicago store on State St. Some 15,000 customers visited on opening day.
(SFC, 1/23/14, p.C3)
1933 Feb 15, President-elect Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami. Giuseppa Zangara, an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five pistol shots at the back of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt's head from only twenty-five feet away. While all five rounds missed their target, each bullet found a separate victim. One of these was Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. [see Mar 8, 20]
(AP, 2/15/98)(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)
1933 Mar 6, Anton J. Cermak (b.1873), Czech-born 35th mayor of Chicago, died in Miami following the Feb 15th assassination attempt by Giuseppe Zangara, who was trying to shoot FDR. Zangara was executed in the electric chair on March 21, 1933. Cermak became the 2nd US mayor to die in a political killing.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)(www.cermak.com/mayor/index3.html)
1933 Jul 1, Italian Air Force Gen. Italo Balbo led a flight of twenty-four flying boats on a round-trip flight from Rome to the Century of Progress in Chicago, Illinois. The flight had seven legs and ended on Lake Michigan near Burnham Park on Aug 12. In honor of this feat, Mussolini donated a column from Ostia to the city of Chicago; it can still be seen along the Lakefront Trail, a little south of Soldier Field.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo_Balbo)
1933 Jul 6, The first All-Star baseball game was played, at Chicago's Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.
(AP, 7/6/08)
1933 Dec 17, In the first world championship football game, the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants, 23-21, at Wrigley Field.
(AP, 12/17/08)
1933 Chicago hosted the "Century of Progress Exhibition." The Sally Rand Fan Dancer clock made by Lux was sold at the Chicago World’s Fair. Sally Rand performed her titillating fan dance 16 times a day at the fair and was one of the most publicized attractions.
(HT, 3/97, p.14)(SFC, 4/15/98, Z1 p.6)
1933 Economists from the Univ. of Chicago sent Pres. Roosevelt a memo outlining a plan to split the two main functions of banks: taking deposits and making loans. This came to be known as the Chicago Plan. Roosevelt opted instead for deposit insurance.
(Econ, 6/7/14, p.82)
1934 May 26, Century of Progress Exposition reopened in Chicago.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1934 Jul 4, Boxer Joe Louis won his first professional fight, knocking out Jack Kracken in the first round in Chicago. He won 12 fights that year, all in Chicago, 10 by knockout.
(HN, 7/4/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis#Early_life_and_career)
1934 Jul 22, John Dillinger (33) was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater. FBI agent Murray Faulkner, brother of William Faulkner, helped in the killing. In 1924 Dillinger was sent to the Indiana State Reformatory for holding up a grocer, and was later transferred to the Michigan City, Indiana, State Prison, where he hatched a plan for a mass breakout with a group of other infamous convicts. When Dillinger was paroled in 1933, he robbed several banks to provide money for his friends’ escape. He was caught in Ohio, but by then his friends had escaped and they helped him break out. Dillinger’s supposed death remains mysterious. Anna Sage, the "Lady in Red," had agreed to deliver Dillinger to the FBI if they would stop deportation proceedings against her. The setup went as planned, and the FBI shot the man with Anna Sage. Dillinger was famous for the size of his penis, which was "reportedly" severed and shown at exclusive viewings.
(AP, 7/22/97)(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)(HNPD, 7/22/98)(HN, 7/22/99)
1934 Chicago’s Art Deco tower at 135 La Salle St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1935 Jan 19, The first pair of Jockey briefs showed up in a Marshall Field’s window in Chicago.
(SSFC, 11/29/09, p.N6)
1935 Dec 1, Lou Rawls, vocalist (Dean Martin's Golddiggers, Natural Man), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1935 Katharine Kuh (1904-1994) opened Chicago’s 1st avant garde art gallery. She closed it in 1943 and joined the Art Institute of Chicago, eventually rising to become its 1st female curator. In 2006 Avis Burman edited Kuh’s memoir titled: “My Love Affair with Modern Art: Behind the Scenes with a Legendary Curator.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.81)
1935 Jay Berwanger of the Univ. of Chicago won the first Downtown Athletic Club trophy. The trophy was renamed the Heisman trophy in 1937 following the death of former coach and club director John Heisman.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.C18)
1936 Dec 11, An eerie glow over Chicago took place that some believe was a rare display of the Aurora Borealis.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1937 May 30, The Memorial Day Massacre took place. Ten union demonstrators were killed and 84 wounded when police opened fire in front of the South Chicago Republic Steel plant. Earlier in 1937 the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee had secured recognition by U.S. Steel as the workers' bargaining agency and had won a number of concessions. "Little Steel," under the leadership of Republic's Tom Girdler firmly opposed the union demands, leading to the deadly demonstration. A newsreel film of the Republic Steel strike riots was made.
(AP, 5/30/97)(SFC,11/21/97, p.C17)(HNQ, 5/25/98)
1937 Jun 22, Joe Louis began his reign as world heavyweight boxing champion by knocking out Jim Braddock in the eighth round of their fight in Chicago.
(AP, 6/22/08)
1937 Oct 31, Tom Paxton, folk singer and songwriter (Forest Lawn), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1937 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), renowned photographer, was recruited to be the founding head of the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The design school reconstituted itself as the School of Design and then the Institute of Design.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.D10)
1938 Mar 13, Clarence S. Darrow (80), famed attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial, died in Chicago.
(AP, 3/13/98)(MC, 3/13/02)
1938 Oct 9, Copland's ballet "Billy the Kid," premiered in Chicago. [see Oct 16]
(MC, 10/9/01)
1938 Oct 16, Billy the Kid, a ballet by Aaron Copland, opened in Chicago. [see Oct 9]
(HN, 10/16/98)
1938 Nov 6, The Red Ryder and Little Beaver cartoon strip by Fred Harman (b.1902) began appearing in the Chicago Sun. It went out of syndication in 1964.
(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.D8)
1938 Chicago held its first amateur air show. Lola Peppers (d.2000 at 91), one of the first black women to receive a pilot’s license, executed figure eights, spirals and the "dangerous stall."
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A21)
1939 Jan 15, In the 1st NFL pro bowl the NY Giants beat the All Stars 13-10 in Wrigley Field.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1939 Aug 29, William Friedkin, director (Exorcist, Cruising, French Connection), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1939 The Blommer Chocolate Co. was founded.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.6)
1939 The Univ. of Chicago decided to drop college football.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.C18)
1940 Jun 28, The Quiz Kids began airing on US NBC radio from Chicago. It was created by Chicago public relations and advertising man Louis G. Cowan, and originally sponsored by Alka-Seltzer. In 1945 it began airing on NBC TV. Ruth Duskin Feldman (1934-2015) joined the program at age 7 and left the program soon after turning 16. In 1982 she authored “Whatever Happened to the Quiz Kids: Perils and profits of Growing Up Gifted."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_Kids)(SFC, 6/11/15, p.D6)
1940 Jun 30, "Brenda Starr," a cartoon strip by Dale Messick, a woman, appeared in a Chicago Tribune insert. In Dec, 2010, Tribune Media Services announced that it was ending the feature’s newspaper syndication.
(SFC, 12/10/10, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Starr_%28comic_strip%29)
1940 Jul 18, The Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated President Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office.
(AP, 7/18/00)
1940 John Sengstacke (d.1997 at 84) took over the Defender newspaper after the death of his uncle, Robert Abbott. It was the largest black-owned newspaper in the country with a circulation of some 200,000 and was a major voice in luring Southern blacks to factory jobs in Northern cities.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)
1941 Apr 3, Walton's overture "Scapino," premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1941 Apr 26, First organ played at a baseball stadium, Chicago, Illinois.
(HN, 4/26/98)
1941 Walter H. Zinn (d.2000 at 93), nuclear physicist, oversaw the construction of the world's first nuclear reactor in Chicago. Zinn directed the Argonne center to develop nuclear power for peaceful use from 1946-1956.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A19)
1942 Mar 18, Black players, Jackie Robinson and Nate Moreland, requested a tryout with the Chicago White Sox. They were allowed to work out.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1942 Jul 13, Harrison Ford, actor (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Frantic), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1942 Oct 2, Enrico Fermi and others demonstrated the 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. [see Dec 2]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1942 Nov 18, Jeffrey Siegel, pianist (Chicago Symph), was born in Chicago Ill.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1942 Dec 2, A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago. On the squash court underneath a football stadium of the University of Chicago, the first nuclear chain reaction was set off. At 3:45 p.m., control rods were removed from the "nuclear pile" of uranium and graphite, revealing that neutrons from fissioning uranium split other atoms, which in turn split others in a chain reaction. The reaction was part of the Manhattan Project, the United States' top-secret plan to develop an atomic bomb. The group of scientists was led by Enrico Fermi and they proved that building an atomic bomb would be feasible. Dr. Alexander Langsdorf was one of the designers of the first 2 nuclear reactors that followed the first sustained nuclear chain reaction at the Univ. of Chicago. The first and last atomic bombs ever used in war were dropped on Japan in 1945.
(TMC, 1994, p.1942)(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-10)(AP, 12/2/97)(HNPD, 12/2/98)
1942 Dec 9, Dick Butkus, NFL hall of fame linebacker (Bears) and sportscaster, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1943 Nov 26, Edward H "Butch" O'Hare, US pilot, Lt-Comdr (Chicago Airport named for him), died in battle.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1943 Dec 11, Donna Mills, actress (Knots Landing, Incident), was born in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1944 Jun 26, The Republican national convention opened in Chicago with a keynote speech by California Governor Earl Warren.
(AP, 6/26/04)
1944 Jun 28, The Republican national convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president.
(AP, 6/28/04)
1944 Jul 19, The Democratic National Convention convened in Chicago with the renomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a foregone certainty.
(AP, 7/19/08)
1944 Nov, An Int'l. Civil Aviation Conference established English as the air traffic control language. The Chicago Convention on air travel attempted to lay down technical and legal rules for the post-war order in int’l. air transport.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.A25)(Econ, 10/4/03, p.66)(Econ, 7/9/11, p.69)
1945 Joseph P. Kennedy bought Chicago’s Merchandise Mart for $13 million, less than half of what it cost to build.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A1)
1946 Jan 26, Gene Siskel (d.1999) was born in Chicago. He later achieved recognition as movie critic with his counterpart Roger Ebert. Siskel and Ebert were first paired together in 1975 for a local PBS show called "Opening Soon at a Theater Near You."
(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.D8)
1946 Apr 20, 1st baseball game telecast was in Chicago with the Cards vs. Cubs.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1946 Sep 1, The SF 49ers under coach Lawrence “Buck" Shaw, played their first home game at Kezar Stadium before a crowd of 45,000. They beat the Chicago Rockets 34-14.
(SSFC, 1/22/12, p.A2)(www.49ers.com/team/history/founder.html)
1946 Nov 12, 1st "autobank" (banking by car) opened (Chicago).
(MC, 11/12/01)
1946 Muddy Waters began working regularly at clubs in Chicago playing an amplified electric guitar and local strudios began recording his songs.
(ON, 8/20/11, p.6)
1946 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (b.1895), renowned photographer and the founding head of the Institute of Design in Chicago, died.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.D10)
1946-1948 Wayne Miller (27) on a Guggenheim fellowship documented the South Side of Chicago in photographs.
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.6)
1947 Apr 16, Carol Mosely Braun, later US Senator for Illinois (1992-1998), was born in Chicago.
(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A2)
1947 May 7, Nick DeJohn, former capodecina in the Chicago Family, was strangled and his body stuffed into the trunk of a car parked on a San Francisco street. DeJohn had reportedly fled Chicago after murdering several other gang members and was living in Santa Rosa, California, under an alias at the time of his death.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/8fjm7)
1947 Jun 19, The Tucker automobile premiered in Chicago.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1947 Oct 13, The popular children's television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premiered as a local Chicago show. In its first year, the show's name varied between "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and "Junior Jamboree," but it was essentially the same show.
(http://www.kukla.tv/)
1947 Nov 30, David Mamet, playwright and director (Speed the Plow, House of Games), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1947 Robert Hutchins (1899-1977), president of the Univ. of Chicago, and Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001), American philosopher, launched the Great Books Foundation.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_Foundation)
1948 Apr 5, WGN TV channel 9 in Chicago, IL., began broadcasting.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1948 May 9, The first television guide, called TV Forecast, was published by Les Vihon and 3 partners in Chicago. It became the basis for TV Guide.
(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W10)
1948 Jul 25, Steve Goodman, singer, songwriter (Somebody Else’s Trouble), was born in Chicago.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1948 Nov 3, The Chicago Tribune printed the headline "Dewey defeats Truman." Later votes threw the election in the opposite direction. And later editions of other papers ran pictures showing Truman holding up the Tribune and grinning ear to ear.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1948 A Greek Orthodox church was built on Chicago’s south side. In 1972 it was purchased by the Nation of Islam and renovated under the name Mosque Maryam. In 2008 Minister Louis Farrakhan opened the mosque to the public in a rededication ceremony.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.A2)
1948 In Chicago Clint Youle (d.1999 at 83) became television's first weatherman.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A17)
1949 Jan 24, John Belushi, comedian, actor (SNL, Blues Brothers), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1950 Jun 17, Surgeon Richard Lawler performed the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.
(HN, 6/17/01)
1951 Jul 12, A mob tried to keep a black family from moving into all-white Cicero, Ill.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1952 Jul 11, The Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin (1900-1974), the governor of Maryland (1951-1959), gave the nominating speech.
(AP, 7/11/97)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.23)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_McKeldin)
1952 Jul 21, Robin Williams, American comedian and actor, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1952 Nov 30, Mandy Patinkin, actor and singer (Yentl, Alien Nation, Chicago Hope), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1953 Aug 4, Black families moved into the Trumbull Park housing project in Chicago.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1954 Jul 2, Wendy Schaal, actress (It's a Living, Julie-Fantasy Is), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1954 Aug 12, Sam J. Jones, actor (Chris-Code Red, The Highway Man), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1954 Leonard and Bernice Lavin (1925-2007) purchased a West Coast cosmetics company from Blaine Culver for nearly half a million dollars. They moved the operation to Chicago, renamed the company Alberto-Culver and dumped all the products except VO5. In 1965 the company went public on the NYSE.
(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.A8)
1955 Apr 5, Richard J. Daley was elected mayor of Chicago. He served 6 terms until his death in 1976.
(www.chipublib.org/004chicago/mayors/daley1.html)(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.14)
1955 Aug 28, Emmett Till (14), a black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., by white men after he had supposedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. Till’s beaten body was found three days later. His left eye and an ear were missing, as were most of his teeth. His nose was rushed and there was a hole in his right temple. Eyewitnesses linked Carolyn’s husband Roy Bryant and half-brother J.W. Milam to the murder. Bryant and Milam were indicted Sep 10 for a trial on Sep 19. Both were acquitted by an all-white jury. Bryant and Milan later confessed to the killing in a magazine interview. The area was a cotton-trading center where the white Citizens Councils maintained their regional headquarters. In 2004 the US Justice Dept. opened a criminal investigation into the case. In 2005 the US Senate acknowledged a share in the boy’s death.
(AP, 8/28/99)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A4)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A2)(SFC, 9/9/05, p.F5)(SFC, 3/17/06, p.A5)(SFC, 7/25/13, p.A20)
1955 Aug 31, 1st sun-powered automobile demonstrated, Chicago, Ill.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1955 Esther Friedman (2002) took over the Ann Landers advice column in the Chicago Sun Times. Pauline Friedman, her twin sister, went on to write the Dear Abby advice column. Esther was the wife of Jules Lederer, founder of Budget Rent A Car. They divorced in 1975.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)(Reuters, 6/23/02)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A10)
1955 Robert R. McCormick (b.1880), head of the Chicago Tribune, died. In 1997 Richard Norton Smith published his biography: "The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick."
(WSJ, 6/19/97, p.A16)
1956 Apr 14, Ampex Corporation demonstrated its first commercial videotape recorder, later renamed the Mark IV, at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention in Chicago.
(AP, 4/14/00)
1957 Margaret Hillis (d.1998 at 76) founded the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.21)
1958 Jul 16, Michael Flatley, Irish choreographer (Lord of Dance), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1958 Dec 1, In Chicago Our Lady of Angels School burned. 92 students and 3 nuns were killed.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1958 Chicago’s 18-story Inland Steel Building at 30 W. Monroe St. was built. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe and built by Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1959 Mar 18, The publisher of Big Table Magazine deposited at the Chicago Post Office several hundred copies of its first issue of Big Table Magazine. The contents consisted of a novel by Jack Kerouac, "Old Angel Midnight," two poems by Edward Dahlberg, "Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs and three poems by Gregory Corso. The Post Office General Counsel later alleged that the first and third articles were obscene and filthy. The magazine was published by Roland Pitschel (1942-2009) and his sister.
(Fremontia, 7/09, p.24)(www.usps.com/judicial/1959deci/1-150d.htm)
1959 Dec 16, In Chicago the “Second City" improvisational theater was founded.
(Fremontia, 7/09, p.24)
1959 In Chicago Kikkoman first introduced soy sauce to American consumers at an International Trade Fair.
(Econ, 4/11/09, p.68)
1959-1974 Chicago’s Federal Center at 219 S. Dearborn St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1960 Mar 13, NFL's Chicago Cardinals moved to St Louis.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1960 Apr 12, Bill Veeck and Chicago’s Comiskey Park debuted the "Exploding Scoreboard."
(MC, 4/12/02)
1960 Jul 27, Vice President Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
(AP, 7/27/00)
1960 Nov 8, John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in the US pres. elections. Popular legend later held that the political machine of Richard Daley in Chicago provided the necessary votes for Kennedy to win Illinois and the elections.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.B5)
1960 Dec 3, Daryl Hannah, film star, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SSFC, 2/14/04, Par p.18)
1960 John F. Kennedy asked his friend Frank Sinatra for help in the West Virginia primary for presidential elections. Sinatra asked his friend Sam Giancana to assist in this matter. The story is documented in a 1995 biography of Sinatra by his daughter Nancy titled: "Frank Sinatra: An American Legend." JFK used his young lover Judith Campbell to carry messages and money to Sam Giancana. The story was told in a 1997 A&E TV show series titled "Godfathers," that focused on the biography of Sam Giancana.
(WSJ, 12/14/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 1/8/96, p.B2)
1960 Joseph P. Kennedy was later reported to have held a meeting with Chicago mobster Sam Giancana to encourage the mob-run unions to vote for JFK. The events were later described in the 1997 book "The Dark Side of Camelot" by Seymour Hersh.
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.A12)
1960 Hugh Hefner (b.1926), in partnership with Victor Lownes and restaurateur Arnold Morton (d.2005), opened the 1st Playboy Club in Chicago.
(SFC, 5/30/05, p.B4)
1960 The Univ. of Chicago’s business school launched its Center for Research in Security Prices following a donation by banker Louis Engel.
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.90)
1960-1966 Marina City, a pair of cylindrical apartment towers, was constructed built. The design was by Bertrand Goldberg (d.1997 at 84).
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)
1961 Sep 1, TWA Flight 529, a Lockheed Constellation L-049 propliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Midway Airport in Chicago, killing all 73 passengers and 5 crew on board; it was at the time the deadliest single plane disaster in US history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_529)
1961 Sep 8, Frank Rosenthal (1929-2008), friend of Chicago mobsters, appeared before a Senate hearing on gambling and organized crime. He invoked the Fifth Amendment 38 times.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)
1961 In Chicago the DuSable Museum of African American History was founded by Margaret Burroughs.
(Econ, 9/12/15, p.31)
1961 A "Bozo the Clown" show began on Chicago’s WGN-TV. The last show was taped in 2001.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.E3)
1962 Mar, The Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union Local 130 began dumping containers of green dye into the Chicago River to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
(SSFC, 3/16/14, p.A17)
1962 The Dan Ryan freeway opened along the south side of Chicago. It was named after a late president of the Cook county Board of Commissioners.
(WSJ, 4/21/06, p.A1)
1962 Sears, the Chicago-based retailer, hired film star Vincent Price to pick art pieces and serve as spokesman for selling its “Vincent price Collection of Fine Art."
(WSJ, 8/23/05, p.D8)
1963 Oct 22, 225,000 students boycotted Chicago schools in a Freedom Day protest.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1963 Oct, Pres. Kennedy spoke with Mayor Daley of Chicago to get congressman Roland Libonati to vote the Party line. The conversation was recorded.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.43)
1964 Chicago’s Marina Center at 300 N. State St. was built. The pair of 60-story towers were designed by Bertram Goldberg.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1965 Aug 12, There was a race riot in West Side of Chicago.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1965 Eugene Fama (b.1939), American economist, first proposed his efficient market hypothesis at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as an academic concept of study through his published Ph.D. thesis.
(Econ, 8/8/09, p.67)(www.e-m-h.org/history.html)
1966 Jan 17, Martin Luther King Jr. opened a campaign in Chicago.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1966 Jul 12, There were race riots in Chicago.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1966 Jul 14, In Chicago Richard Speck murdered 8 student nurses in a Chicago dormitory. He made a videotape in prison and admitted to the killings. Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Paison; all nursing students at the South Chicago Community Hospital; were raped then strangled or stabbed to death by Richard Speck. One survivor, Cora Amurao, identified Richard Speck, and he was put in jail. He was serving consecutive sentences of 50 to 150 years and died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. The video shows him having sex and snorting cocaine in prison.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(TMC, 1994, p.1966)(AP, 7/14/97)
1966 Aug 5, Martin Luther King Jr. was stoned during a march in Chicago.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1967 Apr 21, Northern Illinois was struck by 17 tornadoes, including several in the Chicago metropolitan area. One violent tornado moved through Belvidere (east of Rockford), killing 24 people and injuring another 450, including 13 deaths at the local high school. Damage to Belvidere totaled about $20 million, including destruction of 400 cars at the local Chrysler plant. A second violent tornado touched down in Elgin and moved northeast to Lake Zurich, causing $10 million damage. A third violent tornado touched down near Palos Hills and moved across the south side of Chicago to Lake Michigan. This tornado struck during Friday rush hour, and many of the 33 deaths and 500 injuries occurred in vehicles stopped at traffic lights. Over $50 million damage was reported from the tornado outbreak.
(www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/trivia/aprtriv.php)
1967 A record 23 inches of snow fell in Chicago.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A5)
1968 Aug 26, The Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago. Thousands of antiwar demonstrators took to Chicago's streets to protest the Vietnam War during the Democratic National Convention.
(AP, 8/26/08)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1968 Aug 27, Tom Haden, anti-war organizer, was beaten up, put in a paddy wagon and whisked off to a Cook County Jail.
(SFC, 8/18/96, Z1 p1)
1968 Aug 28, In Chicago, Ill., Vice-President Hubert Horatio Humphrey was nominated by the Democrats for US Presidency on the first ballot. Riots broke out outside the Democratic National Convention as police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687) (TMC, 1994, p.1968)(Hem, 8/96, p.86-88)(AP, 8/28/97)
1968 Aug 28, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff (1910-1998) nominated George McGovern for the US Presidency and strongly criticized Chicago’s Mayor Daly for his strong-arm tactics in controlling protestors at the Democratic National Convention.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A5)(www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/abrahamribicoff1968dnc.htm)
1968 Aug 29, Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie was chosen to be the Democratic nominee for vice president at the party's convention in Chicago.
(AP, 8/29/08)
1968 Oct 26, Illinois state and the city of Chicago recognized Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable (1745-1818), a Haitian-born sea captain, as the founder of Chicago.
(www.usps.com/communications/community/_pdf/bhm06_poster.pdf)(http://tinyurl.com/cnt6tk)
1969 Prof. Edward Shils (1911-1995), Univ. of Chicago sociologist, published "Dreams of Plenitude, Nightmares of Scarcity" in which he compared the radicalism of the 1930s to that of the 1960s.
(WSJ, 7/21/97, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Shils)
1968 Wayne Huizenga and Dean Buntrock established Waste Management Inc. in Chicago. It became a public company in 1971.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A14)
1969 Mar 20, The Chicago 8 were indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention.
(www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml)
1969 Sep 24, The trial of the "Chicago Eight" (later seven) began. Demonstrations began outside the court house, with the "Weatherman" group proclaiming the "Days of Rage" in protest of the trial. The Chicago Eight staged demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest the Vietnam War and its support by the top Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. These anti-Vietnam War protests were some of the most violent in American history as the police and national guardsmen beat antiwar protesters, innocent bystanders and members of the press. Five defendants (Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis) were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; the convictions were ultimately overturned. In 1970 Harold Jacobs authored "Weatherman." In 2004 Jeremy Varon authored "Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies."
(AP, 9/24/99)(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A5)
1969 Nov 5, In Chicago Judge Hoffman ordered that the trial of Bobby Seale be separated from 7 others in the Chicago 8 trial. Seale, the founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and one of the Chicago Eight, was later sentenced to four years in prison on sixteen counts of contempt of court.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/chronology.html)(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A5)
1969 Dec 4, Police stormed an apartment on the West Side and killed 2 Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Panther defense minister Bobby Rush had left the site just hours earlier.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA4)
1970 Feb 15, William Kunstler, Chicago defense attorney, got a four-year sentence on contempt charges for his conduct during the Chicago Seven trial.
(www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28417105_ITM)
1970 Feb 18, The Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968, but those convictions were later reversed. In January reporter J. Anthony Lukas published "The Barnyard Epithet and Other Obscenities: Notes on the Chicago Conspiracy Trial."
(AP, 2/18/08)(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A19)
1970 Orville Redenbacker’s Gourmet Popping corn was launched at Chicago’s Marshall Field’s. Partners Charlie Bowman (1919-2009) and Orville Redenbacker (d.1995) sold the popular brand in 1976 to Hunt-Wessen Foods Inc. The company was later acquired by ConAgra Foods.
(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.A4)
1971 Dec 18, Reverend Jesse Jackson announced in Chicago the founding of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).
(AP, 12/18/99)
1971 Mike Royko, Chicago newspaper columnist, wrote "Boss," a book on Mayor Richard M. Daley.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A6)
1972 Oct 30, 45 people were killed when an Illinois Central Gulf commuter train collided with another train in Chicago's South Side.
(AP, 10/30/97)
1972 The International Monetary market opened. The Chicago futures market first began trading financial derivatives. Leo Melamed, a former lawyer, launched currency futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A8)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.79)(Econ, 1/24/09, SR p.10)
1973 Apr 13, Henry Darger (b.1892), "outsider artist" and janitor, died in Chicago. He had spent as many as 40 years working on a 15,000 page novel titled "The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. He illustrated the work with some 300 watercolors that were lifted and recomposed from popular sources. In 2002 John MacGregor authored a 720-page study of Darger. In 2003 Jessica Wu premiered her documentary film on Darger, “In the Realms of the Unreal," at Sundance.
(SFC, 9/20/97, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger)(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A14)(SFC, 12/18/04, p.E1)
1973 Apr 26, The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) was founded.
(www.cboe.com/AboutCBOE/ShowDocument.aspx?DIR=ACNews&FILE=20050426.doc)
1973 May 3, Chicago's Sears Tower, the world's tallest building (443 m), topped out. Sears soon moved its headquarters to the Sears Tower. The building was designed by Bruce Graham (d.2010 at 84) of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 2009 the name of the structure was changed to Willis Tower as Willis Group Holdings, a London-based insurance broker, consolidated its area offices in the building.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)(SFC, 3/9/10, p.C4)(http://tinyurl.com/dhd3y6)
1973 Sep, The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was formed in Chicago as a forum to push states to adopt conservative laws.
(www.alec.org/about-alec/history/)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.32)
1973 ShoreBank, a Chicago-based lender, was founded. It set out to prove that money could be lent profitably to poor people in poor neighborhoods in what came to be known as community development finance. In 2010 it was taken over by the FDIC despite efforts to rescue it by Citigroup, JPMorganChase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.62)
1974 Pres. Gerald R. Ford appointed Edward H. Levi (d.2000), president of the Univ. of Chicago, as his attorney general.
(WSJ, 3/13/00, p.A46)
1975 Feb 25, Elijah Muhammad (b.1897 as Elijah Poole), US leader of the Detroit-based Nation of Islam and Black Muslims, died in Chicago. His son W. Deen Mohammed (1933-2008) was soon elected supreme minister of the Nation of Islam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad)(USAT, 2/13/97, p.6D)(SFC, 2/28/00, p.A3)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B5)
1975 Jun 19, Sam Giancana (b.1908), Italian-American mob boss, was murdered at his home in Oak Park, Ill. He had a romance with Phillis McGuire, of the McGuire Sisters vocal group, and was credited with assisting John F. Kennedy in efforts to win the presidential election. A movie was made in 1995 that depicts the Giancana-McGuire romance.
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Giancana)
1975 Gene Siskel (1946-1999) and Roger Ebert (b.1942) began reviewing movies on television on Chicago’s public broadcasting’s WTTV. They jumped to commercial TV in 1982.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.E2)
1975 Four Seasons opened its 74-story Water Tower Place. It included a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and condominiums.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.C9)
1976 Aug 9, John Roselli (b.1905), Chicago mobster hired by the CIA to kill Castro, was found murdered. His decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfounding Bay near Miami, Florida. Roselli had been strangled and stabbed and his legs were sawed off.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Roselli)
1976 Oct, William George Bundy (b.1957), construction worker, disappeared in Cook County, Ill. Bones of 33 men and boys were found in late 1978 under the home of John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994). In 2011 authorities identified Bundy’s bones among those found under Gacy’s Chicago house.
(SFC, 11/30/11, p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/7s5utyc)
1976 Dec 20, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley died at age 74. In 2000 Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor authored the biography: "American Pharaoh, Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation."
(AP, 12/20/97)(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)(SFEC, 7/16/00, BR p.1)
1976 Father John Cusick founded "Theology On Tap," a program aimed to reach young Catholics in bars.
(WSJ, 11/2/01, p.W15)
1976 Robert Lucas, economist at the Univ. of Chicago, explained how unanticipated inflation eroded the real value of wages. In 1995 Lucas won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.68)
1976-1998 Chicago’s Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program helped more than 25,000 voluntary participants move to more than 100 communities throughout the metropolitan area, roughly half to integrated suburbs and half to integrated neighborhoods in the city.
(www.bpichicago.org/pht/gautreaux.html)
1977 Feb 4, In Illinois 11 people were killed when two cars of a Chicago Transit Authority train fell off elevated tracks after a collision with another train.
(AP, 2/4/02)
1977 Aug 27, "Chicago" closed at 46th St Theater in NYC after 947 performances.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1977 Dec, In Chicago a gang of burglars decided to break into the home of Tony Accardo (d.1992), one of the most powerful men in organized crime history, and rob his basement vault. 6 men Accardo blamed for the heist were swiftly hunted down and murdered.
(AP, 6/18/07)
1978 Feb 16, The 1st Computer Bulletin Board System was Ward & Randy's CBBS in Chicago.
(www.historyoftheinternet.com/chap3.html)
1978 Mar 4, Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, published its last issue.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Daily_News)
1978 May 11, Carol Schmal (23) and Lawrence Lionberg (29) were murdered in Chicago. Four men were arrested for rape and murder and 2 of the men were sentenced to death. In 1999 Kenny Adams, Willie Rainge, Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams were released after a journalism class proved their innocence. The men then filed a suit and settled with Cook County for $36 million.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A3)
1978 Jul 9, American Nazi Party held a rally at Marquette Park, Chicago.
{Nazi, USA, Chicago}
(www.skokiehistory.info/chrono/nazis.html)
1978 The Chicago Daily News closed and columnist Mike Royko went to the Chicago Sun-Times.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A6)
1978 The Chicago Food Depository opened with its main mission to feed the hungry. In 1998 it began to offer chef training classes to help people get jobs.
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.A1)
1978 Restaurateur Arnold Morton (d.2005) opened the 1st Morton’s Steakhouse in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. Morton sold the chain in the late 1980s. In 2005 there were 65 Morton’s Steakhouses around the world.
(SFC, 5/30/05, p.B4)
1979 Feb 27, Jane M. Byrne confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor Michael A. Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. Byrne went on to win the election.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1979 Apr 3, Democrat Jane M. Byrne (1934-2014) was elected as the 1st woman mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Wallace D. Johnson. She continued in office to 1983 when she lost to state Sen. Harold Washington.
(AP, 4/3/97)(SSFC, 11/16/14, p.C8)
1979 May 25, 273 people died in America's worst domestic air disaster when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The left engine was lost on takeoff. 3 of the dead were on the ground.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(AP, 5/25/07)
1979 Jul 12, "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park, caused fans to go wild. It also caused the White Sox to forfeit 2nd game of a doubleheader to Tigers.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1979 Chicago closed off 9 blocks of State St. for a transit only mall. The plan failed and after 9 years it was refurbished for $24 million and opened to cars.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A1)
1979 The Pritzker Prize, an Int’l. for award for Architecture, was begun by Jay Pritzker, found of the Hyatt Hotel chain. The first winner was Philip Johnson for his Glass House in New Canaan, Conn.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.D8)(WSJ, 6/15/99, p.A16)
1980 Mar 12, A Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. The next day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in 1994.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1980 Jun 16, The film "Blues Brothers" premiered in Chicago. National release was June 20.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0080455/releaseinfo)
1980 Sep 11, Chicago mobsters Arthur "The Brain" Rachel and Joseph "The Monk" Scalise staged a daring daytime theft of the Marlborough Diamond. Both men were convicted in Britain of threatening to use a hand grenade while robbing London's posh Graff Jewelers of $3.6 million worth of goods, including the diamond. They began serving 15-year prison terms in 1984 and were released in 1993.
(AP, 6/7/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Scalise)
1980 Sep 28, Lanford Wilson's "Balm in Gilead," premiered in Chicago on the Steppenwolf stage. In 1984 it moved to NYC.
(www.tomwaitslibrary.com/Theatre/Balmingilead/balmingilead.htm)
1980 Nov 10, News anchor Dan Rather refused to pay his Chicago cabbie and CBS paid the $12.55 fare.
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200501130005)
1981 May 25, Daredevil Daniel Goodwin, wearing a "Spiderman" costume, scaled the outside of Chicago’s Sears Tower in seven and a-half hours.
(AP, 5/25/01)
1981 Nov 11, Stuntman Dan Goodwin scaled the outside of the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago in nearly six hours.
(AP, 11/11/97)
1981 The MacArthur Foundation of Chicago began a fellowship program with annual grants to allow winners to pursue creative goals.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.A25)
1982 Jan, In Chicago Lloyd Wickliffe, a security guard, was killed in a McDonald's restaurant. Later Andrew Wilson (d.2008) told his lawyers that he, and not Alton Logan, had killed the guard. On March 17 Lawyers Kunz, Coventry and Miller signed a notarized affidavit: "I have obtained information through privileged sources that a man named Alton Logan ... who was charged with the fatal shooting of Lloyd Wickliffe ... is in fact not responsible for that shooting..." In 2008 Logan was still in jail waiting for a new trial.
(AP, 4/12/08)
1982 Jul 10, Pope John Paul II named Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin of Cincinnati to succeed the late Cardinal John Cody as head of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
(AP, 7/10/02)
1982 Sep 29, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. As of 2008 the case remained unsolved.
(http://judicial-inc.biz/t_tylenol_murders_supplement.htm)(AP, 9/29/08)
1982 George Stigler (1911-1991) of the Univ. of Chicago won the Nobel Prize in Economics for studies of industrial structures and the causes and effects of public regulation. Stigler had studied the process by which people acquired information.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.80)(AP, 10/11/09)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.92)
1982 Charles F. Ehret (1923-2007), a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, released the “Argonne Anti-Jet-Lag Diet."
(WSJ, 3/10/07, p.A4)
1982 The German Otto family purchased the Chicago-based Spiegel catalog retailer.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.A6)
1983 Feb 22, Harold Washington (1922-1987) won Chicago's Democratic mayoral primary.
(www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/washingtonelected.html)
1983 Apr 29, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)
1983 Apr 30, McKinley Morganfield (68), better known as Muddy Waters, died at his suburban home in Westmont, Illinois. The US blues singer and guitarist (Mad Love) was known as the King of the Blues. The Mississippi-born guitarist revolutionized the genre in Chicago in the 1940s and 50s with his electric blues.
(www.muddywaters.com/bio.html)
1983 Bobby Rush, former Black Panther, was elected to the City Council.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA4)
1984 Sep 9, Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears broke Jim Brown's combined yardage record by reaching 15,517 yards.
(http://tinyurl.com/2sd85s)
1984 In Chicago J.S.G. Boggs (b.1955) exchanged the sketch of a dollar bill for a cup of coffee and received 10 cents change. This began his career drawing money for a living. In 1999 Lawrence Wechsler published "Boggs: A Comedy of Values."
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W8)
1984 Michael Jordan began playing for the Chicago Bulls basketball team. He retired in 1999. David Halberstam published "Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made."
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W1)
1984 The Chicago Sun-Times was bought by a group controlled by Australian magnate Rupert Murdoch who also owned the New York Post. Mike Royko quit and joined the Chicago Tribune.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A6)
1985 May 16, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls was named NBA Rookie of Year.
(http://tinyurl.com/2tostx)
1985 Navigation Technologies (NavTech) was started by Russell Shields. It grew to become one of the premier suppliers of digital-map databases in the world. By 2007 Chicago-based Navtech had around 3,000 employees in 168 offices in 30 countries. Finland’s Nokia Corp. purchased Navteq in 2007.
(Wired, Dec., '95, p.96)(AP, 10/1/07)
1986 Jan 2, Bill Veeck (71) former baseball owner, died in Chicago. He is remembered for his well-publicized stunts and promotional gimmicks, including an exploding scoreboard and a midget pinch-hitter.
(AP, 1/2/06)
1986 Jul 25, Marc Smith, NYC construction worker turned poet, held the first poetry slam at the Green Mill jazz club in Chicago. He pitted writers against one another in a test of writing skills and performance.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.83)(www.slampapi.com/new_site/background.htm)
1986 The Super Bowl was won by the Chicago Bears led by Coach Mike Ditka. Lineman William "Refrigerator" Perry scored touchdowns and the team danced to their video "The Super Bowl Shuffle."
(WSJ, 9/24/97, p.B1)
1987 Feb 26, NBA's Michael Jordan's scored 58 points for a Chicago Bull record.
(www.nba.com/jordan/hoop_86-87.html)
1987 Apr 7, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington handily won a second term, quashing a challenge by archrival Edward Vrdolyak.
(AP, 4/7/97)
1987 Nov 25, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, died at age 65 after suffering a heart attack in his City Hall office.
(AP, 11/25/97)
1987 Dec 2, After a chaotic meeting that had begun the night before, the Chicago City Council elected Eugene Sawyer acting mayor, succeeding the late Harold Washington.
(AP, 12/2/97)
1987 Allan Bloom, prof. at the Univ. of Chicago, published "The Closing of the American Mind."
(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W11)
1987 River City, a pair of 17-story undulating apartments, was completed. The design was by Bertrand Goldberg (d.1997 at 84).
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)
1988 Feb 25, Chicago gave the Cubs baseball team the right to install lights and play up to 18 night games.
(http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/history/timeline10.jsp)
1988 Aug 22, Speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago, Vice President George Bush defended the Vietnam-era National Guard service of running mate Dan Quayle, saying, "He did not go to Canada, he did not burn his draft card and he damn sure didn't burn the American flag."
(AP, 8/22/98)
1988 Chicago Tribune reporter Ann Marie Lipinski won a Pulitzer Prize for a 10-month investigative series on corruption in the Chicago City Council.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.8)
c1988 Norma Alcantana and Frank Dueno originated a scheme for smuggling in deaf Mexicans to sell trinkets on the streets and later to have traded trinket vendors to a New York operation led by Renato Paoletti-Lemus.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A4)
1989 Feb 28, In Chicago, Richard M. Daley, son of Mayor Richard J. Daley who served as mayor for 21 years, defeated acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer in a Democratic primary election.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A3) (AP, 2/28/99)
1989 Jan 25, Michael Jordan scored his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th season.
(www.nba.com/jordan/mj8889.html)
1989 Mar 12, Some 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of a student's exhibit.
(AP, 3/12/99)
1989 Apr 4, Democrat Richard M. Daley was elected mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Edward R. Vrdolyak and independent Timothy C. Evans.
(AP, 4/4/99)
1989 Apr 24, Richard M. Daley was inaugurated as the 45th mayor of Chicago. He went on to serve 6 terms. His father, Richard Daly, had served 6 terms as mayor (1955-1976).
(AP, 4/24/99)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.40)
1989 Four Seasons opened its 66-story 900 North Michigan development. It included a Four Season Hotel and a Bloomingdale’s store. It was developed by Urban Retail Properties Inc. of Chicago.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.C9)
1989 Marc Smith founded the National Poetry Slam at the Green Mill outsider poetry readings.
(WSJ, 9/10/98, p.A20)
1990 Jul 28, A blackout hit Chicago.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1990 Chicago’s 50-story tower at 181 W. Madison St. was built. It was designed by Cesar Pelli. Murals by Frank Stella decorated the lobby.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1990 The Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to Merton M. Miller (d.2000) of the Univ. of Chicago for his work in the theory of financial economics. Harry Markowitz and William F. Sharpe were also winners. Harry Markowitz won the Nobel Prize for his 1952 theory behind portfolio diversification.
(WSJ, 10/11/95, p. A-1)(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-18)(WSJ, 10/21/96, p.A18)(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A17)
1991 Jun 12, The Chicago Bulls won their first N-B-A championship, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one.
(AP, 6/12/01)
1991 Dec 5, Richard Speck, who murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 died of a heart attack in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(AP, 7/14/97)(AP, 12/5/97)
1991 The 45-story tower at 500 W. Monroe St. opened. In 2002 it was sold to the Shorenstein Co. for $250 million.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.B1)
1992 Allan Bloom, political philosopher at the Univ. of Chicago, died. His books included "The Closing of the American Mind" and a translation of Plato’s "Republic." His "Love and Friendship" was published posthumously. In 2000 Saul Bellow authored the novel "Ravelstein" based on Bloom.
(WSJ, 4/14/00, p.W11)
1993 Jan 8, In Palatine, a suburb of Chicago, 7 people were shot to death at a fried chicken restaurant. The victims were forced into two walk-in coolers and shot a total of 24 times with a .38. Some were also stabbed and one had their throat slit. Their bodies were found the next day. On May 16, 2002, Juan Luna (28) and James Degorski (29) were arrested and confessed to the killings. "They just did it to do something big."
(AP, 1/9/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown's_Chicken_massacre)
1993 Jul 26, President Clinton launched a harder sell for his budget at a conference in Chicago, accusing Republicans of gridlock.
(AP, 7/26/98)
1993 Nov 12, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago was accused by a former pre-seminary student of sexual abuse supposedly committed more than a decade earlier. (The accuser, Steven J. Cook, later withdrew his charge).
(AP, 11/12/98)
1994 Jul 15, During a baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox in Chicago's Comiskey Park, umpire Dave Phillips ordered the bat of Albert Belle of the Indians to be removed from the game for later examination for illegal cork. The bat was then stolen by pitcher Jason Grimsley, who crawled through air ducts to take it. The Indians won the game 3-2 and later returned the bat under umpire threats and Belle was given a 10-game suspension that was reduced to 7 games.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.A3)
1994 Sep 1, Chicago police found the body of 11-year-old Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, a suspect in a gang-related killing who apparently became a victim of gang violence.
(AP, 9/1/99)
1994 The United Center, owned by the NBA Bulls and NHL Blackhawks, was completed for $175 million.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A3)
1994 Delray Farms Inc., a food chain started by 3 graduates of the Harvard Business School, opened its first Chicago-area store.
(WSJ, 11/6/97, p.B1)
1994 Two boys aged 10 and 11 dropped 5-year-old Eric Morse 14 floors to his death in a housing project after he refused to steal candy for them.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A3)
1995 Mar 19, After giving up an attempt to become a major league baseball player, Michael Jordan returned to pro basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls.
(AP, 3/19/02)
1995 Aug 22, Congressman Mel Reynolds (Democrat, Illinois) was convicted in Chicago of sexual misconduct involving an underage campaign volunteer. Reynolds was sentenced to five years in prison; he was later convicted of lying to obtain loans and of illegally siphoning campaign money for personal use. Reynolds was later sentenced to five years in prison; he ended up serving 2 1/2.
(AP, 8/22/05)
1995 Ira Glass revitalized radio storytelling with “This American Life," a show on Chicago Public Radio KBEZ featuring stories of ordinary people facing moments of truth.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.E1)
1995 Navy Pier was redeveloped and became a popular tourist attraction.
(WSJ, 11/11/99, p.A24)
1995 The Pritzker family, led by Jay and Robert, agreed to increase family stipends from $100,000 a year at age 25 to $1 million a year after age 40 along with some lump sum payments totaling $25 million.
(WSJ, 12/11/02, p.A9)
1995 A heat wave was blamed for some 700 deaths this year.
(DFP, 7/24/01, p.3A)
1996 Feb 19, Charlie O. Finley (77), baseball showman died in Chicago.
(AP, 2/19/07)
1996 Jul 1, Draugas, the Lithuanian daily newspaper published in Chicago, issued its first English version edition and planned a weekly English edition. The first subscribed edition was planned for Aug 31.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1996 Nov 14, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the senior Roman Catholic prelate in the United States and leader of Chicago's 2.3 million Catholics, died at his home at age 68, surrounded by family and friends.
(SFC, 11/15/96, p.C7)(AP, 11/14/97)
1996 Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art opened on Chicago Ave. It was designed by Josef Paul Kleihues (d.2004), German-born architect. The Kleihues theory of “poetic rationalism" described a style that sought to reinvent the way cities were designed and enrich the functionalist trend of late-modern architecture.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.B7)
1996 Barack Obama (b.1961) was elected to the Illinois senate representing the 13th District of Chicago’s South Side.
(WSJ, 2/11/08, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)
1997 Jan, Patrick Sykes (25) sexually assaulted and beat a 9-year-old girl. Girl X was left blind, unable to walk and brain-damaged. Sykes was convicted in 2001.
(SFC, 4/5/01, p.A4)
1997 Mar 21, In Chicago 3 white teenagers attacked and severely injured a 13-year-old black boy. Lenard Clark (13) was left brain damaged. The suspects, Frank Caruso (18), Victor Jasas (17), and Michael Kwidzinski (19) were released on bonds of $150,000 with charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and a hate crime. Caruso was convicted in 1998 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The other 2 pleaded guilty to reduced charges and were let off with probation and community service.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A7)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A6)
1997 Apr 29, Newspaper columnist Mike Royko died in Chicago at age 64.
(WSJ, 4/30/97, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)
1997 Apr, Sonia Hernandez (43), a teacher was shot and killed. Police arrested Don Olmetti (17), based on an anonymous tip, who confessed after police reportedly hit him during an 18-hour interrogation. Olmetti claimed initially claimed that he was in class a mile from the shooting. Olmetti was released after almost 2 years in jail when school records verified that he was in class at the time of the shooting.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A11)
1997 Oct 4, The Chicago Field Museum of Natural History paid $8,362,500 for the T, rex skull from S. Dakota at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A13)
1997 Oct 29, Nathaniel Abraham (11) shot and killed Ronnie Greene Jr. (18). Abraham was convicted of 2nd degree murder in 1999.
(SFC, 11/16/99, p.A3)
1997 Dec 15, The 5,000-resident Ida B. Wells project was the focus of a PBS documentary by Frederick Wiseman.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.E1)
1998 Feb 18, Harry Caray, baseball broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs and other teams, died at age 77.
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 13, The Ku Klux Klan agreed not to march through Cicero after town officials agreed on a plan to distribute the group’s literature to residents with funding from an anonymous $10,000 donation.
(WSJ, 3/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 14, The Chicago Bulls clinched their sixth NBA championship, defeating the Utah Jazz in game six played in Salt Lake City, 87-86.
(AP, 6/14/03)
1998 Jul 23, The Pacific Stock Exchange announced an agreement to merge with the Chicago Board of Options Exchange.
(SFC, 7/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 27, In Chicago two boys, aged 7 and 8, reportedly killed an 11-year-old girl, Ryan Harris, with a thrown rock that caused the girl to fall and hit her head. The boys dragged her to a wooded area and began to play with her body and later lied to police. The boys faced the juvenile equivalent of first degree murder. Her body was found the next day. Later evidence of semen caused prosecutors to drop murder charges against the boys. The boys later sued Chicago for false arrest and settled for $6.2 million. In September police arrested another suspect whose DNA matched that found on Ryan. The charges on the 2 boys were dropped Sept 4 and in 1999 Floyd Durr was indicted for the murder of Ryan Harris. On March 4, 2005 Floyd Durr, was convicted of three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to 20-year terms of imprisonment on the former convictions and a 15-year term of imprisonment on the latter. On April 10, 2006, Durr was sentenced to life plus 30 years in exchange for pleading guilty to raping and killing Ryan.
(SFC, 8/11/98, p.A3)(SFC, 9/5/98, p.A3)(SFC, 9/23/98, p.A6)(USAT, 3/24/99, p.6A) (http://tinyurl.com/6rkl3d)
1998 Jul, 28, The body of Ryan Harris (11) was found. [see Jul 27]
(SFC, 9/23/98, p.A6)
1998 Jul, The Asian long-horned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, was discovered in the Ravenswood neighborhood. A quarantine and winter destruction of infected trees was planned. The beetle was detected in New York in 1996.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Sep 13 Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit his 61st and 62nd home runs of the season, passing Roger Maris' record and pulling into a tie with St. Louis' Mark McGwire.
(AP, 9/13/99)
1998 Sep 14, In Chicago Vincas Valkavickas (78), a retired factory worker, was put under deportation proceedings. A complaint alleged that he assisted Nazi forces as a Lithuanian police officer and guarded Jewish men, women and children between 1941-1944 at Svencionys, Lithuania.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 29, Harry Weese, Chicago architect, died. His buildings included the Time and Life Building and the Metropolitan Corrections Center. His firm was also contracted for the 100-mile metro system in Washington DC, which was completed in 1976.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.C7)
1998 Nov 12, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley filed a $433 million lawsuit against the firearms industry, declaring that it had created a public nuisance by flooding the streets with weapons deliberately marketed to criminals. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2000; an appeals court ruled in 2002 that the city of Chicago could proceed; but the Illinois Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2004.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A4)(AP, 11/12/08)
1998 Nov, Eighteen Chicago precincts banned the sale of alcohol in their neighborhoods. This made 468 of the city’s 2,450 precincts dry or partially dry.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 1, In Chicago a fire destroyed the historic Pullman building.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1998 In Chicago demolition began on the 28 towers of the Robert Taylor projects. Their construction had only been completed in 1962. In 2008 Sudhir Venkatesh authored “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets," a description of the author’s seven years (1989-1996) following J.T., a gang leader in the projects.
(WSJ, 12/19/00, p.A14)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.81)
1999 Jan 2, About 22 inches of snow fell on the city and across northern Indiana.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A5)
1999 Jan 3, Chicagoans dug out from their biggest snowstorm in more than 30 years.
(AP, 1/3/00)
1999 Jan 23, Jay Pritzker, founder of the Hyatt hotel chain, died at age 76. He was listed in 1998 as the 20th richest man in America and created the $100,000 Pritzker Architectural Prize in 1979.
(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.D8)
1999 Feb 23, Richard M. Daley was elected to a 3rd term as mayor. He defeated former Black Panther Bobby Rush with a 73% vote.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 8, William Wrigley (b.1933), CEO of Chicago-based Wrigley Gum, died. His son William Wrigley Jr. took over the company.
(WSJ, 3/11/06, p.A10)(www.thememoryhole.org/foi/apbnews-list/)
1999 Mar 26, A jury of 13 Methodist ministers found Rev. Greg Dell guilty for officiating at the union of 2 gay men.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A6)
1999 Apr 22, British PM Tony Blair, speaking before the Chicago Economic Club, unveiled his "Doctrine of the International Community" (Chicago Doctrine). Among other things, the doctrine outlines circumstances that warrant the international community to intervene in the affairs of other nations.
(www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-june99/blair_doctrine4-23.html)
1999 Apr 27, Cicero, a Chicago suburb, declared itself a "gang-free zone." The police dept. listed 600 gang members among the 71,000 population.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A3)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.C5)
1999 Jun 4, La Tanya Haggerty (26), a passenger in a car, was shot and killed by police during a chase. Police said they mistook her sell phone for a gun.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun 10, The US Supreme Court struck down a Chicago anti-loitering ordnance aimed against street gangs.
(SFC, 6/11/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun, Cow paintings and sculptures began appearing on downtown streets as part of an outdoor art project "Cows on Parade." The idea was borrowed from a 1998 event in Zurich.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.C6)
1999 Jun, The 25,000th McDonald's Restaurant was scheduled to open in Bronzeville.
(WSJ, 5/13/99, p.B13)
1999 Jul 2, In northern Chicago a driveby gunman, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith (21), killed Ricky Byrdsong, former Northwestern Univ. basketball coach. Smith wounded 6 Orthodox Jews. B.N. Smith fired at Asians and Blacks in 2 Illinois cities the next day and on July 4 Smith killed Won Joon Moon (26), a Korean-born Indiana Univ. student. He then shot himself dead during a police chase.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 20, Alain Robert (37) of France, known as "Spiderman," was arrested after climbing the Sears Tower without suction cups or a safety net.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A3)
1999 Sep 18, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit his 60th homerun and became the 1st major leaguer to hit 60 in 2 different seasons.
(WSJ, 9/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 1, Former Chicago Bear NFL star Walter Payton died at age 45 from a rare cancer of the bile duct. He made the NFL Hall of Fame in 1993.
(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A1,15)
1999 The new $24 million Shakespeare Theater was completed on Navy Pier.
(WSJ, 11/11/99, p.A24)
2000 Feb 8, In Zion, Ill., 2 small planes collided and 3 people were killed including Bob Collins, a popular Chicago radio host for WGN-AM. One of the planes crashed into the roof of the Midwestern Regional Medical Center.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 8, Jeff MacNelly, Chicago Tribune political cartoonist, died at age 52. He won 3 Pulitzer Prizes and his work included the comic strip "Shoe."
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.D5)
2000 Aug 31, The tortured bodies of 2 men were found on the South Side.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A18)
2000 Sep 4, The tortured bodies of 2 more men were found on the South Side several miles from the Aug 31 site.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec, The Goodman Theater moved to a new $46 million theater building in the North Loop behind the old Harris and Selwyn theaters.
(WSJ, 12/13/00, p.A24)
2000 Chicago’s City Hall went green with 20,000 square feet of vegetation planted on its roof 11 stories above LaSalle Avenue.
(Econ, 9/3/11, p.29)
2001 May 10, Boeing picked Chicago for its new corporate headquarters.
(WSJ, 5/11/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 14, Paul Frederick Runge (31) was charged with the murders of 6 women and an 11-year-old girl between 1995-1997.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 3, An elevated commuter train rear-ended another and over 140 people were injured.
(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A3)
2001 Aug 25, Mayor Richard Daley kicked off a city-wide program for residents to read the novel: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.
(WSJ, 8/29/01, p.A12)
2001 Dec 10, The Pritzker Family agreed to pay regulators $460 mil to forestall possible civil litigation from the failure of Superior Bank, of which they owned 50%.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A1)
2002 Mar 9, Scaffolding under high winds tore loose from the John Hancock Center and fatally crushed 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A6)
2002 Apr 30, Benevolence International Foundation, an Islamic charity based in suburban Chicago, and its director were charged with perjury and accused by the FBI of supporting terrorists; the charity maintains its innocence. Enaam Arnaout later pleaded guilty to racketeering, admitting he had defrauded donors by diverting some of the money to Islamic military groups in Bosnia and Chechnya.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2002 May 8, Abdullah Al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was arrested as he flew from Pakistan into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Padilla was alleged to be al-Qaida connected and suspected of plotting to build and detonate a radioactive ''dirty'' bomb in an attack in the United States. A public announcement of his arrest was delayed until Jun 10. In 2008 Padilla was sentenced to just over 17 years in prison for terrorism-related charges. Adham Amin Hassoun was sentenced to over 15 years for recruiting Padilla. Kifah Wael Jayyousi was sentenced to over 12 years for financing the al-Qaida cell.
(AP, 6/10/02)(SFC, 1/23/08, p.A4)
2002 Jun 22, Esther Lederer (83) known as Ann Landers, the widely read columnist who famously urged her readers to "wake up and smell the coffee," died, in Chicago. She took over the Ann Landers column in the Chicago Sun Times in 1955.
(Reuters, 6/23/02)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 31, In Chicago a mob beat Anthony Stuckey (49) and Jack Moore (62) to death after their van veered into over a curb and injured 3 women on the South Side. One woman later died from her injuries. On August 3, seven people were charged with 1st degree murder. In 2003 Antonio Fort (16) was cleared of 34 charges, including first-degree murder. Fort had been charged as an adult.
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A3)(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.A13)(http://tinyurl.com/59zyfm)
2002 Aug 10, Sammy Sosa hit three 3-run homers in Chicago's 15-1 rout of Colorado. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke Willie McCovey's 1969 record for intentional walks in a season with his 46th of the year.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2002 Sep 19, Kansas City first base coach Tom Gamboa was attacked without warning by two fans, a father and son, who came out of the seats at Chicago's Comiskey Park. The father, 34-year-old William Ligue Jr., and his 15-year-old son later received probation.
(AP, 9/19/03)
2002 Dec 11, It was reported that the Chicago-based Pritzker family planned to break up its $15 billion empire over the next decade.
(WSJ, 12/12/02, p.B1)
2003 Jan 13-15, A TV documentary, "Chicago City of the Century," was broadcast based on a book of the same name by Don Miller.
(SFC, 1/11/03, p.D6)
2003 Feb 16, Eleanor "Sis" Daley (95), the matriarch of Chicago's Daley political clan, died.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2003 Feb 17, In Chicago 21 people were killed at the E2 nightclub in an early morning stampede after security guards used mace and pepper spray to halt a fistfight between 2 women. On Sep 23 the owner and 3 others associated with the club were charged with involuntary manslaughter.
(SFC, 2/18/03, A1)(SFC, 9/24/03, p.A3)
2003 May 15, Emergency officials rushed to a series of mock catastrophes in the Chicago area on the busiest day of a national weeklong exercise.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2003 Jun 29, In Chicago a wooden third-floor porch packed with dozens of friends in their early 20s collapsed, killing 12 people as it pancaked onto porches below.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Aug 27, In Chicago Salvador Tapia (36) shot and killed 6 people inside Windy City Core Supply Inc. autoparts warehouse. He opened fire on police and was killed. Tapia had been fired from the auto parts warehouse six months earlier.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2003 Oct 1, Garbage workers in Chicago went on strike.
(SFC, 10/7/03, p.A2)
2003 Oct 5, The Chicago Cubs won their first postseason series since 1908 when they beat Atlanta 5-1 in the decisive Game 5 of the National League playoffs.
(AP, 10/5/04)
2003 Oct 9, Chicago sanitation workers accepted a 28% wage increase over 5 years and ended a 9-day strike.
(SFC, 10/10/03, p.A6)
2003 Oct 15, The Florida Marlins defeated the Chicago Cubs 9-6 in game 7 for the National League pennant.
(WSJ, 10/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 17, In Chicago government workers trapped in a burning downtown office tower frantically dialed 911 as they tried to make their way through smoke-filled staircases and hallways. 13 were found unconscious amid the smoke, 6 of them dead.
(AP, 10/18/03)
2003 Nov 7, The Cincinnati Stock Exchange, located in Chicago, renamed itself the National Stock Exchange. The CBOE owned 68% of it.
(Econ, 11/15/03, p.69)
2003 Dec 31, Chicago regained the title of America's murder capital. It finished 2003 with 599 homicides. That was down from 648 a year earlier and the first time since 1967 that the total dipped below 600. Gary, Ind., appeared to finish 2003 with the nation's highest per capita homicide rate for the ninth straight year.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Chicago passed the Business, Corporate and Slavery Era Insurance Ordnance that required companies doing business with the city to disclose any ties to slavery.
(WSJ, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2004 Jan 30, Malachi Favors (76), jazz bassist for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 2/9/04, p.B4)
2004 Mar, The Sears Tower was sold for $840 million to the Chetrit Group.
(WSJ, 5/11/04, p.C1)
2004 Jul, Chicago’s $475 million Millennium Park opened in Grant Park, 4 years overdue.
(Econ, 7/24/04, p.78)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
2004 Aug 31, A report was filed with the SEC that said Conrad Black and associates systematically looted Hollinger Int’l. of more than $400 million from 1997-2003. In 2007 Black (62) was convicted in Illinois U.S. District Court. He was sentenced to serve 78 months in federal prison, pay Hollinger $6.1 million and a fine of $125,000. Black was guilty of diverting funds for personal benefit from money due Hollinger International when the company sold certain publishing assets and he obstructed justice by taking possession of documents to which he was not entitled. Black's three co-defendants, former Hollinger International vice presidents John Boultbee (64) of Vancouver and Peter Y. Atkinson (60) of Toronto and attorney Mark Kipnis (59) of Chicago were all found guilty of three counts of mail fraud.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.C3)(WSJ, 9/1/04, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black)
2004 Oct 9, A bus carrying Chicago-area tourists to a Mississippi casino crashed and overturned on I-55 in northeastern Arkansas, killing 15 people.
(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A6)(AP, 10/9/05)
2004 James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating and Janice L. Reiff edited “The Encyclopedia of Chicago."
(WSJ, 10/8/04, p.W8)
2004 John Zukowsky and Martha Thorne authored “Masterpieces of Chicago Architecture."
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.E4)
2004 The Chicago Sun-Times revealed a racket in which the city was apparently hiring trucks to do nothing. The head of the program pleaded guilty to federal charges. 35 others were charged, of whom 23 pleaded guilty.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.16)
2004 Australia’s Macquarie Bank organized a deal to take over Chicago’s Skyway toll road under a 99-year lease for $1.8 billion.
(WSJ, 12/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 6, The Chicago-based Pritzker family settled a family suit giving both Matthew (22) and Liesel Pritzker (20) control of $450 million. The family fortune was estimated at over $15 bil.
(WSJ, 1/7/05, p.B1)
2005 Feb 8, Chicago’s Mayor Daly announced that he intends to prevent the stain of crooked old Chicago from spoiling the new city’s gleam.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.30)
2005 Feb 28, US District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow discovered the bodies of her husband and mother inside her Chicago home. An unemployed electrician confessed to the murders in a suicide note. In 2002 she had ordered the white supremacist group World Church of the Creator under Matthew Hale to remove the World Church name from its website. A cigarette butt found in Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow's house was matched to the electrician, Bart Ross, who killed himself Mar 9 during a traffic stop in Wisconsin, and left a suicide note claiming responsibility for the killings. Lefkow last fall dismissed a rambling lawsuit in which Ross claimed that cancer treatments had disfigured his face.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.A13)(AP, 3/11/05)(SFC, 3/11/05, p.A1)(AP, 2/28/06)
2005 Feb, FBI agents arrested thieves, who were unloading a semitrailer of DVDs originating from a warehouse in Memphis, Tenn., for delivery in Chicago. 2 of the men arrested were deputy jailers with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Dept. It was reported that hundreds of semitrailers are stolen or filched from every day in the US.
(WSJ, 9/29/05, p.B1)
2005 Jul 25, The Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees Int’l. Union broke from the AFL-CIO as 1,000 delegates gathered in Chicago for the federation’s 50th annual convention. They formed a coalition called Change to Win with 5 other unions with a mission to emphasize organizing rather than supporting like-minded politicians.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 8, John H. Johnson (b.1919) founding publisher of Ebony (1945), Jet (1951), and Ebony Man (1985), died in Chicago.
(HN, 11/1/98)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.B4)(AP, 8/8/06)
2005 Aug, The Chicago Sun Times exposed a “hired truck" scandal wherein Chicago paid politically connected truck owners to do little or no work. A federal investigation found that many city department hiring practices were rigged. Federal officials questioned Mayor Richard M. Daley for 2 hours.
(Econ, 9/3/05, p.33)
2005 Sep 17, A Chicago commuter train was going almost 60 mph above the speed limit just before it derailed, killing two people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 30, The FAA gave Chicago the go-ahead for a $15 billion expansion of O’Hare Airport. The project required razing nearly 500 homes, a cemetery the relocating of nearly 200 businesses in the suburbs of Bensenville, Des Plaines and Elk Grove Village.
(SFC, 10/1/05, p.A10)
2005 Oct 22, Chicago beat the Houston Astros 5-3 in Game 1 of baseball’s best-of-seven World Series.
(Reuters, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 26, The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros 1-0 to win their first World Series title since 1917.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2005 Dec 8, In Chicago a Southwest Airlines jet trying to land amid heavy snow plowed off a runway at Midway airport and into a street, killing a 6-year-old boy in a car.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Steven Levitt, economics professor at the Univ. of Chicago, and Stephen Dubner authored “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything."
(Econ, 1/19/08, p.86)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.68)
2005 Chicago’s glass towers at 71 S. Wacker and 111 S. Wacker were built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
2005 Chicago began installing high-tech surveillance cameras atop light poles in troubled neighborhoods.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.B1)
2006 Mar 10, Hoisting American flags into the air, tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly Latino, from the Chicago area marched downtown in a display of support for immigrant rights as a bill to stiffen border enforcement awaits action in the U.S. Senate.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Chicago a jury convicted former Gov. George Ryan of steering state contracts and leases to political insiders during his term as secretary of state in the 1990s and then governor for one term. He was later sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison,
(SFC, 4/118/06, p.A5)(AP, 4/17/07)
2006 Jun 13, Luis Jimenez (b.1940), Chicago sculptor, was killed in Hondo, New Mexico, while hoisting pieces of a massive mustang for final assembly. The work was installed at the Denver Airport in February, 2008.
(SFC, 6/27/06, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Jim%C3%A9nez_(sculptor))(WSJ, 2/7/08, p.A1)
2006 Jun 21, Federal prosecutors charged more than three dozen members of a Chicago street gang with running a drug ring that sold crack cocaine, marijuana, heroin and the potentially lethal prescription painkiller fentanyl.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 22, In Florida FBI agents arrested 7 people in the Liberty City area of Miami in connection with a nascent plot to attack the Sears Tower and federal buildings in south Florida. Narseal Batiste (32), the alleged ringleader, called the group “Seas of David." In 2009 five Miami men were convicted of plotting to start an anti-government insurrection by destroying Chicago's Sears Tower and bombing FBI offices. One man was acquitted.
(SFC, 6/23/06, p.A10)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.26)(AP, 5/12/09)
2006 Jul 11, In Chicago, a Blue Line train derailed and started a fire during the evening rush hour, filling a subway tunnel with smoke and forcing dozens of soot-covered commuters to evacuate.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2006 Jul 15, A Chicago ban on the sale of foie gras became effective. This made Chicago the 1st American city to ban the food.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.37)
2006 Jul 19, Chicago prosecutors reported that local police tortured scores of black suspects from the 1970s to the 1980s to extract confessions, but that the cases were too old or too weak to prosecute.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 3, An apartment fire in Chicago killed six children ages 3 to 14.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2006 Sep 6, In Chicago George Ryan (72), former Illinois governor, was sentenced to 6˝ years in prison for offenses including racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A4)
2006 Oct 11, In Chicago businessman Antoin Rezko (51), top advisor and fund-raiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was indicted for scheming to collect kickbacks from companies doing business with the state. The fraud scheme included political contributor Stuart Levine and other insiders.
(SFC, 10/12/06, p.A4)
2006 Oct 17, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced plans to acquire the Chicago Board of Trade for about $8 billion.
(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 24, In Chicago a gunman who took his neighbor hostage for 23 hours over Thanksgiving ended the standoff by killing the woman and himself.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 The installation of Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, was completed as the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago. The sculpture was nicknamed The Bean because of its shape.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate)
2006 Dec 8, In Chicago a man carrying a cache of weapons into the Citigroup Center chained a law firm's doors closed and fatally shot three people before a police sniper killed him as he held a hostage at gunpoint. Authorities said Joe Jackson (59) felt cheated over an invention.
(AP, 12/9/06)(AP, 12/10/06)
2007 Jan 21, Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship, beating the New Orleans Saints 39-14; Tony Dungy became the second when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title over the New England Patriots, 38-34.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2007 Feb 4, Peyton Manning added the missing ingredient to his Hall of Fame credentials by leading the Indianapolis Colts to a 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.
(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 7, In Chicago Equity Office Properties (EOP), America’s largest commercial landlord, accepted a cash offer from The Blackstone Group, a private equity firm that valued the company at nearly $39 billion (including debt).
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.80)
2007 Feb 15, Hershey Co. said it would cut about 11 percent of its workforce and reduce the number of production lines it operates by more than a third as it spends as much as $575 million to overhaul its manufacturing. The Chicago-based US chocolate maker also said it will build a new, cost-efficient manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico.
(Reuters, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 17, In Chicago 3 women were found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in two apartments on the city's far North Side. Police had a suspect in custody. All were Assyrian Christians, and recent immigrants to the US.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 27, Chicago’s Mayor Daly won a 6th term despite a City Hall corruption scandal.
(WSJ, 2/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 2, Chicago’s police superintendent, Philip Cline, announced his retirement after 2 videos emerged of off-duty police officers beating civilians.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.42)(http://tinyurl.com/2tt8en)
2007 Apr 2, Sam Zell, billionaire real estate investor, reached an agreement to buy the Chicago-based Tribune Co. in a 2-stage deal valued at $8.2 billion. The buyout was completed in December and saddled the firm with $8 billion in new debt. In 2008 the Tribune slid into bankruptcy.
(SFC, 4/3/07, p.C1)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.36)
2007 Apr 5, Darryl Stingley (55), a former New England Patriots player paralyzed during an on-field collision in 1978, died in Chicago.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2007 Apr 23, A Chicago man who spent 25 years in jail for a rape he didn't commit was fully exonerated on the basis of new DNA evidence, bringing to 200 the number of such cases overturned since the 1980s. Jerry Miller (48) was paroled from jail in March 2006 after serving more than half of his 45 year sentence.
(AFP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 25, US federal authorities arrested John P. Tomkins (42) of Dubuque, Iowa, a man suspected of mailing dud pipe bombs to financial companies in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., and threatening letters that were signed "The Bishop."
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 May 6, Carey Bell, Mississippi-born blues harmonica player, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 5/8/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 4, Johnny Frigo (90), jazz violinist and bassist, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.B8)
2007 Jul 13, A US jury in Chicago found Conrad Black guilty of criminal fraud and obstruction of justice. Black and the others had been accused by US prosecutors of pilfering $60 million in payments that should have benefited Hollinger International, once the world's third-largest English language newspaper chain, and its shareholders. Black was sentenced to a 6 1/2-year sentence and began serving it at a federal prison in Florida.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)(AP, 7/13/08)
2007 Jul 18, NYC and New Jersey claimed $170.2 million in anti-terrorism funds, LA and Long Beach, Ca., claimed $72.6 million, DC claimed $61.7 million, Chicago got $47.3 million, the SF Bay Area got $34.1 million and Houston got $25 million.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 24, Jolee Mohr (36) died in Chicago just weeks after beginning an experimental gene therapy treatment from Targeted Genetics to ease the pain the rheumatoid arthritis in her knee. Doctors later suspected an infection of Histoplasma capsulatum.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A21)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano (32), an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her American-born son, was deported from the US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her campaign to change US immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 28, EarthLink, the Atlanta-based Internet provider, announced that it no longer believed that providing citywide Wi-Fi for San Francisco was viable for the company. Chicago abandoned plans for a city-wide Wi-Fi network to access the Internet as EarthLink underwent restructuring.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.A1)(www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/08/30/too-windy-for-wi-fi.aspx)
2007 Sep 10, In Chicago mobsters James Marcello (65), Joseph Lombardo (78), Frank Calabrese (70) and Paul Schiro (70) were convicted of all counts including racketeering, conspiracy, bribery, illegal gambling and tax fraud. Anthony Doyle (62), a retired police officer, was also convicted for leaking information to the mob known as The Outfit.
(SFC, 9/11/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 7, Chad Schieber (35), a Michigan police officer, died and dozens of others needed medical care while running the Chicago Marathon as record heat and smothering humidity forced race organizers to shut down the course midway through the event. Kenya's Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by a fraction of a second; an additional 250 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat-related ailments.
(AP, 10/8/07)(AP, 10/7/08)
2007 Nov 30, An Amtrak train and a freight train collided on a track on the South Side of Chicago, injuring dozens of people.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2007 Dec 1, Danny Newman (b.1919), press agent, died at his home in Chicago. He boosted theater success for the Lyric Opera of Chicago beginning in 1954 with the use of subscriptions. His 1978 book “Subscribe Now" became a fund-raising classic.
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A8)
2007 Johan Van Overtveldt authored “The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.95)
2008 Jan 29, In Mexico City Elvira Arellano, a deported Mexican migrant who holed up in a Chicago church to fight for immigrants' rights, rallied support for Flor Crisostomo (28), another woman now seeking refuge in the same building.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Chicago a tractor trailer that witnesses said didn't seem to slow down rammed into a crowded bus shelter and a Chicago Transit Authority train station during the evening rush hour, killing two people and injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 27, It was made public that Mars Inc. of McLean, Va., together with Berkshire Hathaway had agreed to acquire Wrigley Co. of Chicago, Ill., for about $23 billion.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)
2008 May 31, Barack Obama said he has resigned his 20-year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago "with some sadness" in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and more recent fiery remarks at the church by a visiting priest.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Aug 9, Bernie Mac (50), the actor and comedian, died in Chicago. He had teamed up in the casino heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and gained a prestigious Peabody Award for his sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show."
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 11, Federal prosecutors in NYC charged Joseph Shereshevsky and Steven Byers, partners in Chicago-based WexTrust Capital, with raising over $250 million through a Ponzi scheme, mainly from Orthodox Jews.
(WSJ, 8/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, Chicago’s archdiocese agreed to pay over $12.6 million to settle suits by 16 people who accused priests of sex abuse. This brought the total thus far $65 million for some 250 claims over the last 30 years.
(WSJ, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 18, Chicago Mayor Richard Daly unveiled an aggressive plan to reduce heat-trapping gases. The plan included changing building codes to promote energy efficiency and solar panels at municipal properties as well as alternative fueling stations.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 9, Chicago’s Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart halted evictions on foreclosed properties, saying innocent tenants were being put on the street. But bankers said he was breaking the law.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 24, In Chicago the mother and brother of actress and singer Jennifer Hudson were found shot to death on the city’s South Side. Hudson’s nephew, Julian King (7), was missing. His body was found in an SUV on Oct 27. William Balfour, Jennifer Hudson's estranged brother-in-law, was arrested on Dec 1 at Stateville Correctional Center on a murder warrant and released to detectives as he awaited formal charges in the deaths of the relatives of the singer and Oscar-winning actress. On May 11, 2012, Balfour was convicted of the 3 murders and faced mandatory life in prison.
(SFC, 10/25/08, p.A5)(AP, 10/27/08)(AP, 12/2/08)(SFC, 4/9/12, p.A6)(SFC, 5/12/12, p.A6)
2008 Oct 31, Studs Terkel (b.1912), Chicago radio personality and writer, died. His books included “The Good War," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984.
(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 4, The US Presidential race was called for Barack Obama at 11p.m. on the East Coast. An hour later Obama was on stage at Grant Park in Chicago, speaking to the tens of thousands of supporters gathered there.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 6, David Booth (61), chief executive of Dimensional Fund Advisors mutual fund, said he will donate $300 million to the Univ. of Chicago’s business school.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 2, In Chicago federal prosecutors unveiled a series of elaborate sting operations aimed at officers who hired out to ride shotgun for drug deals and other criminal activities. Those charged include 10 Cook County sheriff's correctional officers, four Harvey police officers and one Chicago police officer.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 8, The Chicago-based Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy as it struggled with $13 billion in debt and a drop-off in advertising.
(SFC, 12/9/08, p.D2)
2008 Dec 31, SF ended the year with 98 homicides. In Milwaukee, Wisc., the total number of homicides dropped 32%, from 105 in 2007 to 71 in 2008, the lowest number since 1985. Detroit had 344 slayings, a 13% drop from the 396 in 2007; Philadelphia's 332 killings were a 15% drop from the 392 in 2007; and the 234 homicides in Baltimore were 17% less than the 392 the year before. Cleveland recorded 102 homicides in 2008, down from a 13-year high of 134 in 2007. Homicides in New York rose 5.2%, to 522 from 496 the year before. Slayings in Los Angeles were down to 376 in 2008 compared to 400 the prior year. Preliminary data in Chicago showed 508 homicides were reported in 2008, the first time the city had more than 500 murders since 2003 and about 15% more than the 442 homicides reported in 2007. Washington, D.C., ended 2008 with 186 homicides, up from 181 in 2007.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.1)(AP, 1/3/09)
2008 IXPI (Intellectual Property Exchange Int’l.) was set up by Ocean Tomo, a Chicago-based merchant bank set up in 2003 that specializes in intellectual property. The IXPI financial exchange would let companies buy, sell and hedge patent rights. It planned to debut in 2012.
(Econ, 5/12/12, p.72)(http://www.oceantomo.com/)
2009 Jan 9, Chicago-based Merisant Worldwide Inc., maker of the artificial sweetener Equal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, hobbled by the global credit crisis and sliding sales.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.77)(http://tinyurl.com/ykx7ghs)
2009 Jan 10, A winter storm left large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast covered in snow and freezing rain. 10 inches of snow forced some 100 cancellations at Chicago’s O’Hare Int’l. Airport. At least 8 inches fell on lower Michigan and Ohio.
(SSFC, 1/11/09, p.A14)
2009 Mar 12, Anthony Doyle, former Chicago police officer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for racketeering. He was accused of providing information on gangland investigations to reputed mob boss Joseph Lombardo.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 31, Sun-Times Media Group, the publisher of the Chicago Sun Times, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, becoming the 5th newspaper company to file for protection since December.
(WSJ, 4/1/09, p.B4)
2009 Apr 20, Chicago cancelled a $2.52 billion deal to privatize Midway Airport after a winning consortium failed to line up funding.
(WSJ, 4/21/09, p.B4)
2009 May 13, Chicago became the first US city to adopt a ban on the sale of baby bottles and sippy cups containing the chemical BPA.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 Jul 16, In Chicago Willis Tower was introduced to Chicago by Mayor Richard M. Daley and others during a public Sears Tower renaming ceremony hosted by Willis Group Holdings. The London-based insurance brokerage secured the naming rights as part an agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of space, and has said it plans to bring hundreds of jobs to the city.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Aug 27, Chicago's 9-story old main post office, which dated from the 1920s and has been vacant for more than a decade, was sold at auction for $40 million to International Property Developers North America Inc, which did not specify its plans.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Sep 12, Christopher Kelly (51), former chief fundraiser for ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, died in Chicago after being found slumped over in his car the previous evening. An overdose of drugs was suspected. Kelly faced at least 8 years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges in 2 separate cases.
(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 18, In Chicago 4 former members of a now-disbanded police unit admitted that they used to barge into people’s homes and steal money. They were sentenced to 6 months in jail and promised to cooperate in an ongoing investigation.
(SFC, 9/19/09, p.A6)
2009 Sep 24, In Chicago Derrion Albert (16), a sophomore at Christian Fenger Academy High School, was beaten to death as 2 groups of students from different neighborhoods engaged in a fight following a shooting earlier in the day. 4 teenagers were charged with murder. The melee was caught on video. On Dec 8, 2010, a 15-year-old boy was convicted of first-degree murder. 4 suspects were still awaiting trial. In 2011 the last of 5 convicted suspects was sentenced to 32 years in prison.
(SFC, 9/29/09, p.A7)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSH2CafhcX4)(AP, 12/9/10)(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A6)
2009 Oct 2, In Denmark the IOC opened a meeting hearing the cases led by government leaders and kings to win the right to stage the 2016 Olympic Games. US Pres. Obama spoke for Chicago, Japan's new PM Yukio Hatoyama spoke for Tokyo, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva spoke for Rio de Janeiro, and Spain's King Juan Carlos and PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke for Spain. Brazil won the bid.
(AFP, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 2, Michael David Barrett (48), accused of taping surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, was arrested at O’Hare Airport as he arrived on a flight from Buffalo, NY. He faced federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online. On March 15, 2010, Barrett was sentenced to 2˝ years in prison.
(AP, 10/3/09)(SFC, 3/16/10, p.A5)
2009 Oct 3, David Headley (b.1960 as Daood Sayed Gilani), a US citizen of Pakistani descent, was arrested in Chicago. He was suspected of doing reconnaissance for the Nov 26, 2008, Mumbai attack that killed 166 people.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.D3)(www.talkleft.com/story/2009/12/7/125726/611)
2010 Jan 14, The Doomsday Clock, set up in 1947, was set back 1 minute for the first time in its 63-year history. In moving the clock from 5 minutes before midnight to 6 minutes before midnight, scientists expressed optimism for humanity's future. The actual clock is housed at the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences (BAS) office in Chicago, Ill.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/doomsdaydeferredendofworldclocksetback1minute)
2010 Feb 14, An apartment fire in Cicero, Ill., killed at least 7 people including 4 children. The fire spread to nearby buildings and over 20 people were left homeless. On March 4 landlord Lawrence Myers (60) and handyman Marion Comier (47) were each charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A9)(www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2085374,CST-NWS-fire05.article)
2010 Mar 18, David Coleman Headley (b.1960), Chicago-based Pakistani American, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of terrorism for his role as a scout for the 2008 coordinated assault in Mumbai that left 173 people dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Headley)(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A8)
2010 Apr 14, In Chicago James Larry (32) shot and killed his pregnant wife, infant son and 2 nieces in their home.
(SFC, 4/17/10, p.A4)
2010 May 24, The US Supreme Court ruled that a group of African Americans may sue the city of Chicago for discriminatory use of an application test that kept them from being hired as firefighters.
(SFC, 5/25/10, p.A4)
2010 Jun 9, The Chicago Blackhawks ended 49 years of Stanley Cup frustration with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Philadelphia Flyers that clinched the National Hockey League's best-of-seven championship series.
(Reuters, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 28, Chicago’s former police Cmdr. Jon Burge (b.1947) was convicted of lying about the torture of suspects and was sentenced to 4˝ years in prison. In 2012 the City Council approved settlements totaling $7.17 million to resolved lawsuits by 2 men who alleged they were victims of police torture during the tenure of Burge.
(SFC, 7/24/12, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge)
2010 Jun 28, The Supreme Court held that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live. The court, in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, forever changed the terms of debate over the right to bear arms. The 5-4 vote extended principles the court laid out in 2008, when it struck down a handgun ban in Washington, D.C.
(AP, 6/29/10)(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100628/pl_ynews/ynews_pl2876)
2010 Jul 2, The Chicago City Council approved what city officials said is the strictest handgun ordnance in the US.
(SFC, 7/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 20, US regulators shut down 8 more banks including 4 in California, one in Chicago, one in Virginia and two in Florida. This brought the total number of failed US banks to 118 for the year thus far.
(SFC, 8/23/10, p.D2)
2010 Sep 19, In Chicago Sami Samir Hassoun, a Lebanese immigrant and candy-store worker, shortly after midnight placed a backpack he believed contained a bomb near the Chicago Bulls baseball stadium. It was part of an FBI sting. In 2013 Hassoun (25) was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/lkj6aqq)(SFC, 5/31/13, p.A6)
2010 Oct 3, Rohm Emanuel, former US White House chief of staff, said in a video on his website that he’s preparing to run for mayor of Chicago.
(SFC, 10/4/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 16, US authorities said 7 people have been arrested following the seizure of nearly 11 tons of marijuana, valued at $22 million, packed into railroad cars from Mexico and destined to Chicago.
(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A13)
2010 Dec 22, In Chicago 2 firefighters were killed when a roof collapsed in a vacant burning building. The tragedy took place exactly 100 years following the Chicago Union Stock Yards fire that killed 21 firemen.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A7)
2011 Feb 2, A massive storm billed as the worst in decades barreled toward the northeast, leaving vast swaths from Chicago to New York paralyzed by snow and ice.
(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 22, Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff from Pres. Obama, was elected mayor of Chicago, overwhelming five rivals.
(SFC, 2/23/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 30, In Chicago final demolition began for the Cabrini Green public high-rises. The complex, dating back to the 1940s, at its peak housed 13,000 people in 23 high-rises.
(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A8)
2011 May 16, Rahm Emanuel (b.1959) took office as Chicago’s 55th mayor. He cut $75 million form the city’s bloated budget on his first day.
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.30)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel)
2011 Jun 4, The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project, begun 1921, was reported complete. It comprised 21 volumes of Akkadian, a Semitic language (with several dialects, including Assyrian) that endured for 2,500 years.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 9, In a federal court in Chicago, a jury found Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana guilty of plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that had printed cartoons of the prophet Muhammad; but they failed to convict him of providing material support to the militant group that planned the deadly attack on Mumbai, India, which killed 166 people.
(AP, 6/9/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Chicago, Illinois, a 26-foot-tall statue of Marilyn Monroe was unveiled on the city’s magnificent Mile. Sculptor Seward Johnson used her famous pose from the film “The Seven Year Itch," where a draft catches her dress as she passes over a subway gate.
(SFC, 7/16/11, p.A8)
2011 Aug 24, Philip Baker (46), former managing director of the collapsed Chicago hedge fund Lake Shore Asset Management Ltd, pleaded guilty for his role in what prosecutors called a $291.8 million worldwide fraud. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission won a court order in August 2007 freezing Lake Shore's assets and a receiver was appointed that October. More than $100 million has been returned to investors so far.
(Reuters, 8/24/11)
2011 Oct 23, Anti-Wall Street demonstrators of the Occupy Chicago movement stood their ground in a downtown park in noisy but peaceful defiance of police orders to clear out, prompting 130 arrests.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Dec 8, Researchers at the Univ. of Chicago reported experiments demonstrating that a rat would free a fellow rat trapped in a restrictive cage even without a payoff, indicating empathy and selfless behavior.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A16)
2012 Jan 10, The Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that it has moved its "Doomsday Clock" one minute ahead to five minutes to midnight.
(AP, 1/10/12)(SFC, 1/11/12, p.A5)
2012 Jan 11, Chicago gang leader Augustin Zambrano was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison.
(SFC, 1/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 18, In Chicago 7 teens were charged in the beating and robbery of a 17-year-old high school student in an incident that stemmed from a previous altercation last October. A video of the beating went viral online. Viewers who posted comments identified the alleged attackers by name.
(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 27, Hull House, the Chicago social services organization founded in 1889 by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, closed after running out of money.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Mar 14, Chicago-based Encyclopedia Britannica said it is shelving its print edition after 244 years in favor of it Web-based version.
(SFC, 3/15/12, p.A6)
2012 May 13, In Chicago 4 mothers were pronounced dead this morning after their speeding car hit a support beam of an elevated train track around midnight, crashing with enough force for the vehicle to split in two.
(AP, 5/14/12)
2012 May 20, Pres. Obama hosted a summit with NATO allies in Chicago. They charted an outwardly confident path to a postwar Afghanistan. Nearly 50 US military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(SFC, 5/21/12, p.A4)(Reuters, 5/21/12)
2012 Jun 27, The Chicago City Council voted to decriminalize marijuana possession. From August 4 police can issue tickets of $250-$500 for someone caught with 15 grams or less of pot. The new law could generated millions of dollars for the city.
(SFC, 6/28/12, p.A7)
2012 Jul 5, Steve Cannon (46) of Des Moines, Iowa, completed a 40-day, 1,037-mile run around Lake Michigan. He started and ended his trek at Caray’s Tavern in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/7/12, p.A5)
2012 Jul 20, Chicago lottery winner Urooj Khan (46) died weeks after winning a $1 million jackpot from the Illinois Lottery. Authorities later said he died from cyanide poisoning and in 2013 began exhumation proceedings.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.A6)
2012 Sep 10, Chicago teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years after their union and district officials failed to reach a contract agreement despite intense weekend negotiations that the union said were productive but still failed to adequately address issues such as job security and teacher evaluations.
(AP, 9/10/12)
2012 Sep 14, Undercover FBI agents arrested Adel Daoud (18) for trying to detonate what he believed was a car bomb outside a downtown Chicago bar. An undercover operation in which an agent pretending to be a terrorist had provided him with a phony car bomb and watched him press the trigger. Prosecutors the next day said Daoud was offered several chances to change his mind and walk away from the plot.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Sep 18, The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates decided to end their strike, the city’s first in the last 25 years.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A6)
2012 Oct 3, Chicago police began top chop down some 1,500 marijuana plants discovered a day earlier on the city’s far South Side.
(SFC, 10/5/12, p.A10)
2012 Dec 25, Chicago mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. (75) died at a federal prison in North Carolina. He was among 5 men convicted in September 2007 at the Family Secrets trial.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A13)
2012 Dec 26, The Chicago Teachers Union sued the nation's third largest school district, saying Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign to reform or close underperforming public schools discriminates against African-American teachers and staff.
(Reuters, 12/27/12)
2013 Jan 17, Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison for providing material support to overseas terrorism.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Jan 27, In Chicago 7 people were killed and 6 wounded in gun violence around the city.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 29, In Chicago Hadiya Pendleton (15) was gunned down in a park. The majorette had recently performed with her King Prep High School band in Washington for Pres. Obama’s inauguration. On Feb 11 gang members Michael Ward (18) and Kenneth Williams (20) were charged with her murder.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A8)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 14, The Chicago Crime Commission name Joaquin “El Chapo" Guzman, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, as the city’s new Public Enemy No. 1, for supplying most of the narcotics sold in the city.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 21, Chicago said it will close 54 schools and 61 school buildings by the beginning of the next academic year in the country's third-largest public school district. Education experts called this the largest mass closing in the nation.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Chicago 7 people were shot and wounded early today at a party at a nightclub in an incident that police said may have been gang related.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Apr 15, The annual Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to six activists for their efforts to protect the world ecosystem. They included Nohra Padilla (50) of Colombia, who began organizing waste pickers in Bogota in 1990 into the Bogota Recyclers’ Assoc.; Rossano Ercolini (57) of Italy for setting up a trash collection and conservation system; Kimberly Wasserman (36) of Chicago her grassroots campaign to close polluting coal-fired power plants; Aleta Baun (50) of Indonesia for organizing villages on west Timor against mining companies clearing forests for marble; Azzam Alwash (54) of Iraq for his efforts to restore Mesopotamian marshland; Jonathan Deal of South Africa for his efforts against hydraulic fracturing in Karoo.
(SFC, 4/15/13, p.A10)
2013 May 22, Chicago officials closed 49 schools that they said were not being fully used.
(SFC, 5/23/13, p.A10)
2013 May 29, Rev. Andrew Greeley (b.1928), Chicago newspaper columnist and novelist, died in Chicago. His work included over 100 non-fiction books and some 50 novels, which included a series of about a bishop-detective, Blackie Ryan.
(SFC, 5/31/13, p.D7)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.94)
2013 May 30, In Chicago a federal judge sentenced Sami Samir Hassoun, (25), Lebanese immigrant and candy-store worker, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for placing a backpack he believed contained a bomb near the Chicago Bulls baseball stadium. The case stemmed from a sting operation in Sep 2010.
(SFC, 5/31/13, p.A6)
2013 Jun 7, Ata Yousef El Ammouri (65), a former Chicago store owner, was taken into custody after arriving from Jordan. He had fled the US in 1979 after being accused of killing Joe Harris, who walked out of his store without paying for a can of beer.
(SSFC, 6/9/13, p.A12)
2013 Sep 19, In Chicago gunmen used an assault-style weapon to spray a crowd watching a basketball game at Cornell Square Park. 13 people were wounded including a boy (3). Four Blackstones gang members, who had sought revenge against the rival Gangster Disciples, were later arrested.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.A5)(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A8)
2013 Nov 27, Two Chicago women became the first same-sex couple to marry in Illinois after a federal judge granted an expedited marriage license because of one of the women’s failing health.
(SFC, 11/28/13, p.A6)
2014 Jan 14, A Chicago federal court sentenced H. Ty Warner (69), the billionaire businessman behind Beanie Babies, to two years probation for not paying taxes on $25 million he had hidden.
(SFC, 1/15/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 15, The Archdiocese of Chicago released 6,000 pages of documents as part of a settlement with sex abuse victims.
(SFC, 1/16/14, p.A6)
2014 Jan 22, Sears said it will close its downtown Chicago store at 2 N. State St., which opened in 2001, this coming April.
(SFC, 1/23/14, p.C3)
2014 Jan, Chicago endured a cold snap. Temperatures fell to -27°C, the lowest since 1884.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.68)
2014 Feb 18, In Chicago an elderly nun who broke into what was supposed to be one of the most carefully guarded nuclear facilities in the US was sentenced to 35 months in prison. Sister Megan Rice (84) cut through fences and several layers of security at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee along with two other members of Transform Now Plowshares -- a pacifist group -- in July 2012. Fellow anti-nuclear activists Michael Walli (64) and Greg Boertje-Obed (58) were sentenced to five years and two months in prison because of their criminal histories.
(AFP, 2/19/14)
2014 Mar 10, A federal judge in Chicago ruled that Branko Bogdanov (58) and his wife Lela (52) are to remain in jail pending trial for stealing $7 million in a decade-long multistate shopping spree. They had emigrated from Yugoslavia and were in the US illegally.
(SFC, 3/11/14, p.A7)
2014 Apr 29, Laws in Chicago and NYC went into effect subjecting electronic cigarettes to the same regulations as tobacco.
(SFC, 4/30/14, p.A6)
2014 Jun 24, Filmmaker George Lucas said he has selected Chicago instead of San Francisco to build his museum of American art and Hollywood memorabilia. Chicago offered a $1-a-year lease for the site.
(SFC, 6/25/14, p.A1)
2014 Jul 18, Chicago-based Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie agreed to buy Shire, a European rival, for around $54 billion. This will allow AbbVie to relocate to Britain for tax purposes.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.D1)
2014 Jul 31, In Chicago Anthony DeFrances (60), a senior executive upset about a job demotion, gravely wounded ArrowStream CEO Steven LaVoie in a downtown office building and then fatally shot himself.
(Reuters, 7/31/14)
2014 Sep 26, In Illinois Brian Howard (36), an FAA contract employee, set fire at the Aurora air traffic control center bringing Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports to a halt with over 2,000 flights cancelled. On May 28, 2015, Howard pleaded guilty to setting the fire during a failed suicide attempt.
(SFC, 9/27/14, p.A7)(SFC, 9/29/14, p.A6)(SFC, 5/29/15, p.A9)
2014 Oct 20, Chicago police shot and killed Laquan McDonald (16) as he reportedly burglarized cars. Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times. Police reportedly deleted 86 minutes of video from a Burger King in the area. His death was also captured on dashcam video. McDonald’s family later received a $5 million settlement from the city. The video was made public in 2015.
(SFC, 11/27/15, p.A10)(SSFC, 11/29/15, p.A12)
2014 Nov 6, The Archdiocese of Chicago released files on three dozen more abusive clergy members to fulfill Cardinal Francis George’s pledge to do so before he retires.
(SFC, 11/7/14, p.A6)
2014 Nov 14, Jane M. Byrne (b.1934), Chicago’s 1st woman mayor (1979-1983), died. In 1994 she authored “My Chicago."
(SSFC, 11/16/14, p.C8)
2014 Nov 24, A US judge in Chicago sentenced Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez (59), a reputed lieutenant of captured Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, to 22 years in prison.
(AP, 11/24/14)
2015 Jan 27, A federal judge in Chicago sentenced twin brothers Pedro and Margarito Flores (35) to 14 years in prison each for running a nearly $2 billion North American drug ring. Their sentences were reduced as a reward for their cooperation against Joaquin Guzman and other cartel leaders.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A10)
2015 Feb 2, A winter storm led to flight cancellations in the Northeast US. The same storm had dumped a foot and a half of snow on Chicago, Detroit and other areas of the Plains and Midwest..
(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 17, In Chicago a civil suit was filed against Mohammad Abdullah Saleem (75), founder of the Institute of Islamic Education, accusing him of abusing an employee and three teenage students. The suit accused Saleem of abusing female students as far back as the 1980s.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 19, Bone-chilling cold in the US Midwest shattered records in Chicago, closing schools and starting its trudge eastward to an already frozen Boston and New York.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Apr 7, In Chicago incumbent Mayor Rohm Emanuel was re-elected with 56% of the vote. Jesus Garcia took 44% in a 40% turnout.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.29)
2015 Apr 14, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a $5.5 million reparations package for suspects (mostly black) who were tortured by police in the 1970s and 1980s.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.28)
2015 May 6, The Chicago City Council voted 42-0 to approve a $5.5 million reparations fund for torture victims of the notorious police commander Jon Burge and his so-called midnight crew of rogue detectives (1972-1991).
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A10)
2015 May 28, A new report said Illinois remains as the 3rd most corrupt US state after New York and California. Chicago was reported as still the most corrupt US city.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.22)
2015 Aug 7, An “unprecedented" agreement between the Chicago Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union went into effect. It will allow independent evaluations of the department’s controversial "stop and frisk" program.
(CSM, 8/8/15)
2015 Oct 13, Barbara Byrd-Bennett (66), the former head of Chicago Public Schools, pleaded guilty to her role in a scheme to steer $23 million in no-bid contracts to education firms for $2.3 million in bribes and kickbacks.
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 2, In Chicago Tyshawn Lee (9) was found shot dead in an alley in a South Side neighborhood. On Nov 27 gang member Corey Morgan (27) was charged with first degree murder.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A4)(SFC, 11/28/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 21, A heavy fall snowstorm hit the Midwestern United States, blanketing states from South Dakota to Wisconsin with as much as 16 inches (40 cm) of snow. The storm affected air travel, with 514 US flights canceled by morning, with Chicago's O'Hare International and Midway International airports the hardest hit.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 22, More than 130 flights were cancelled in and out of Chicago’s O’hare Int’l. Airport as a deep freeze set in across the Midwest.
(SFC, 11/23/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 23, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for calm ahead of the release of a "hideous" video showing officer Jason Van Dyke fire 16 bullets into Laquan McDonald (17). Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged the next day with first degree murder.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Dec 1, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy following the public outcry over the handling of the Oct 20, 2014, shooting of Laquan McDonald (17).
(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A8)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Chicago
End of file
Return to home
Chicago Hist. Soc: http://www.chicagohs.org/
Chicago Hist. Files: http://www.chicagohs.org/history/index.html
Hypertext Timeline: http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/chihist.html
Sun Times: http://www.suntimes.com
Chicago was founded by Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a black man from Haiti. He was a pioneer trader.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1674 Dec 4, Father Marquette built the 1st dwelling at what is now Chicago.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1675 May 18, Jacques Marquette (37), Jesuit, missionary in Chicago, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1772 Jun 6, Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe DuSable settled Chicago. [see Mar 12, 1773]
(MC, 6/6/02)
1773 Mar 12, Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable settled what is now known as Chicago. [see Jun 6, 1772]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1800 Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a pioneer trader, sold his holdings and moved to a Missouri farm.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1804 Fort Dearborn was erected on the Chicago River on the site of present-day downtown Chicago. With the outbreak of the War of 1812, the garrison of 67 soldiers, their dependents and settlers were ordered to evacuate to Fort Wayne. Most of them were massacred en route by Potawatomi Indians, who then burned the fort. Fort Dearborn was rebuilt in 1816 and around it grew the settlement that would become Chicago. Abandoned in 1837, Fort Dearborn was demolished in 1856.
(HNQ, 2/13/00)
1818 Aug 28, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, trader, founder of Chicago, died.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1830 Aug 4, Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.
(AP, 8/4/97)
1830 Chicago land sold for about $800 per acre (in 2012 dollars).
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.88)
1831 Robert A. Kinzie paid $127.68 for 102 acres of land that became much of Chicago.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.B3)
1833 Aug 12, Chicago incorporated as a village of about 350.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago)
1835 Aug 18, The last Potawatomi Indians left Chicago.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1836 Three Chicago commissioners wrote that what is now Grant Park should be “Public Ground – A Common to Remain Forever Open, Clear and Free of any Buildings, or other Obstruction Whatever." Aaron Montgomery Ward later used this statement to keep developers off the 320-acre lake-front property.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
1837 Mar 4, The Illinois state legislature granted a city charter to Chicago.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1847 Jun 10, Chicago Tribune began publishing.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1847 The population of Chicago numbered about 20,000 people.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.4)
1848 Jun 10, The 1st telegraph link between NYC & Chicago was established.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1848 The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) began trading grain futures. [see Jun 10,1848]
(Econ, 9/20/03, p.68)
1848 A canal was completed that linked the Chicago River to the Illinois River.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.4)
1850 Jul 20, John Graves Shedd, president of Marshall Field and Company, was born. He was the first Chicago merchant to give his employees a half-day off on Saturdays.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1850 Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884) partnered with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in forming the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency. "We never sleep" was their motto. The company’s emblem—a wide open eye—inspired the term "private eye. In 1999 the agency was sold to a Swedish company, Securitas AB.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug25.html)(HNQ, 8/7/98)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.C4)
1850 The population of Chicago approached 30,000.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1850s Polish immigrants began arriving in Chicago as job opportunities abounded.
(WSJ, 6/2/03, p.A1)
1855 Marshall Field (21) moved to Chicago from Pittsfield, Mass. Potter Palmer, owner of a retail and wholesale operation, later sold his business to Marshall Field and bookkeeper Levi Z. Leiter. In 1947 John Tebbel authored "The Marshall Fields: A Study in Wealth." In 2002 Axel Madsen authored "The Marshall Fields: The Evolution of an American Business Dynasty."
(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.D8)
1855-1875 The "raising of Chicago" took place. The town, built on mud, had begun to sink and forced new foundations and new drainage lines. The work was hailed as one of the wonders of the 19th century.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, Z1 p.2)
1860 May 16, The Republican convention operned in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Republican_National_Convention)
1860 May 18, The Republican Convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln for US president and Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine as Vice President. Other presidential candidates included William Seward and Salmon Chase.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Republican_National_Convention)(Econ, 12/1/12, p.75)
1860 Sep 6, Jane Addams (d.1935), known for her work as a social reformer, pacifist, and founder of Hull House in Chicago in 1889, first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1931), was born. "The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of one’s self." "You do not know what life means when all the difficulties are removed! I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. It is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning."
(AHD, 1971, p.15)(AP, 8/28/97)(HN, 9/6/98)(AP, 10/4/98)
1861 Mayor John Wentworth fired all the 60 policemen, 3 sergeants and 1 captain as his last official act. For 12 hours the city was without police as the Board of Commissioners worked to replace them.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.B4)
1864 Aug 28, The Democratic National Convention began in Chicago. General George B. McClellan's campaign platform called the war in America a failure. [see Aug 31]
(WSJ, 9/25/03, p.A18)
1864 Aug 31, At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan was nominated for president.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1865 Apr 20, Chicago's Crosby Opera House opened.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1865 Spiegel began as a Chicago home-furnishing store. It branched into mail order for rural customers in 1905 and abandoned its retail outlets in 1954. In 1982 it was purchased by the German Otto family.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.A6)
1866 Nov 30, Work in Chicago began on 1st US underwater highway tunnel.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1866 Dec 6, Chicago’s water supply tunnel into Lake Michigan was completed.
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.C12)(http://tinyurl.com/7zmyr6v)
1867 Sep 5, The first shipment of cattle left Abilene, Kansas, on a Union Pacific train headed to Chicago.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1868 May 20, The Republican National Convention met in Chicago and nominated Grant.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1868 In Chicago the 1st Marshall Field’s store opened at Washington and State Street under the name Field, Leiter & Co. in a building owned by Potter Palmer. The building was destroyed in the great fire of 1871.
(http://chicago.urban-history.org/sites/d_stores/fields.htm)(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A16)
1869 Chicago city officials were paid for painting City Hall but used cheaper whitewash and pocketed the difference.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.24)
1870 The population of Chicago reached 300,000.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1871 Oct 8, Around 9 p.m. on Sunday a fire broke out in or near Patrick and Catherine O'Leary's barn in the crowded southwestern section of Chicago. Fanned by high winds, the fire burned out of control in the tinder-dry city for more than 24 hours, until rain on Tuesday morning finally extinguished the flames. Three and a half square miles were leveled wiping out one-third of the city. The business district, the courthouse and the central water pumping station, burned to the ground. Thousands of Chicagoans fled the flames over the Randolph Street Bridge. Approximately 250 people were killed in the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were destroyed. The original Emancipation Proclamation was destroyed. Yet in spite of the devastation, the city was so quickly rebuilt that by 1875, few traces of the fire remained. Many people still believe that Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern which started the fire. The Chicago City Council once passed a resolution exonerating the cow and apologizing to the O'Leary family. Pegleg O’Sullivan kicked over a lantern after breaking into the O’Leary dairy barn to steal milk for a whiskey punch party.
(HNPD, 10/8/98)(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)(SFC, 1/11/03, p.D6)
1871 Oct 8, The 1938 film "In Old Chicago," with Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, was a musical that built up to the Chicago fire.
(HFA, ‘96, p.40)(Hem., 7/95, p.83)(AP, 10/8/97)(TVM, 1975, p.276)(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.C8)
1871 Oct 11, The Great Chicago Fire was finally extinguished after 3 days. Over 300 were killed. [see Oct 8]
(MC, 10/11/01)
1871 Edward Roos founded a lathe works in Chicago where he produced chests and other products. A younger Edward Roos founded his own firm in 1916.
(SFC, 12/28/05, p.G5)
1872 Oct 9, Aaron Montgomery Ward (1844-1913), a young traveling salesman of dry goods, started his mail-order business. The catalog of Aaron Montgomery Ward was the first to be called a "Wish Book." The 1871 Chicago fire had destroyed his initial inventory.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Montgomery_Ward)(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/30/99, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 12/29/00, p.A12)
1873 In Chicago bonds were issued for the Saginaw & Canada Railroad Co. The operation built 40 miles of track and went broke in 1876. The worthless bonds were later found and given to the Public Museum of Grand Rapids in 1992, where they were sold in the gift shop for $22.95. Scam artists acquired a large quantity in bulk and sold them as real bonds to investors for a total scam of some $12 million.
(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A1,8)
1873 Adam Schaaf opened a piano company in Chicago. Pianos were made at his 6-story building on Wabash Ave until 1926.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.G6)
1875 Sep 1, Edgar Rice Burroughs, novelist, was born in Chicago. He created Tarzan, the Ape Man.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1876 Apr 25, The Chicago White Stockings (later Chicago Cubs) beat Louisville 4-0 (1st NL shutout) in the 1st NL game. Albert G. Spalding (1850-1915), former pitcher for the Boston Red Stocking, had joined the Chicago White Stockings after helping form the new National League. His move effectively ended the National Association, baseball’s first professional league. Spalding managed the White Stockings from 1876-1877 and continued as a player to 1878.
(http://tinyurl.com/yb7u9ou)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spalding)
1876 Albert G. Spalding, former pitcher for the Boston Red Stocking, joined the Chicago White Stockings in the newly formed National League. His move effectively ended the National Association, baseballs first professional league. He managed the team from 1876-1877 and continued as a player to 1878.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spalding)
1877 In Chicago 17 businessmen founded their Commercial Club.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1879 Aug 12, The 1st National Archery Association tournament was held in Chicago.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1879 Armour & Co., a Chicago meat processor founded in the 1860s, introduced canned meats. Canned condensed milk was introduced in 1912. The “Armour’s Star" trademark was first used in 1931.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1880 Jul 30, Robert Rutherford ("Colonel") McCormick, US, editor, publisher (Chicago Tribune), was born.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1880 George M. Pullman established his own industrial community at Lake Calumet, south of Chicago. His company town provided homes for 2,500 workers along with schools, parks churches and a hotel.
(SFC, 7/1/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1881 Sep 18, The Chicago Tribune reported on a televideo experiment.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1881 Marshall Field (47) bought out his partner and renamed their Chicago’s State Street store from Field, Leiter & Co. to Marshall Field & Co.
(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A16)
1882 May 20, Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1882 Oct 18, Alexander Graham Bell made his historic telephone call to the mayor of Chicago.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1982 Anthony Porter was convicted of shooting to death an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman. He was sentenced to death and spent 16 years on death row until 1999, when Prof. David Protess and journalism students found a witness who identified her ex-husband, Alstory Simnon, as the killer.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A3)
1882 Electric streetcars began running and created havoc with the telephone system.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1883 Mar 24, Long-distance telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York. [see Mar 27, 1884]
(AP, 3/23/97)
1883 Jun 2, Chicago's "El" opened to traffic.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1883 Jun 9, The 1st commercial electric railway line began operation Chicago.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1884 May 1, Construction began on the first steel-skeleton skyscraper, a 10-story structure in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney and built by the Home Insurance Co. of New York. It was completed in 1885. It stood 9 stories and had 2 added in 1891.
(HT, 5/97, p.23)(SFEC, 11/22/98, Z1 p.8)(AP, 5/1/99)
1884 Jul 1, Allan Pinkerton (b.1819) founder of the Pinkerton Agency, died in Chicago. In 1996 James Mackay authored “Allan Pinkerton."
(http://aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=918)(ON, 7/06, p.12)
1886 May 1, A labor strike began across the US to support an 8-hour work day.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1886 May 3, Police arrived outside the McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago, where 1,400 IWPA workers were on strike. They opened-fire on the crowd while anarchist August Spies was making a speech, killing four of the workers.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1886 May 4, At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. Seven policemen were killed and some 60 others injured. Only one policeman was killed in the strike. 3 labor leaders were executed Nov 10, 1887, for the bombing. The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important influence on the origin of international May Day observances for workers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot)(AP, 5/4/97)(WSJ, 2/6/98, p.A20)
1886 May 5, A bomb exploded on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1886 Charles T. Yerkes acquired a primitive horse-car company on Chicago’s North Side. He acquired another the following year on the West Side and proceeded to develop the city’s streetcar system. His accomplishments included the Northwestern Elevated, the Consolidated Traction network of suburban lines and the Union Loop.
(WSJ, 8/29/06, p.D5)
1886 Web site on labor strikes of this year.
(http://www.execpc.com/~blake/)
1887 Nov 11, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fisher and George Engel were hanged for their participation in the May 4, 1886, Chicago Haymarket riot. As the noose was placed around his neck, Spies shouted out: "There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1887 The first softball game on record was held indoors at the Farragus Boat Club.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.E5)
1887 In Chicago some 63 hobos gathered at a hobo jungle and formed Tourist Union #63. An ethical code was created by Tourist Union #63 during its 1889 National Hobo Convention in St. Louis Missouri. This code was voted upon as a concrete set of laws to govern the Nation-wide Hobo Body and set forth guidelines of honesty and chivalry.
(http://tinyurl.com/knx3t85)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.30)
1888 Jul 23, Raymond Chandler, writer of detective stories, creator of the character Philip Marlow, was born in Chicago.
(HN, 7/23/98)(SSFC, 12/21/14, p.N3)
1888 Chicago’s 11-story Rookery building at 209 S. La Salle St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1888 Edward Katzinger founded a commercial baking-pan company in Chicago. It later became known as Ecko Housewares Co. By the 1960s it was the country’s largest manufacturer of non-electric kitchen items.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.G3)
1888 In Chicago Louis Glunz set up shop as a wine, beer and spirits merchant at Wells and Division streets. By 2009 the Louis Glunz Beer company represented Chicago-land consumers with the largest portfolio of Micro, Specialty and Import Beers with 665 brands and 172 breweries worldwide.
(www.glunzbavarianhaus.com/glunz-bavarian-chicago.html)
1889 Apr 1, The first dishwashing machine was marketed (in Chicago).
(OTD)
1889 Nov 17, The Union Pacific Railroad Co. began direct, daily railroad service between Chicago and Portland, Ore., as well as Chicago and San Francisco.
(AP, 11/17/97)
1889 The Auditorium Theater, designed by Louis Sullivan, was completed.
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.C12)
1889 Hull House, a Chicago social services organization for immigrants and the poor, was founded by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams. It closed in 2012 after running out of money.
(AP, 1/27/12)
1889 Louis Frederick Nonnast (41), a German immigrant (1865), had his own Chicago furniture factory by this time. In 1914 the firm was renamed Louis F. Nonnast & Sons.
(SFC, 8/31/05, p.G3)
1890 In Chicago Henry C. Niemann organized the H.C. Niemann & Co. to make tables. In 1909 the company moved to the 1800 block of Rockwell Street. It closed in 1929.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.G6)
1890 The population of Chicago reached 1.1 million.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1891 William Wrigley, Jr., born in Philadelphia in 1861, began his business career by selling soap manufactured by his father. In 1891, Wrigley moved to Chicago where he founded and became president of Wm. Wrigley, Jr. Company, manufacturers of chewing gum, earning him the money to acquire the Chicago Cubs and to build Wrigley‘s Stadium. Wrigley is especially noted for his effective advertising techniques.
(AP, 4/9/00)
1892 Jun 23, The Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated former President Cleveland on the first ballot.
(AP, 6/23/02)
1892 Oct 1, The University of Chicago opened.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1892 Oct 18, The first long-distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was formally opened. It could only handle one call at a time.
(AP, 10/18/07)
1892 Oct 20, The city of Chicago dedicated the World's Columbian Exposition.
(AP, 10/20/97)
1892 Oct, The Univ. of Chicago began operations under Pres. William Rainey Harper. It was founded by John D. Rockefeller.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.19)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W11)
1892 The 3-story Georgian mansion, the Reddington House, was built on the "Gold Coast" near Lake Shore Drive. Selling price in 1998 was $2.2 million.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.B12)
1892 Chicago businessman Charles Tyson Yerkes gave $300,000 to fund the wolrd’s largest telescope. A crater on the moon was later named after him.
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.74)
1893 May 1, The World’s Columbian Exposition was officially opened in Chicago by President Cleveland. The El in Chicago was erected to take visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition. It created a section of town called the Loop encircled by the railway. The exposition grounds covered over 600 acres of south Chicago along Lake Michigan. The exposition attracted over 21 million visitors who saw such wonders as the Ferris Wheel and electricity (first displayed in the Paris Exposition in 1889, but still unknown to most Americans). It was the first American exposition to make a profit. In 2003 Erik Larson authored "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and madness at the Fair That Changed America."
(AP, 5/1/97)(Hem. 7/96, p.25)(HNQ, 2/18/01)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.M1)
1893 Jun 21, George Washington Gale Ferris, engineer, completed the construction of a 254-foot high revolving steel wheel with 38 passenger cars, each with 40 plush chairs, for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
(ON, 11/99, p.7)(MC, 6/21/02)
1893 Jul 9, Daniel Hale Williams (1858-1931), an African-American surgeon, performed successful heart surgery on a teenager in Chicago.
(WSJ, 11/17/07, p.W11)(http://tinyurl.com/37gnkk)
1893 Aug 24, A fire in south Chicago left 5,000 people homeless.
(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1893 Mary Cassatt painted a 58-foot "Modern Woman" for the Women’s Building of the World’s Fair.
(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)
1893 Chicago’s new Monadnock Building carried its 17 stories on ground-floor walls 6 feet thick.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.F4)
1893 The Field Museum of Natural History opened in Chicago. It was founded during the World’s Columbian Exposition and named after department store magnate Marshall Field.
(WSJ, 8/30/04, p.A1)(SFC, 7/6/13, p.A10)
1893 The Chicago Stock Exchange, designed by Louis Sullivan, was completed. It was demolished in 1972.
(WSJ, 10/8/03, p.D6)
1893 Swami Vivekananda was sent to Chicago by his guru, Ramakrishna, from India to spread his teachings on yoga.
(WSJ, 6/23/00, p.A1)
1893 At the Chicago Exposition Milton Hershey was impressed with an exhibition featuring chocolate-making machinery from Germany and commented to his cousin, Frank Snavely, "Caramels are only a fad. Chocolate is a permanent thing." With that, Hershey decided to go into the chocolate business, purchasing the German-made machinery and installing it at his Lancaster Caramel Company in Pennsylvania. With the help of expert chocolate makers, Hershey was soon producing chocolate-covered caramels, called "novelties." In 1900, Hershey sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for $1 million, but retained the chocolate-making machinery. Soon thereafter, he launched the Hershey Chocolate Company and built a town around it, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
(HNQ, 10/31/00)
1893 Charlie Wacker, director of the World's Columbian Exposition and a friend of Louis Glunz, was instrumental in making Louis a bottler of Schlitz beer for the Chicago Exposition.
(www.glunzbavarianhaus.com/glunz-bavarian-chicago.html)
1893 F.W. Rueckheim introduced a confection of popcorn, peanuts and molasses at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was given the name Cracker Jack in 1896.
(AH, 10/04, p.71)
1893 Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared as Little Egypt" at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_%28dancer%29)
1893 Chicago's Mayor Carter Harrison was killed, the 1st US mayor shot in a political killing.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)
1894 Jan 8, Fire caused serious damage at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1894 May 11, Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Illinois went on strike. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, subsequently began a boycott of Pullman that blocked freight traffic in and out of Chicago. Pullman had cut wages due to the recession but left high rents in his company town. Mail cars were coupled to Pullman cars and Pres. Cleveland ordered federal troops onto the trains to insure the delivery of mail. Illinois Gov. John Peter Altgeld opposed Cleveland’s plans. 34 union workers were killed when federal troops intervened.
(AP, 5/11/97)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1894 Jul 20, 2000 federal troops were recalled from Chicago with the end of the Pullman strike.
(MC, 7/20/02)
c1894 Philosopher John Dewey transferred from the Univ. of Mich. to the Univ. of Chicago.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.19)
1895 Feb 4, The 1st rolling lift bridge opened in Chicago.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1895 Nov 28, America's first auto race between gasoline-powered automobiles was staged on Thanksgiving Day. The race, sponsored by the Chicago Times Herald, was to be run along a 52-mile course of muddy, frozen streets from Jackson Park to Waukegan, Illinois. The race attracted 80 entries but only six starters. James Franklin Duryea drove his brother’s car (Charles Edgar Duryea) in the first automobile race from Chicago to Waukegan over 52 miles of snowy roads at an average 7.5 mph. He collected $2,000 from the Chicago Times-Herald. It took him 7 hours and 53 minutes to complete the round trip. The average speed was 7 mph. 80 cars entered the race, 6 started and 2 finished. J. Frank Duryea, driving the Duryea at an average speed of 5 mph, crossed the finish line 10 hours and 23 minutes after the start. One other participant was forced to drop out of the race, suffering from hypothermia.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.E3)(AP, 11/28/97)(DTnet, 11/28/97)(HNPD, 11/28/98)
1895 Chicago’s Marquette Building at 140 Dearborn St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1895 Chicago’s 14-story Reliance Building at 32 N. State St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1895 Philosopher John Dewey founded the Dept. of Education at the Univ. of Chicago. Closure of the dept. was announced in 1997.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.19)
1895 Sears, Roebuck and Co. issued its 1st catalog. Within 2 years it was advertising 6,000 items.
(WSJ, 12/17/03, p.B1)
c1895 In Chicago the Fairbank’s Company introduced “Fairbank’s Fairy Soap." The brand disappeared in the 1930’s when the company was bought out. Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank had begun producing soap following his involvement in the lard-rending business in the 1880s.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.G5)
1896 May 7, Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (b.1860), serial killer, was hanged to death in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmantown, New Hampshire, to a devout Methodist family, Holmes spent much of his childhood torturing animals. He later graduated from the University of Michigan with a medical degree. Holmes financed his education with a series of insurance scams whereby he requested coverage for nonexistent people and then presented corpses as the insured. In 1886, Holmes moved to Chicago to work as a pharmacist. A few months later, he killed the elderly owner of the store but told everyone that the man had left him in charge. With a new series of cons, Holmes raised enough money to build a giant, elaborate home across from the store. The home, which Holmes called "The Castle," had secret passageways, fake walls, and trapdoors. Young women in the area, along with tourists who had come to see the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and had rented out rooms in Holmes' castle, suddenly began disappearing. Medical schools purchased many human skeletons from Dr. Holmes during this period but never asked how he obtained the anatomy specimens. Holmes was finally caught after attempting to use another corpse, his assistant Benjamin Pitezel, in an insurance scam. He confessed, saying, "I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing." Reportedly, authorities discovered the remains of over 200 victims on his property.
(www.thecrimeweb.com/hhholmes.htm)
1896 Jul 7, The Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago. The National Democratic Party formed to run a slate of candidates in 1896 because the Democratic Party had been taken over by the free-silver faction, which called for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the 16 to 1 ratio. They also condemned trusts, monopolies, high protective tariffs and the use of injunctions against labor. The "sound money" or gold Democrats withdrew from the party convention, organized the National Democratic Party and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois its presidential candidate. The gold plank in the Republican Party caused a similar split, with free-silver Republicans bolting the party and forming the National Silver Republicans, who endorsed the Democratic Party candidate for president, William Jennings Bryan. Republican William McKinley won the presidential election.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNQ, 8/23/99)
1896 Jun 8, William Jennings Bryan propelled himself to presidential candidacy when he stood before the Democratic Convention and made his famous "Cross of Gold" speech. The paramount issue in the 1896 presidential election was one of economics—the U.S. government promised to pay the holder of one dollar bill one dollar in gold. Democrats, farmers and westerners demanded that the government redeem paper money in silver as well, while Republicans and easterners protested that this policy would destroy the economy. It was on this dull, technical issue that 36-year-old William Jennings Bryan, a former congressman from Nebraska, launched his national political career. When he made his "Cross of Gold" speech, the Democrats had no strong presidential candidate. His dramatic words—"You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"—electrified his audience and resulted in his nomination for president in 1896. [see Jul 9]
(HNQ, 6/8/98)(MC, 7/8/02)
1896 Nov 26, Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg of Univ. of Chicago created the football huddle.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)(MC, 11/26/01)
1896 F.W. Rueckheim & Brother of Chicago received a trademark for "Cracker Jack." The popcorn and peanuts covered with molasses syrup sold for a nickel a box in 1899.
(HFA, ‘96, p.67)(SFC, 7/29/98, p.)(SFC, 7/29/98, Z1 p.23)(AH, 10/01, p.34)
1898 Jan 1, The consolidation of NYC ended a rivalry with Chicago which had annexed some 20,000 people in the surrounding towns of Hyde Park, Kenwood, Pullman and Woodlawn.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A10)
1898 Jun 7, Social Democracy of America party held its 1st national convention in Chicago.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1898 In Chicago the Pickard China Co. was founded by Wilder Pickard. He hired artists to paint imported China blanks. About 1911 Pickard started acid-etching china pieces and coating them with gold. the "Rose and Daisy" pattern was the most popular.
(SFC, 2/11/98, Z1 p.6)
1898 The Chicago Mercantile Exchange began operations.
(Econ, 9/20/03, p.68)
1899 Jan 17, Notorious gangster Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. The U.S. mobster known as "Scarface Al" later ran most of Chicago and the surrounding area.
(AP, 1/17/99)(HN, 1/17/99)
1899 Feb 20, Illinois Tel & Tel was granted a franchise for a Chicago freight tunnel system.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1899 May 20, John M. Harlan, the 91st Supreme Court justice (1955-71), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1899 Jul 3, The nation's first juvenile court opened on the West Side after reformers like Jane Addams pushed the Illinois legislature to recognized that children were developmentally different from adults.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, Z1 p.1)
1899 Jul 21, Author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Ill.
(AP, 7/20/97)
1900 Jan 29, The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia with teams from Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Z1 p.5)(AP, 1/29/98)
1900 Feb 1, In Chicago Ada and Minna Everleigh opened their Everleigh Club, a high-end brothel. They closed operations in 1911.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.P8)
1900 May 31, Chicago’s Northwestern Elevated began operations, and Charles T. Yerkes, its chief visionary was present to see his project come to fruition.
(www.chicago-l.org/figures/yerkes/)
1900 Chicago reversed the water flow of the Chicago River so that it would flow in from Lake Michigan and carry pollution out to drain into the Mississippi.
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.C12)(Econ, 11/19/11, p.43)
1900 Paul P. Harris met attorney Bob Frank for dinner in a well-off neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago. They took a walk around the area and stopped at shops along the way. Harris was impressed by how Frank had made friends with many of the shopkeepers. Eventually, Harris persuaded other local businessmen to meet and discuss forming a club for commercial trade, community, and fellowship. His vision laid the foundation for the Rotary of today.
(www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/paulharris/Pages/ridefault.aspx)
1900 Charles Comiskey, manager of the National League’s Cincinnati Reds, bought the Western League’s St. Paul team and moved it to Chicago as the White Stockings.
(ON, 6/09, p.11)
1900s In the early 1900s "The Friendly Friends" of Chicago, a group of madams, met periodically to plan protection for one another. They compared client lists and found that they could influence the most powerful men in town.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, Z1 p.2)
1901 Jan 28, Byron Bancroft Johnson announced that the American League would play the 1901 baseball season as a major league and would not renew its membership in the National Agreement. The new league would include Baltimore and Washington, DC, recently abandoned by the National League. The league would also invade 4 cities where National League teams existed: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. The 8 charter teams included: the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Americans, Chicago White Stockings, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Athletics, and Washington Senators.
(ON, 6/09, p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League)
1901 Dec 5, Walter Elias Disney (d.1966), movie producer and animator, was born in Chicago. Walt Disney created a cartoon empire with the character Mickey Mouse.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(HN, 12/5/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Charles R. Walgreen opened his first pharmacy on Chicago’s South side and made his mark by diversifying into housewares and hot food.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.A4)
1902 Mar 4, The American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.
(AP, 3/4/98) (HN, 3/4/98)
1902 May 15, Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago through the 1960s and early 1970's, was born.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1902 Train service between New York and Chicago began. In 1995 Amtrak’s "Broadway Limited" service made its final run.
(AP, 9/9/00)(MC, 9/9/01)
1903 Apr 19, Eliot Ness, Treasury agent, was born. He fought for prohibition in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 4/19/99)
1903 Aug 19, James Gould Cozzens (d.1978), US novelist, was born in Chicago. His novels included "Farewell to Cuba" and "Guard of Honor" for which he won a 1949 Pulitzer.
(MC, 8/19/02)(Internet)
1903 Dec 30, The Iroquois Theater Fire of Chicago killed 602 people. Matinee patrons for "Mr Bluebeard" panicked despite efforts by comedian Eddie Foy (47) to calm the crowd. In 2003 Anthony P. Hatch authored "Tinder Box," an account of the fire.
(HFA, '96, p.70)(AP, 12/30/97)(PCh, 1992, p.652)(WSJ, 3/28/03, p.W9)
1904 Jan 29, The 1st athletic letters were given to the Univ. of Chicago football team.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1904 Jun 17, Ralph Bellamy, actor (Air Mail, Dive Bomber, Trading Places, Sunrise at Campobello, Winds of War, War and Remembrance), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1904 Orchestra Hall was built.
(WSJ, 10/9/97, p.A16)
1904 The Ravinia Festival was founded as a high-class amusement park designed to increase ridership for a railroad company. It became a center for summertime opera but folded during the depression in 1931. It re-opened in 1936 as the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A12)
1905 Feb 23, The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago by lawyer Paul Percy Harris and 3 friends. Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes. When fellow club members began to complain that the design was static and lifeless, Bear added flourishes that made the wheel appear to ride on a bed of clouds. Unfortunately, some members felt the clouds looked like dust, defying the laws of gravity by being kicked up on both sides of the wheel. The service club did not admit women until the 1980s.
(http://tinyurl.com/28kd23m)(AP, 2/23/98)(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.70)
1905 Jun 11, Pennsylvania Railroad debuted the fastest train in world (NY-Chicago in 18 hrs).
(SC, 6/11/02)
1905 Jul 7, The International Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago. The IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were formed partly in response to the American Federation of Labor’s opposition to the unionization of unskilled labor. As an organization that advocated sabotage, they were suppressed and prosecuted by the federal government from 1917-18 and were driven underground by the "Red Scare" that started in the United States in 1919. Ideological disputes with the newly formed U.S. Communist Party dissipated their remaining energies so that they ceased to be a force of any significance past the mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn Dublfsky authored its definitive history "We Shall Overcome."
(HNQ, 10/16/00)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A24)(HN, 7/7/01)
1905 Dec 29, Charles Tyson Yerkes (b.1837), financier, died in New York City. His estate was valued at $4 million. Yerkes developed Chicago’s streetcar system. His life was immortalized in Theodore Dreiser's Cowperwood trilogy: “The Financier’ (1912), “The Titan’ (1914), and “The Stoic" (1947). In 2006 John Franch authored the biography “Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.
(WSJ, 8/29/06, p.D5)(www.chicago-l.org/figures/yerkes/)
1905 James Burnham (d.1987), political activist and author, was born in Chicago.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
1905 Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender newspaper. The paper helped ignite the move of tens of thousands of southern black sharecroppers north to Chicago and other cities. His nephew, John Sengstacke, took over the paper in 1940 and expanded it from a weekly to a daily. In 1991 Nicholas Lemann authored "The Promised Land," an account of the black migrations from the deep South to Chicago.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.B1)(WSJ, 9/29/99, p.A20)
1905 Burrows, Marsh & McLennan was formed by Henry W. Marsh and Donald R. McLennan in Chicago becoming the world's largest insurance agency with annual premiums of $3 million ($59 million consumer price index adjusted). It was renamed Marsh & McLennan in 1906. In 1997, the company merged with Johnson & Higgins.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_&_McLennan)
1906 Jan 16, Marshall Field (71), Chicago department store founder, died in NYC.
(AP, 1/16/06)
1906 Aug 15, The 1st freight delivery tunnel system began underneath Chicago.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1906 Upton Sinclair published "The Jungle," a novel that exposed the intolerable working conditions in the Chicago slaughterhouses.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1906 The Chicago Lighthouse was founded by a group of women volunteers who were both blind and sighted and offered housing, clothing and food assistance to people who were blind.
(www.thechicagolighthouse.org/default.asp?page=aboutus)
1907 Marshall Field expanded his landmark store on Chicago’s State Street to cover the whole block on State St. bounded by Wabash, Washington and Randolph.
(http://chicago.urban-history.org/sites/d_stores/fields.htm)(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A6)
1908 Jun 18, William Howard Taft was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in Chicago.
(AP, 6/18/08)
1908 Aug 8, Arthur J. Goldberg (d.1990), labor lawyer, UN ambassador, Supreme Court justice (1962-65), was born in, Chicago, Illinois. He was instrumental in the merger of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
(HN, 8/8/98)(AP, 8/8/08)
1908 Oct 10, The Chicago Cubs won Game 1 of the World Series with a 10-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Bennett Park.
(AP, 10/10/08)
1908 Oct 11, The Chicago Cubs took a 2-0 lead in the World Series, defeating the visiting Detroit Tigers 6-1 at the West Side Grounds.
(AP, 10/11/08)
1908 Oct 12, The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs 8-3 in Game 3 of the World Series, played in Chicago.
(AP, 10/12/08)
1908 Oct 13, The Chicago Cubs won Game 4 of the World Series, defeating the Detroit Tigers 3-0 to take a 3-1 Series lead.
(AP, 10/13/08)
1908 Oct 14, The Chicago Cubs won the World Series as they defeated the Detroit Tigers in Game 5, 2-0, at Bennett Park.
(AP, 10/14/08)
1908 Chicago’s Robie House, 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave., was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was completed in 1910.
(WSJ, 10/22/04, p.W2)(www.wrightplus.org/robiehouse/robiehouse.html)
1908 A Chicago Auto Show was held. Walter P. Chrysler saw his first "Locomobile" at the show.
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)
1909 Jul 25, Draugas, "The Friend," a Lithuanian newspaper, began publishing in Chicago.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1909 Nov 11, Robert Ryan, actor (Billy Budd, Dirty Dozen, Longest Day), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1910 Feb 28, Vincente Minnelli, director (American in Paris, Gigi), was born in Chicago, IL.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1910 Sep, In Chicago a spontaneous strike by a handful of women workers led to a citywide strike of 45,000 garment workers. That strike was a bitter one and pitted the strikers against not only their employers and the local authorities, but also their own union.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamated_Clothing_Workers_of_America)
1910 Dec 22, In Chicago, Ill., 21 firefighters died when a wall collapsed at the Union Stock Yards fire.
(www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-exchange-1910fire,0,4327692.story)
1911 Aug, Calbraith Perry Rodgers stayed aloft longer than any other contestant at the Chicago International Aviation Meet. Rodgers had recently purchased a new Wright airplane, the 1st ever sold to a private citizen.
(ON, 10/06, p.10)
1911 Sep 29, Walter Brookins set an American record by flying 192 miles from Chicago to Springfield, Ill., making two stops.
(NPub, 2002, p.8)
1911 Oct 25, In Chicago Ada and Minna Everleigh closed their Everleigh Club, a high-end brothel, which they had begun in 1910. In 2007 Karen Abbott authored “Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul."
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.P8)
1911 Nov 11, A man died of heat prostration.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1911 Nov 12, Two people froze to death. The temperature had dropped 61 degrees overnight.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)
1911-1960s The Diamond T company built high quality trucks in Chicago and Indiana during this period. In 1934 the company shipped a fire truck was shipped to Alcatraz Prison.
(SFC, 9/24/03, p.A25)
1912 Mar 22, Karl Malden (d.2009), later film and TV star, was born as Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago.
(AP, 7/2/09)(SFC, 7/1/09, p.A8)
1912 Jun 27, Audrey Christie, actress (Dorothy-Fair Exchange), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1912 Harriet Monroe, former Chicago Tribune art critic, founded the monthly Poetry Magazine. In 2002 Ruth Lilly (87), great-grandchild of Eli Lilly, gave the magazine a $100 million endowment.
(SFC, 11/19/02, p.A3)
1913 Mar 22, Karl Malden, actor (Mike-Streets of SF, American Express), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1913 Dec 7, Aaron Montgomery Ward, founder of the mail order industry, died.
1913 Dec 27, Charles Moyer, president of the Miners Union, was shot in the back and dragged through the streets of Chicago.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1913 Dec 29, The 1st movie serial, "Adventures of Kathlyn," premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1913 Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg of the Univ. of Chicago instituted numbered jerseys for football players. The Univ. of Pittsburgh introduced the 1st football jerseys with numbers on the back in 1908.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)
1913 Anderson, Delany & Co., an accounting firm, was formed in Chicago. The firm was renamed Arthur Anderson in 1918. Arthur Anderson (28), accounting professor, was a co-founder.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/1/02, p.B1)(WSJ, 6/7/02, p.A6)
1915 Apr 6, Big Bill Thompson (1869-1944) won the general election to become mayor of Chicago. Thompson served 3 terms: 1915-1919, 1919-1923, and 1927-1931.
(www.chipublib.org/004chicago/mayors/thompson.html)
1915 Jun 24, More than 800 people died when the excursion steamer "Eastland" capsized at Chicago’s Clark Street dock.
(AP, 6/24/00)
1915 Aug 19, Ring Lardner Jr., author and screenwriter (A Star Is Born), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1916 Apr 20, The Chicago Cubs, after merging with the Chicago Whales, began playing at Weeghman Park. In 1926 the stadium became known as Wrigley Field.
(http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/nl/WrigleyField.htm)
1917 The Chicago White Sox won the Baseball World Series.
(SFC, 10/28/04, p.A7)
1918 Nov 24, Frank O. King premiered his comic strip "Gasoline Alley" in the Chicago Tribune. He aged his characters over time.
(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)(WSJ, 6/20/01, p.A1)(www.toonopedia.com/gasalley.htm)
1918 Dec 31, Kid Gleason replaced Pants Rowland as White Sox manager.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1918 Frank King premiered his comic strip "Gasoline Alley" in the Chicago Tribune.
(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)
1918 Walter Jacobs opened a rental business in Chicago that grew to become Hertz. In 1923 he sold his business to John Hertz. GM owned Hertz from 1826 to 1953. Ford acquired Hertz in 1985 and in 2005 announced plans to sell it to a consortium of 3 private equity firms in a deal valued at $15 billion.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.60)
1919 Jul 21, A dirigible crashed through a bank skylight killing 13 in Chicago.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1919 Jul 27, In a Chicago race riot 15 whites and 23 blacks were killed with 500 injured.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1919 Jul 30, Federal troops were called out to put down Chicago race riots.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1919 Aug 18, Anti-Cigarette League of America formed in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1919 Aug 31, John Reed formed the Communist Labor Party in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world unite!"
(HN, 8/31/98)(YN, 8/31/99)(MC, 8/31/01)
1919 Oct 1, In baseball’s World Series the Chicago White Sox faced the Cincinnati Reds in a best of 9 games. The White Sox intentionally threw the series to satisfy gamblers in what became known as the Black Sox Scandal. 8 players were banned from baseball for life. In 1963 Eliot Asinof described the events in his book “Eight men Out." The 1988 baseball film "Eight Men Out" was directed by John Sayles.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.8)(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.33)(AH, 10/04, p.14)
1919 Oct 9, The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, defeating the Chicago White Sox 10-5 at Comiskey Park. The victory turned hollow amid charges eight of the White Sox had thrown the Series in what became known as the "Black Sox" scandal.
(AP, 10/9/08)
1919 Draugas, a Lithuanian newspaper, began daily publication. It was published by the congregation of Lithuanian Marion fathers in Chicago.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1919 James Henry Breasted (1865-1935), archeologist, founded the Oriental Institute as part of the Univ. of Chicago. The collection was opened to the public in 1931.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Institute,_Chicago)(WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A25)(AM, 7/05, p.56)
1919 Henry Ford sued the Chicago Tribune for libel after the newspaper called him an "ignorant" anarchist. Ford won the suit and was awarded 6 cents. He soon began amassing material of historical value.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A7)
1920 Feb 14, The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maude Wood Park.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1920 Jun 10, The Republican convention in Chicago endorsed woman suffrage.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1920 Jun 11, The US Republican Senate bosses gathered in rooms 408 & 410 of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago and selected Sen. Warren Harding to break a deadlock. Harding, disregarding his mistress of four years, Nan Britton, declared himself to be of good character. The Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. Britton later wrote a book, "The President’s Daughter," about their relations and claimed that she bore his daughter. Harding had another mistress named Carrie Phillips. In 1999 Martin Blinder published his novel "Fluke" based on Harding's political career and presidency.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(Hem, 8/96, p.84)(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A8)(SFEC, 5/2/99, BR p.8)
1920 Jun 12, Republicans in Chicago nominated Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice president.
(HN, 6/12/98)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1920 Jun 20, Race riots in Chicago, Illinois left two dead and many wounded.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1920 Sep 22, Chicago grand jury convened to investigate charges that 8 White Sox players conspired to fix the 1919 World Series.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1920 Sep 27, Eight Chicago White Sox players were charged with fixing the 1919 World Series. [see Sep 28]
(HN, 9/27/98)
1920 Sep 28, 8 White Sox players were indicted for throwing the 1919 World Series (Black Sox scandal). [see Sep 27]
(MC, 9/28/01)
1920 Oct 23, Chicago grand jury indicted Abe Attell, Hal Chase, and Bill Burns as go-betweens in Black Sox World Series scandal.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1920s Retail tycoon Marshall Field built the Merchandise Mart as a city within a city. The 25 floors of retail space was connected by underground railroad to other important places of commerce.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A1)
1920 Radio station WLS was named after the slogan of Sears, "World's Largest Store."
(WSJ, 7/23/99, p.W7)
1921 Jul 18, The prosecution gave its opening remarks in the trial of the Chicago Black Sox, accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/blacksox/chronology.html)
1921 Aug 2, A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal.
(AP, 8/2/01)
1921 Aug 3, Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to reinstate the former Chicago White Sox players implicated in the "Black Sox" scandal, despite their acquittals in a jury trial.
(AP, 8/3/01)
1921 Grigsby-Grunow began business operations in Chicago. In 1928 they began manufacturing radio receivers under the Majestic brand name. The company went bankrupt in 1933.
(SFC, 3/9/05, p.G4)
1922 Mar 31, Richard Kiley, actor (Man of La Mancha, Endless Love), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1922 Apr 15, Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicago (1983-1987), was born.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1922 Jul 26, Jason Robards Jr, actor (A Thousand Clowns, Any Wednesday), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1922 Aug 26, The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 26-23.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, Z1 p.2)
1922 Oct 28, The 1st coast-to-coast radio broadcast of a football game. WEAF in New York broadcast the first collegiate football game to be heard across the US. Princeton played against the University of Chicago at Stagg Field in Chicago, Illinois. Telephone lines transmitted the game to New York City, where the radio transmission started. Queensboro Realty Co. paid $100 for 10 minutes of air time. (Princeton 21, Chicago 18.)
(http://senior.billings.k12.mt.us/otrannex/history/radio.htm)
1922 W. Clement Stone (1902-2002) began his Combined Registry & Co., an insurance operation, in Chicago, Illinois with $100. In 1987 it was renamed Aon Corp. By the time of his death Combined Int’l. had grown to a $2 billion concern.
(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.D1)(www.combined.com/2130_history.html)
1923 Jan 8, Giorgio Tozzi, basso (Met Opera, Boris, Don Giovanni), was born in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1923 Frank Willard (1958) created the Moon Mullins comic strip for the Chicago Tribune. The strip continued with other artists following Willard’s death until 1991.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.G6)
1924 Apr 11, WLS-AM in Chicago IL began radio transmissions.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1924 Apr 14, Louis Henri Sullivan (67), Chicago architect (Wainwright building St Louis), died. He wrote an autobiography entitled "The Autobiography of an Idea." "Imagination is the greatest of man’s single working powers - and the trickiest; as the intellect is the frailest, the most subject to derangement, the most given to cowardice and betrayal, unless it be held steady and sane by the power of instinct."
(Hem., 7/95, p.82)(MC, 4/14/02)
1924 Apr 19, The "National Barn Dance" premiered on WLS in Chicago.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1924 Apr 30, Sheldon Harnick, lyricist (Fiorello, Fiddler on the Roof), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1924 May 21, Bobby Franks (14) was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. (19) and Richard Loeb (18), two rich college kids of the University of Chicago. The meticulously planned crime might never have been solved had Leopold's unique eyeglasses not been found near Franks' body. They were defended by Clarence Darrow, who pleaded his clients guilty in order to keep the case from a jury. Richard Loeb was a cousin of Bobby Franks. The sensational two-month trial generated an outcry in favor of execution, but Judge John Caverly sentenced the two to life imprisonment. Loeb was killed in a prison fight in 1936. Leopold, with the support of Prosecutor Crowe, was released from prison in 1958 and died of a heart attack in 1971. In 1956 Meyer Levin authored “Compulsion," an account of the case. A play dramatizing the case was written in 1995 by John Logan. In 2008 Simon Baatz authored “For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago."
(AP, 5/21/97)(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-12)(AP, 5/21/97)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W8)
1924 Jun 7, Dolores Gray, singer, actress (Designing Woman, Kismet), was born in Chicago.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1924 Sep 10, Leopold and Loeb were found guilty of deliberate, casual murder in Chicago.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1925 Aug 28, Donald O’Connor (d.2003), dancer, actor (Singing in the Rain, Anything Goes), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 8/28/00)(SSFC, 9/28/03, p.A33)
1925 Chicago's Soldier Field, designed by Holabird & Root, was dedicated. It was built largely for track and field and had over 100,000 seats. In 2003 a new football stadium was completed within the colonnades of the original memorial.
(WSJ, 10/8/03, p.D6)
1925 The Chicago Board of Trade Clearing Corp. became the legal counter-party to buyers and sellers of derivative contracts.
(Econ, 11/14/09, p.94)
1925 The 1st Sears retail store opened on Chicago’s west side.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1926 Apr 9, Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy Magazine, was born in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner)
1926 The Aunt Jemima Mills Co. was purchased by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima)
1926 The Hawthorne Arms Hotel, headquarters for Al Capone, was machine-gunned by rival mobsters.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A13)
1927 Apr, Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded Match Box Blues in Chicago on Okey Records.
(http://tinyurl.com/kenpy7u)
1927 Jul 14, John William Chancellor, news anchor (NBC, VOA), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1927 Sep 22, Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against Jack Dempsey in 10 rounds in the famous "long-count" fight in Chicago. Referee Dave Barry stopped his count in the 7th round. Boxer Gene Tunney was down; but Jack Dempsey, had not yet returned to his corner. By the time the ref was able to resume counting, Tunney was able to get to his feet. He got an extra 2 to 5 seconds....just what he needed. Tunney won the fight and retained his world heavyweight boxing championship.
(http://tinyurl.com/4uqu9o5)(AP, 9/22/97)
1927 Oct 1, Tom Bosley, actor (Howard-Happy Days, Murder She Wrote), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1927 In Chicago Al Capone's support allowed Big Bill Thompson to return to the mayor's office. Pledging to clean up Chicago and remove the crooks, Thompson instead turned his attention to the reformers, whom he considered the real criminals.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hale_Thompson)
1927 Sears launched its Craftsman and Kenmore brands.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1927-1934 The Chicago Tribune published an edition in Paris. In 1987 Waverley Root authored “The Paris Edition."
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.W8)
1928 Mar 19, "Amos & Andy" debuted on radio with the NBC Blue Network, WMAQ Chicago.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1928 The int'l. Early Birds organization for early aviators was founded. Members included solo fliers prior to Dec 17, 1916. The last member, George D. Grundy Jr., died in 1998 at age 99.
(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)
1929 Feb 14, In Chicago the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a garage of the Moran gang as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down. Police found seven men shot to death in a North Chicago garage. With the exception of one, the men were working under George "Bugs" Moran, a well-known bootlegger and gangster, and staunch rival of Al "Scarface" Capone. Members of Capone’s gang lured the victims into the garage under the guise of selling cheap alcohol. Then two of Capone’s men, dressed up as police officers, staged a raid. Believing them to be real, Moran’s outfit turned over its weapons, turned to face the wall and waited for the arrest. It was at that point that the hit on Moran’s men took place. Neighbors heard the gunfire, but assumed the police were involved when Capone’s costumed officers escorted the gunmen outside and together, they all fled the scene.
(TMC, 1994, p.1929)(AP, 2/14/98)(HNQ, 2/14/02)
1929 Sep 11, David S. Broder, journalist (Pulitzer 1973), was born in Chicago Hgts., Ill.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1930 Jan 9, Earth rumbling awakened Chicagoans- no earthquake, seismologists said. The stockyards sprang a leak and a foul stench covered the city for three hours.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1930 Apr 1, Leo Hartnett of the Chicago Cubs broke the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, CA.
(OTD)
1930 May 10, The 1st US planetarium opened in Chicago.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1930 Sep 17, The Daily Illustrated Times of Chicago said that warrants had been issued for the arrest of 26 men named as public enemies. They included Alphonse “Scarface" Capone, Tony “Mops" Volpe, “Machine Gun Jack" McGurn, George “Bugs" Moran, Edward “Spike" O’Donnell, William “Klondike" O’Donnell, George “Red" Barker, and William “Three-fingers" White.
(SFC, 9/16/05, p.F6)
1930 Nov 13, In California the Fresno Bee reported that Al Capone, Chicago gangland leader, had banned the sale of grape juice concentrates in Chicago. The order was said to be a warning to California grape farmers that they need his approval to sell their products in certain markets.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.F7)
1930s William L Shirer succeeded George Seldes as the Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Shirer later wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)
1931 Apr 15, Florian Zabach, violinist (Hot Canary, Club), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1931 Oct 24, Al (Alphonse) Capone, prohibition era Chicago gangster, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion.
(HN, 10/24/98)(MC, 10/24/01)
1931 Sears started Allstate Insurance Co. Employees received group life insurance.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1931 Anton Cermak became mayor of Chicago. He was assassinated March 8, 1933.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)(www.cermak.com/mayor/index3.html)
1932 Jun 16, President Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis were renominated at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
(AP, 6/16/02)
1932 Jul 1, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for president at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
(AP, 7/1/07)
1932 Jul 2, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the nomination for president on the 4th ballot at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
(ON, 12/07, p.3)
1932 Sep 19, Mike Royko, journalist (Chic Daily News) and author (Boss), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1932 Sears opened its first downtown Chicago store on State St. Some 15,000 customers visited on opening day.
(SFC, 1/23/14, p.C3)
1933 Feb 15, President-elect Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami. Giuseppa Zangara, an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five pistol shots at the back of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt's head from only twenty-five feet away. While all five rounds missed their target, each bullet found a separate victim. One of these was Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. [see Mar 8, 20]
(AP, 2/15/98)(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)
1933 Mar 6, Anton J. Cermak (b.1873), Czech-born 35th mayor of Chicago, died in Miami following the Feb 15th assassination attempt by Giuseppe Zangara, who was trying to shoot FDR. Zangara was executed in the electric chair on March 21, 1933. Cermak became the 2nd US mayor to die in a political killing.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)(www.cermak.com/mayor/index3.html)
1933 Jul 1, Italian Air Force Gen. Italo Balbo led a flight of twenty-four flying boats on a round-trip flight from Rome to the Century of Progress in Chicago, Illinois. The flight had seven legs and ended on Lake Michigan near Burnham Park on Aug 12. In honor of this feat, Mussolini donated a column from Ostia to the city of Chicago; it can still be seen along the Lakefront Trail, a little south of Soldier Field.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo_Balbo)
1933 Jul 6, The first All-Star baseball game was played, at Chicago's Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.
(AP, 7/6/08)
1933 Dec 17, In the first world championship football game, the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants, 23-21, at Wrigley Field.
(AP, 12/17/08)
1933 Chicago hosted the "Century of Progress Exhibition." The Sally Rand Fan Dancer clock made by Lux was sold at the Chicago World’s Fair. Sally Rand performed her titillating fan dance 16 times a day at the fair and was one of the most publicized attractions.
(HT, 3/97, p.14)(SFC, 4/15/98, Z1 p.6)
1933 Economists from the Univ. of Chicago sent Pres. Roosevelt a memo outlining a plan to split the two main functions of banks: taking deposits and making loans. This came to be known as the Chicago Plan. Roosevelt opted instead for deposit insurance.
(Econ, 6/7/14, p.82)
1934 May 26, Century of Progress Exposition reopened in Chicago.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1934 Jul 4, Boxer Joe Louis won his first professional fight, knocking out Jack Kracken in the first round in Chicago. He won 12 fights that year, all in Chicago, 10 by knockout.
(HN, 7/4/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis#Early_life_and_career)
1934 Jul 22, John Dillinger (33) was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater. FBI agent Murray Faulkner, brother of William Faulkner, helped in the killing. In 1924 Dillinger was sent to the Indiana State Reformatory for holding up a grocer, and was later transferred to the Michigan City, Indiana, State Prison, where he hatched a plan for a mass breakout with a group of other infamous convicts. When Dillinger was paroled in 1933, he robbed several banks to provide money for his friends’ escape. He was caught in Ohio, but by then his friends had escaped and they helped him break out. Dillinger’s supposed death remains mysterious. Anna Sage, the "Lady in Red," had agreed to deliver Dillinger to the FBI if they would stop deportation proceedings against her. The setup went as planned, and the FBI shot the man with Anna Sage. Dillinger was famous for the size of his penis, which was "reportedly" severed and shown at exclusive viewings.
(AP, 7/22/97)(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)(HNPD, 7/22/98)(HN, 7/22/99)
1934 Chicago’s Art Deco tower at 135 La Salle St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1935 Jan 19, The first pair of Jockey briefs showed up in a Marshall Field’s window in Chicago.
(SSFC, 11/29/09, p.N6)
1935 Dec 1, Lou Rawls, vocalist (Dean Martin's Golddiggers, Natural Man), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1935 Katharine Kuh (1904-1994) opened Chicago’s 1st avant garde art gallery. She closed it in 1943 and joined the Art Institute of Chicago, eventually rising to become its 1st female curator. In 2006 Avis Burman edited Kuh’s memoir titled: “My Love Affair with Modern Art: Behind the Scenes with a Legendary Curator.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.81)
1935 Jay Berwanger of the Univ. of Chicago won the first Downtown Athletic Club trophy. The trophy was renamed the Heisman trophy in 1937 following the death of former coach and club director John Heisman.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.C18)
1936 Dec 11, An eerie glow over Chicago took place that some believe was a rare display of the Aurora Borealis.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1937 May 30, The Memorial Day Massacre took place. Ten union demonstrators were killed and 84 wounded when police opened fire in front of the South Chicago Republic Steel plant. Earlier in 1937 the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee had secured recognition by U.S. Steel as the workers' bargaining agency and had won a number of concessions. "Little Steel," under the leadership of Republic's Tom Girdler firmly opposed the union demands, leading to the deadly demonstration. A newsreel film of the Republic Steel strike riots was made.
(AP, 5/30/97)(SFC,11/21/97, p.C17)(HNQ, 5/25/98)
1937 Jun 22, Joe Louis began his reign as world heavyweight boxing champion by knocking out Jim Braddock in the eighth round of their fight in Chicago.
(AP, 6/22/08)
1937 Oct 31, Tom Paxton, folk singer and songwriter (Forest Lawn), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1937 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), renowned photographer, was recruited to be the founding head of the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The design school reconstituted itself as the School of Design and then the Institute of Design.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.D10)
1938 Mar 13, Clarence S. Darrow (80), famed attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial, died in Chicago.
(AP, 3/13/98)(MC, 3/13/02)
1938 Oct 9, Copland's ballet "Billy the Kid," premiered in Chicago. [see Oct 16]
(MC, 10/9/01)
1938 Oct 16, Billy the Kid, a ballet by Aaron Copland, opened in Chicago. [see Oct 9]
(HN, 10/16/98)
1938 Nov 6, The Red Ryder and Little Beaver cartoon strip by Fred Harman (b.1902) began appearing in the Chicago Sun. It went out of syndication in 1964.
(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.D8)
1938 Chicago held its first amateur air show. Lola Peppers (d.2000 at 91), one of the first black women to receive a pilot’s license, executed figure eights, spirals and the "dangerous stall."
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A21)
1939 Jan 15, In the 1st NFL pro bowl the NY Giants beat the All Stars 13-10 in Wrigley Field.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1939 Aug 29, William Friedkin, director (Exorcist, Cruising, French Connection), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1939 The Blommer Chocolate Co. was founded.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.6)
1939 The Univ. of Chicago decided to drop college football.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.C18)
1940 Jun 28, The Quiz Kids began airing on US NBC radio from Chicago. It was created by Chicago public relations and advertising man Louis G. Cowan, and originally sponsored by Alka-Seltzer. In 1945 it began airing on NBC TV. Ruth Duskin Feldman (1934-2015) joined the program at age 7 and left the program soon after turning 16. In 1982 she authored “Whatever Happened to the Quiz Kids: Perils and profits of Growing Up Gifted."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_Kids)(SFC, 6/11/15, p.D6)
1940 Jun 30, "Brenda Starr," a cartoon strip by Dale Messick, a woman, appeared in a Chicago Tribune insert. In Dec, 2010, Tribune Media Services announced that it was ending the feature’s newspaper syndication.
(SFC, 12/10/10, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Starr_%28comic_strip%29)
1940 Jul 18, The Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated President Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office.
(AP, 7/18/00)
1940 John Sengstacke (d.1997 at 84) took over the Defender newspaper after the death of his uncle, Robert Abbott. It was the largest black-owned newspaper in the country with a circulation of some 200,000 and was a major voice in luring Southern blacks to factory jobs in Northern cities.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)
1941 Apr 3, Walton's overture "Scapino," premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1941 Apr 26, First organ played at a baseball stadium, Chicago, Illinois.
(HN, 4/26/98)
1941 Walter H. Zinn (d.2000 at 93), nuclear physicist, oversaw the construction of the world's first nuclear reactor in Chicago. Zinn directed the Argonne center to develop nuclear power for peaceful use from 1946-1956.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A19)
1942 Mar 18, Black players, Jackie Robinson and Nate Moreland, requested a tryout with the Chicago White Sox. They were allowed to work out.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1942 Jul 13, Harrison Ford, actor (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Frantic), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1942 Oct 2, Enrico Fermi and others demonstrated the 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. [see Dec 2]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1942 Nov 18, Jeffrey Siegel, pianist (Chicago Symph), was born in Chicago Ill.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1942 Dec 2, A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago. On the squash court underneath a football stadium of the University of Chicago, the first nuclear chain reaction was set off. At 3:45 p.m., control rods were removed from the "nuclear pile" of uranium and graphite, revealing that neutrons from fissioning uranium split other atoms, which in turn split others in a chain reaction. The reaction was part of the Manhattan Project, the United States' top-secret plan to develop an atomic bomb. The group of scientists was led by Enrico Fermi and they proved that building an atomic bomb would be feasible. Dr. Alexander Langsdorf was one of the designers of the first 2 nuclear reactors that followed the first sustained nuclear chain reaction at the Univ. of Chicago. The first and last atomic bombs ever used in war were dropped on Japan in 1945.
(TMC, 1994, p.1942)(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-10)(AP, 12/2/97)(HNPD, 12/2/98)
1942 Dec 9, Dick Butkus, NFL hall of fame linebacker (Bears) and sportscaster, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1943 Nov 26, Edward H "Butch" O'Hare, US pilot, Lt-Comdr (Chicago Airport named for him), died in battle.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1943 Dec 11, Donna Mills, actress (Knots Landing, Incident), was born in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1944 Jun 26, The Republican national convention opened in Chicago with a keynote speech by California Governor Earl Warren.
(AP, 6/26/04)
1944 Jun 28, The Republican national convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president.
(AP, 6/28/04)
1944 Jul 19, The Democratic National Convention convened in Chicago with the renomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a foregone certainty.
(AP, 7/19/08)
1944 Nov, An Int'l. Civil Aviation Conference established English as the air traffic control language. The Chicago Convention on air travel attempted to lay down technical and legal rules for the post-war order in int’l. air transport.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.A25)(Econ, 10/4/03, p.66)(Econ, 7/9/11, p.69)
1945 Joseph P. Kennedy bought Chicago’s Merchandise Mart for $13 million, less than half of what it cost to build.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A1)
1946 Jan 26, Gene Siskel (d.1999) was born in Chicago. He later achieved recognition as movie critic with his counterpart Roger Ebert. Siskel and Ebert were first paired together in 1975 for a local PBS show called "Opening Soon at a Theater Near You."
(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.D8)
1946 Apr 20, 1st baseball game telecast was in Chicago with the Cards vs. Cubs.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1946 Sep 1, The SF 49ers under coach Lawrence “Buck" Shaw, played their first home game at Kezar Stadium before a crowd of 45,000. They beat the Chicago Rockets 34-14.
(SSFC, 1/22/12, p.A2)(www.49ers.com/team/history/founder.html)
1946 Nov 12, 1st "autobank" (banking by car) opened (Chicago).
(MC, 11/12/01)
1946 Muddy Waters began working regularly at clubs in Chicago playing an amplified electric guitar and local strudios began recording his songs.
(ON, 8/20/11, p.6)
1946 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (b.1895), renowned photographer and the founding head of the Institute of Design in Chicago, died.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.D10)
1946-1948 Wayne Miller (27) on a Guggenheim fellowship documented the South Side of Chicago in photographs.
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.6)
1947 Apr 16, Carol Mosely Braun, later US Senator for Illinois (1992-1998), was born in Chicago.
(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A2)
1947 May 7, Nick DeJohn, former capodecina in the Chicago Family, was strangled and his body stuffed into the trunk of a car parked on a San Francisco street. DeJohn had reportedly fled Chicago after murdering several other gang members and was living in Santa Rosa, California, under an alias at the time of his death.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/8fjm7)
1947 Jun 19, The Tucker automobile premiered in Chicago.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1947 Oct 13, The popular children's television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premiered as a local Chicago show. In its first year, the show's name varied between "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and "Junior Jamboree," but it was essentially the same show.
(http://www.kukla.tv/)
1947 Nov 30, David Mamet, playwright and director (Speed the Plow, House of Games), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1947 Robert Hutchins (1899-1977), president of the Univ. of Chicago, and Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001), American philosopher, launched the Great Books Foundation.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_Foundation)
1948 Apr 5, WGN TV channel 9 in Chicago, IL., began broadcasting.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1948 May 9, The first television guide, called TV Forecast, was published by Les Vihon and 3 partners in Chicago. It became the basis for TV Guide.
(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W10)
1948 Jul 25, Steve Goodman, singer, songwriter (Somebody Else’s Trouble), was born in Chicago.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1948 Nov 3, The Chicago Tribune printed the headline "Dewey defeats Truman." Later votes threw the election in the opposite direction. And later editions of other papers ran pictures showing Truman holding up the Tribune and grinning ear to ear.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1948 A Greek Orthodox church was built on Chicago’s south side. In 1972 it was purchased by the Nation of Islam and renovated under the name Mosque Maryam. In 2008 Minister Louis Farrakhan opened the mosque to the public in a rededication ceremony.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.A2)
1948 In Chicago Clint Youle (d.1999 at 83) became television's first weatherman.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A17)
1949 Jan 24, John Belushi, comedian, actor (SNL, Blues Brothers), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1950 Jun 17, Surgeon Richard Lawler performed the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.
(HN, 6/17/01)
1951 Jul 12, A mob tried to keep a black family from moving into all-white Cicero, Ill.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1952 Jul 11, The Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin (1900-1974), the governor of Maryland (1951-1959), gave the nominating speech.
(AP, 7/11/97)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.23)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_McKeldin)
1952 Jul 21, Robin Williams, American comedian and actor, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1952 Nov 30, Mandy Patinkin, actor and singer (Yentl, Alien Nation, Chicago Hope), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1953 Aug 4, Black families moved into the Trumbull Park housing project in Chicago.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1954 Jul 2, Wendy Schaal, actress (It's a Living, Julie-Fantasy Is), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1954 Aug 12, Sam J. Jones, actor (Chris-Code Red, The Highway Man), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1954 Leonard and Bernice Lavin (1925-2007) purchased a West Coast cosmetics company from Blaine Culver for nearly half a million dollars. They moved the operation to Chicago, renamed the company Alberto-Culver and dumped all the products except VO5. In 1965 the company went public on the NYSE.
(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.A8)
1955 Apr 5, Richard J. Daley was elected mayor of Chicago. He served 6 terms until his death in 1976.
(www.chipublib.org/004chicago/mayors/daley1.html)(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.14)
1955 Aug 28, Emmett Till (14), a black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., by white men after he had supposedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. Till’s beaten body was found three days later. His left eye and an ear were missing, as were most of his teeth. His nose was rushed and there was a hole in his right temple. Eyewitnesses linked Carolyn’s husband Roy Bryant and half-brother J.W. Milam to the murder. Bryant and Milam were indicted Sep 10 for a trial on Sep 19. Both were acquitted by an all-white jury. Bryant and Milan later confessed to the killing in a magazine interview. The area was a cotton-trading center where the white Citizens Councils maintained their regional headquarters. In 2004 the US Justice Dept. opened a criminal investigation into the case. In 2005 the US Senate acknowledged a share in the boy’s death.
(AP, 8/28/99)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A4)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A2)(SFC, 9/9/05, p.F5)(SFC, 3/17/06, p.A5)(SFC, 7/25/13, p.A20)
1955 Aug 31, 1st sun-powered automobile demonstrated, Chicago, Ill.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1955 Esther Friedman (2002) took over the Ann Landers advice column in the Chicago Sun Times. Pauline Friedman, her twin sister, went on to write the Dear Abby advice column. Esther was the wife of Jules Lederer, founder of Budget Rent A Car. They divorced in 1975.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)(Reuters, 6/23/02)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A10)
1955 Robert R. McCormick (b.1880), head of the Chicago Tribune, died. In 1997 Richard Norton Smith published his biography: "The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick."
(WSJ, 6/19/97, p.A16)
1956 Apr 14, Ampex Corporation demonstrated its first commercial videotape recorder, later renamed the Mark IV, at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention in Chicago.
(AP, 4/14/00)
1957 Margaret Hillis (d.1998 at 76) founded the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.21)
1958 Jul 16, Michael Flatley, Irish choreographer (Lord of Dance), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1958 Dec 1, In Chicago Our Lady of Angels School burned. 92 students and 3 nuns were killed.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1958 Chicago’s 18-story Inland Steel Building at 30 W. Monroe St. was built. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe and built by Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1959 Mar 18, The publisher of Big Table Magazine deposited at the Chicago Post Office several hundred copies of its first issue of Big Table Magazine. The contents consisted of a novel by Jack Kerouac, "Old Angel Midnight," two poems by Edward Dahlberg, "Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs and three poems by Gregory Corso. The Post Office General Counsel later alleged that the first and third articles were obscene and filthy. The magazine was published by Roland Pitschel (1942-2009) and his sister.
(Fremontia, 7/09, p.24)(www.usps.com/judicial/1959deci/1-150d.htm)
1959 Dec 16, In Chicago the “Second City" improvisational theater was founded.
(Fremontia, 7/09, p.24)
1959 In Chicago Kikkoman first introduced soy sauce to American consumers at an International Trade Fair.
(Econ, 4/11/09, p.68)
1959-1974 Chicago’s Federal Center at 219 S. Dearborn St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1960 Mar 13, NFL's Chicago Cardinals moved to St Louis.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1960 Apr 12, Bill Veeck and Chicago’s Comiskey Park debuted the "Exploding Scoreboard."
(MC, 4/12/02)
1960 Jul 27, Vice President Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
(AP, 7/27/00)
1960 Nov 8, John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in the US pres. elections. Popular legend later held that the political machine of Richard Daley in Chicago provided the necessary votes for Kennedy to win Illinois and the elections.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.B5)
1960 Dec 3, Daryl Hannah, film star, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SSFC, 2/14/04, Par p.18)
1960 John F. Kennedy asked his friend Frank Sinatra for help in the West Virginia primary for presidential elections. Sinatra asked his friend Sam Giancana to assist in this matter. The story is documented in a 1995 biography of Sinatra by his daughter Nancy titled: "Frank Sinatra: An American Legend." JFK used his young lover Judith Campbell to carry messages and money to Sam Giancana. The story was told in a 1997 A&E TV show series titled "Godfathers," that focused on the biography of Sam Giancana.
(WSJ, 12/14/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 1/8/96, p.B2)
1960 Joseph P. Kennedy was later reported to have held a meeting with Chicago mobster Sam Giancana to encourage the mob-run unions to vote for JFK. The events were later described in the 1997 book "The Dark Side of Camelot" by Seymour Hersh.
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.A12)
1960 Hugh Hefner (b.1926), in partnership with Victor Lownes and restaurateur Arnold Morton (d.2005), opened the 1st Playboy Club in Chicago.
(SFC, 5/30/05, p.B4)
1960 The Univ. of Chicago’s business school launched its Center for Research in Security Prices following a donation by banker Louis Engel.
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.90)
1960-1966 Marina City, a pair of cylindrical apartment towers, was constructed built. The design was by Bertrand Goldberg (d.1997 at 84).
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)
1961 Sep 1, TWA Flight 529, a Lockheed Constellation L-049 propliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Midway Airport in Chicago, killing all 73 passengers and 5 crew on board; it was at the time the deadliest single plane disaster in US history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_529)
1961 Sep 8, Frank Rosenthal (1929-2008), friend of Chicago mobsters, appeared before a Senate hearing on gambling and organized crime. He invoked the Fifth Amendment 38 times.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)
1961 In Chicago the DuSable Museum of African American History was founded by Margaret Burroughs.
(Econ, 9/12/15, p.31)
1961 A "Bozo the Clown" show began on Chicago’s WGN-TV. The last show was taped in 2001.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.E3)
1962 Mar, The Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union Local 130 began dumping containers of green dye into the Chicago River to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
(SSFC, 3/16/14, p.A17)
1962 The Dan Ryan freeway opened along the south side of Chicago. It was named after a late president of the Cook county Board of Commissioners.
(WSJ, 4/21/06, p.A1)
1962 Sears, the Chicago-based retailer, hired film star Vincent Price to pick art pieces and serve as spokesman for selling its “Vincent price Collection of Fine Art."
(WSJ, 8/23/05, p.D8)
1963 Oct 22, 225,000 students boycotted Chicago schools in a Freedom Day protest.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1963 Oct, Pres. Kennedy spoke with Mayor Daley of Chicago to get congressman Roland Libonati to vote the Party line. The conversation was recorded.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.43)
1964 Chicago’s Marina Center at 300 N. State St. was built. The pair of 60-story towers were designed by Bertram Goldberg.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1965 Aug 12, There was a race riot in West Side of Chicago.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1965 Eugene Fama (b.1939), American economist, first proposed his efficient market hypothesis at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as an academic concept of study through his published Ph.D. thesis.
(Econ, 8/8/09, p.67)(www.e-m-h.org/history.html)
1966 Jan 17, Martin Luther King Jr. opened a campaign in Chicago.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1966 Jul 12, There were race riots in Chicago.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1966 Jul 14, In Chicago Richard Speck murdered 8 student nurses in a Chicago dormitory. He made a videotape in prison and admitted to the killings. Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Paison; all nursing students at the South Chicago Community Hospital; were raped then strangled or stabbed to death by Richard Speck. One survivor, Cora Amurao, identified Richard Speck, and he was put in jail. He was serving consecutive sentences of 50 to 150 years and died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. The video shows him having sex and snorting cocaine in prison.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(TMC, 1994, p.1966)(AP, 7/14/97)
1966 Aug 5, Martin Luther King Jr. was stoned during a march in Chicago.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1967 Apr 21, Northern Illinois was struck by 17 tornadoes, including several in the Chicago metropolitan area. One violent tornado moved through Belvidere (east of Rockford), killing 24 people and injuring another 450, including 13 deaths at the local high school. Damage to Belvidere totaled about $20 million, including destruction of 400 cars at the local Chrysler plant. A second violent tornado touched down in Elgin and moved northeast to Lake Zurich, causing $10 million damage. A third violent tornado touched down near Palos Hills and moved across the south side of Chicago to Lake Michigan. This tornado struck during Friday rush hour, and many of the 33 deaths and 500 injuries occurred in vehicles stopped at traffic lights. Over $50 million damage was reported from the tornado outbreak.
(www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/trivia/aprtriv.php)
1967 A record 23 inches of snow fell in Chicago.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A5)
1968 Aug 26, The Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago. Thousands of antiwar demonstrators took to Chicago's streets to protest the Vietnam War during the Democratic National Convention.
(AP, 8/26/08)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1968 Aug 27, Tom Haden, anti-war organizer, was beaten up, put in a paddy wagon and whisked off to a Cook County Jail.
(SFC, 8/18/96, Z1 p1)
1968 Aug 28, In Chicago, Ill., Vice-President Hubert Horatio Humphrey was nominated by the Democrats for US Presidency on the first ballot. Riots broke out outside the Democratic National Convention as police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687) (TMC, 1994, p.1968)(Hem, 8/96, p.86-88)(AP, 8/28/97)
1968 Aug 28, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff (1910-1998) nominated George McGovern for the US Presidency and strongly criticized Chicago’s Mayor Daly for his strong-arm tactics in controlling protestors at the Democratic National Convention.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A5)(www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/abrahamribicoff1968dnc.htm)
1968 Aug 29, Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie was chosen to be the Democratic nominee for vice president at the party's convention in Chicago.
(AP, 8/29/08)
1968 Oct 26, Illinois state and the city of Chicago recognized Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable (1745-1818), a Haitian-born sea captain, as the founder of Chicago.
(www.usps.com/communications/community/_pdf/bhm06_poster.pdf)(http://tinyurl.com/cnt6tk)
1969 Prof. Edward Shils (1911-1995), Univ. of Chicago sociologist, published "Dreams of Plenitude, Nightmares of Scarcity" in which he compared the radicalism of the 1930s to that of the 1960s.
(WSJ, 7/21/97, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Shils)
1968 Wayne Huizenga and Dean Buntrock established Waste Management Inc. in Chicago. It became a public company in 1971.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A14)
1969 Mar 20, The Chicago 8 were indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention.
(www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml)
1969 Sep 24, The trial of the "Chicago Eight" (later seven) began. Demonstrations began outside the court house, with the "Weatherman" group proclaiming the "Days of Rage" in protest of the trial. The Chicago Eight staged demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest the Vietnam War and its support by the top Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. These anti-Vietnam War protests were some of the most violent in American history as the police and national guardsmen beat antiwar protesters, innocent bystanders and members of the press. Five defendants (Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis) were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; the convictions were ultimately overturned. In 1970 Harold Jacobs authored "Weatherman." In 2004 Jeremy Varon authored "Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies."
(AP, 9/24/99)(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A5)
1969 Nov 5, In Chicago Judge Hoffman ordered that the trial of Bobby Seale be separated from 7 others in the Chicago 8 trial. Seale, the founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and one of the Chicago Eight, was later sentenced to four years in prison on sixteen counts of contempt of court.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/chronology.html)(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A5)
1969 Dec 4, Police stormed an apartment on the West Side and killed 2 Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Panther defense minister Bobby Rush had left the site just hours earlier.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA4)
1970 Feb 15, William Kunstler, Chicago defense attorney, got a four-year sentence on contempt charges for his conduct during the Chicago Seven trial.
(www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28417105_ITM)
1970 Feb 18, The Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968, but those convictions were later reversed. In January reporter J. Anthony Lukas published "The Barnyard Epithet and Other Obscenities: Notes on the Chicago Conspiracy Trial."
(AP, 2/18/08)(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A19)
1970 Orville Redenbacker’s Gourmet Popping corn was launched at Chicago’s Marshall Field’s. Partners Charlie Bowman (1919-2009) and Orville Redenbacker (d.1995) sold the popular brand in 1976 to Hunt-Wessen Foods Inc. The company was later acquired by ConAgra Foods.
(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.A4)
1971 Dec 18, Reverend Jesse Jackson announced in Chicago the founding of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).
(AP, 12/18/99)
1971 Mike Royko, Chicago newspaper columnist, wrote "Boss," a book on Mayor Richard M. Daley.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A6)
1972 Oct 30, 45 people were killed when an Illinois Central Gulf commuter train collided with another train in Chicago's South Side.
(AP, 10/30/97)
1972 The International Monetary market opened. The Chicago futures market first began trading financial derivatives. Leo Melamed, a former lawyer, launched currency futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A8)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.79)(Econ, 1/24/09, SR p.10)
1973 Apr 13, Henry Darger (b.1892), "outsider artist" and janitor, died in Chicago. He had spent as many as 40 years working on a 15,000 page novel titled "The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. He illustrated the work with some 300 watercolors that were lifted and recomposed from popular sources. In 2002 John MacGregor authored a 720-page study of Darger. In 2003 Jessica Wu premiered her documentary film on Darger, “In the Realms of the Unreal," at Sundance.
(SFC, 9/20/97, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger)(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A14)(SFC, 12/18/04, p.E1)
1973 Apr 26, The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) was founded.
(www.cboe.com/AboutCBOE/ShowDocument.aspx?DIR=ACNews&FILE=20050426.doc)
1973 May 3, Chicago's Sears Tower, the world's tallest building (443 m), topped out. Sears soon moved its headquarters to the Sears Tower. The building was designed by Bruce Graham (d.2010 at 84) of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 2009 the name of the structure was changed to Willis Tower as Willis Group Holdings, a London-based insurance broker, consolidated its area offices in the building.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)(SFC, 3/9/10, p.C4)(http://tinyurl.com/dhd3y6)
1973 Sep, The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was formed in Chicago as a forum to push states to adopt conservative laws.
(www.alec.org/about-alec/history/)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.32)
1973 ShoreBank, a Chicago-based lender, was founded. It set out to prove that money could be lent profitably to poor people in poor neighborhoods in what came to be known as community development finance. In 2010 it was taken over by the FDIC despite efforts to rescue it by Citigroup, JPMorganChase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.62)
1974 Pres. Gerald R. Ford appointed Edward H. Levi (d.2000), president of the Univ. of Chicago, as his attorney general.
(WSJ, 3/13/00, p.A46)
1975 Feb 25, Elijah Muhammad (b.1897 as Elijah Poole), US leader of the Detroit-based Nation of Islam and Black Muslims, died in Chicago. His son W. Deen Mohammed (1933-2008) was soon elected supreme minister of the Nation of Islam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad)(USAT, 2/13/97, p.6D)(SFC, 2/28/00, p.A3)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B5)
1975 Jun 19, Sam Giancana (b.1908), Italian-American mob boss, was murdered at his home in Oak Park, Ill. He had a romance with Phillis McGuire, of the McGuire Sisters vocal group, and was credited with assisting John F. Kennedy in efforts to win the presidential election. A movie was made in 1995 that depicts the Giancana-McGuire romance.
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Giancana)
1975 Gene Siskel (1946-1999) and Roger Ebert (b.1942) began reviewing movies on television on Chicago’s public broadcasting’s WTTV. They jumped to commercial TV in 1982.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.E2)
1975 Four Seasons opened its 74-story Water Tower Place. It included a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and condominiums.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.C9)
1976 Aug 9, John Roselli (b.1905), Chicago mobster hired by the CIA to kill Castro, was found murdered. His decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfounding Bay near Miami, Florida. Roselli had been strangled and stabbed and his legs were sawed off.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Roselli)
1976 Oct, William George Bundy (b.1957), construction worker, disappeared in Cook County, Ill. Bones of 33 men and boys were found in late 1978 under the home of John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994). In 2011 authorities identified Bundy’s bones among those found under Gacy’s Chicago house.
(SFC, 11/30/11, p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/7s5utyc)
1976 Dec 20, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley died at age 74. In 2000 Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor authored the biography: "American Pharaoh, Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation."
(AP, 12/20/97)(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)(SFEC, 7/16/00, BR p.1)
1976 Father John Cusick founded "Theology On Tap," a program aimed to reach young Catholics in bars.
(WSJ, 11/2/01, p.W15)
1976 Robert Lucas, economist at the Univ. of Chicago, explained how unanticipated inflation eroded the real value of wages. In 1995 Lucas won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.68)
1976-1998 Chicago’s Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program helped more than 25,000 voluntary participants move to more than 100 communities throughout the metropolitan area, roughly half to integrated suburbs and half to integrated neighborhoods in the city.
(www.bpichicago.org/pht/gautreaux.html)
1977 Feb 4, In Illinois 11 people were killed when two cars of a Chicago Transit Authority train fell off elevated tracks after a collision with another train.
(AP, 2/4/02)
1977 Aug 27, "Chicago" closed at 46th St Theater in NYC after 947 performances.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1977 Dec, In Chicago a gang of burglars decided to break into the home of Tony Accardo (d.1992), one of the most powerful men in organized crime history, and rob his basement vault. 6 men Accardo blamed for the heist were swiftly hunted down and murdered.
(AP, 6/18/07)
1978 Feb 16, The 1st Computer Bulletin Board System was Ward & Randy's CBBS in Chicago.
(www.historyoftheinternet.com/chap3.html)
1978 Mar 4, Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, published its last issue.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Daily_News)
1978 May 11, Carol Schmal (23) and Lawrence Lionberg (29) were murdered in Chicago. Four men were arrested for rape and murder and 2 of the men were sentenced to death. In 1999 Kenny Adams, Willie Rainge, Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams were released after a journalism class proved their innocence. The men then filed a suit and settled with Cook County for $36 million.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A3)
1978 Jul 9, American Nazi Party held a rally at Marquette Park, Chicago.
{Nazi, USA, Chicago}
(www.skokiehistory.info/chrono/nazis.html)
1978 The Chicago Daily News closed and columnist Mike Royko went to the Chicago Sun-Times.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A6)
1978 The Chicago Food Depository opened with its main mission to feed the hungry. In 1998 it began to offer chef training classes to help people get jobs.
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.A1)
1978 Restaurateur Arnold Morton (d.2005) opened the 1st Morton’s Steakhouse in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. Morton sold the chain in the late 1980s. In 2005 there were 65 Morton’s Steakhouses around the world.
(SFC, 5/30/05, p.B4)
1979 Feb 27, Jane M. Byrne confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor Michael A. Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. Byrne went on to win the election.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1979 Apr 3, Democrat Jane M. Byrne (1934-2014) was elected as the 1st woman mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Wallace D. Johnson. She continued in office to 1983 when she lost to state Sen. Harold Washington.
(AP, 4/3/97)(SSFC, 11/16/14, p.C8)
1979 May 25, 273 people died in America's worst domestic air disaster when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The left engine was lost on takeoff. 3 of the dead were on the ground.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(AP, 5/25/07)
1979 Jul 12, "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park, caused fans to go wild. It also caused the White Sox to forfeit 2nd game of a doubleheader to Tigers.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1979 Chicago closed off 9 blocks of State St. for a transit only mall. The plan failed and after 9 years it was refurbished for $24 million and opened to cars.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A1)
1979 The Pritzker Prize, an Int’l. for award for Architecture, was begun by Jay Pritzker, found of the Hyatt Hotel chain. The first winner was Philip Johnson for his Glass House in New Canaan, Conn.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.D8)(WSJ, 6/15/99, p.A16)
1980 Mar 12, A Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. The next day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in 1994.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1980 Jun 16, The film "Blues Brothers" premiered in Chicago. National release was June 20.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0080455/releaseinfo)
1980 Sep 11, Chicago mobsters Arthur "The Brain" Rachel and Joseph "The Monk" Scalise staged a daring daytime theft of the Marlborough Diamond. Both men were convicted in Britain of threatening to use a hand grenade while robbing London's posh Graff Jewelers of $3.6 million worth of goods, including the diamond. They began serving 15-year prison terms in 1984 and were released in 1993.
(AP, 6/7/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Scalise)
1980 Sep 28, Lanford Wilson's "Balm in Gilead," premiered in Chicago on the Steppenwolf stage. In 1984 it moved to NYC.
(www.tomwaitslibrary.com/Theatre/Balmingilead/balmingilead.htm)
1980 Nov 10, News anchor Dan Rather refused to pay his Chicago cabbie and CBS paid the $12.55 fare.
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200501130005)
1981 May 25, Daredevil Daniel Goodwin, wearing a "Spiderman" costume, scaled the outside of Chicago’s Sears Tower in seven and a-half hours.
(AP, 5/25/01)
1981 Nov 11, Stuntman Dan Goodwin scaled the outside of the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago in nearly six hours.
(AP, 11/11/97)
1981 The MacArthur Foundation of Chicago began a fellowship program with annual grants to allow winners to pursue creative goals.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.A25)
1982 Jan, In Chicago Lloyd Wickliffe, a security guard, was killed in a McDonald's restaurant. Later Andrew Wilson (d.2008) told his lawyers that he, and not Alton Logan, had killed the guard. On March 17 Lawyers Kunz, Coventry and Miller signed a notarized affidavit: "I have obtained information through privileged sources that a man named Alton Logan ... who was charged with the fatal shooting of Lloyd Wickliffe ... is in fact not responsible for that shooting..." In 2008 Logan was still in jail waiting for a new trial.
(AP, 4/12/08)
1982 Jul 10, Pope John Paul II named Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin of Cincinnati to succeed the late Cardinal John Cody as head of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
(AP, 7/10/02)
1982 Sep 29, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. As of 2008 the case remained unsolved.
(http://judicial-inc.biz/t_tylenol_murders_supplement.htm)(AP, 9/29/08)
1982 George Stigler (1911-1991) of the Univ. of Chicago won the Nobel Prize in Economics for studies of industrial structures and the causes and effects of public regulation. Stigler had studied the process by which people acquired information.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.80)(AP, 10/11/09)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.92)
1982 Charles F. Ehret (1923-2007), a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, released the “Argonne Anti-Jet-Lag Diet."
(WSJ, 3/10/07, p.A4)
1982 The German Otto family purchased the Chicago-based Spiegel catalog retailer.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.A6)
1983 Feb 22, Harold Washington (1922-1987) won Chicago's Democratic mayoral primary.
(www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/washingtonelected.html)
1983 Apr 29, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)
1983 Apr 30, McKinley Morganfield (68), better known as Muddy Waters, died at his suburban home in Westmont, Illinois. The US blues singer and guitarist (Mad Love) was known as the King of the Blues. The Mississippi-born guitarist revolutionized the genre in Chicago in the 1940s and 50s with his electric blues.
(www.muddywaters.com/bio.html)
1983 Bobby Rush, former Black Panther, was elected to the City Council.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA4)
1984 Sep 9, Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears broke Jim Brown's combined yardage record by reaching 15,517 yards.
(http://tinyurl.com/2sd85s)
1984 In Chicago J.S.G. Boggs (b.1955) exchanged the sketch of a dollar bill for a cup of coffee and received 10 cents change. This began his career drawing money for a living. In 1999 Lawrence Wechsler published "Boggs: A Comedy of Values."
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W8)
1984 Michael Jordan began playing for the Chicago Bulls basketball team. He retired in 1999. David Halberstam published "Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made."
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W1)
1984 The Chicago Sun-Times was bought by a group controlled by Australian magnate Rupert Murdoch who also owned the New York Post. Mike Royko quit and joined the Chicago Tribune.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A6)
1985 May 16, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls was named NBA Rookie of Year.
(http://tinyurl.com/2tostx)
1985 Navigation Technologies (NavTech) was started by Russell Shields. It grew to become one of the premier suppliers of digital-map databases in the world. By 2007 Chicago-based Navtech had around 3,000 employees in 168 offices in 30 countries. Finland’s Nokia Corp. purchased Navteq in 2007.
(Wired, Dec., '95, p.96)(AP, 10/1/07)
1986 Jan 2, Bill Veeck (71) former baseball owner, died in Chicago. He is remembered for his well-publicized stunts and promotional gimmicks, including an exploding scoreboard and a midget pinch-hitter.
(AP, 1/2/06)
1986 Jul 25, Marc Smith, NYC construction worker turned poet, held the first poetry slam at the Green Mill jazz club in Chicago. He pitted writers against one another in a test of writing skills and performance.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.83)(www.slampapi.com/new_site/background.htm)
1986 The Super Bowl was won by the Chicago Bears led by Coach Mike Ditka. Lineman William "Refrigerator" Perry scored touchdowns and the team danced to their video "The Super Bowl Shuffle."
(WSJ, 9/24/97, p.B1)
1987 Feb 26, NBA's Michael Jordan's scored 58 points for a Chicago Bull record.
(www.nba.com/jordan/hoop_86-87.html)
1987 Apr 7, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington handily won a second term, quashing a challenge by archrival Edward Vrdolyak.
(AP, 4/7/97)
1987 Nov 25, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, died at age 65 after suffering a heart attack in his City Hall office.
(AP, 11/25/97)
1987 Dec 2, After a chaotic meeting that had begun the night before, the Chicago City Council elected Eugene Sawyer acting mayor, succeeding the late Harold Washington.
(AP, 12/2/97)
1987 Allan Bloom, prof. at the Univ. of Chicago, published "The Closing of the American Mind."
(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W11)
1987 River City, a pair of 17-story undulating apartments, was completed. The design was by Bertrand Goldberg (d.1997 at 84).
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)
1988 Feb 25, Chicago gave the Cubs baseball team the right to install lights and play up to 18 night games.
(http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/history/timeline10.jsp)
1988 Aug 22, Speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago, Vice President George Bush defended the Vietnam-era National Guard service of running mate Dan Quayle, saying, "He did not go to Canada, he did not burn his draft card and he damn sure didn't burn the American flag."
(AP, 8/22/98)
1988 Chicago Tribune reporter Ann Marie Lipinski won a Pulitzer Prize for a 10-month investigative series on corruption in the Chicago City Council.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.8)
c1988 Norma Alcantana and Frank Dueno originated a scheme for smuggling in deaf Mexicans to sell trinkets on the streets and later to have traded trinket vendors to a New York operation led by Renato Paoletti-Lemus.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A4)
1989 Feb 28, In Chicago, Richard M. Daley, son of Mayor Richard J. Daley who served as mayor for 21 years, defeated acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer in a Democratic primary election.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A3) (AP, 2/28/99)
1989 Jan 25, Michael Jordan scored his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th season.
(www.nba.com/jordan/mj8889.html)
1989 Mar 12, Some 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of a student's exhibit.
(AP, 3/12/99)
1989 Apr 4, Democrat Richard M. Daley was elected mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Edward R. Vrdolyak and independent Timothy C. Evans.
(AP, 4/4/99)
1989 Apr 24, Richard M. Daley was inaugurated as the 45th mayor of Chicago. He went on to serve 6 terms. His father, Richard Daly, had served 6 terms as mayor (1955-1976).
(AP, 4/24/99)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.40)
1989 Four Seasons opened its 66-story 900 North Michigan development. It included a Four Season Hotel and a Bloomingdale’s store. It was developed by Urban Retail Properties Inc. of Chicago.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.C9)
1989 Marc Smith founded the National Poetry Slam at the Green Mill outsider poetry readings.
(WSJ, 9/10/98, p.A20)
1990 Jul 28, A blackout hit Chicago.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1990 Chicago’s 50-story tower at 181 W. Madison St. was built. It was designed by Cesar Pelli. Murals by Frank Stella decorated the lobby.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
1990 The Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to Merton M. Miller (d.2000) of the Univ. of Chicago for his work in the theory of financial economics. Harry Markowitz and William F. Sharpe were also winners. Harry Markowitz won the Nobel Prize for his 1952 theory behind portfolio diversification.
(WSJ, 10/11/95, p. A-1)(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-18)(WSJ, 10/21/96, p.A18)(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A17)
1991 Jun 12, The Chicago Bulls won their first N-B-A championship, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one.
(AP, 6/12/01)
1991 Dec 5, Richard Speck, who murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 died of a heart attack in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(AP, 7/14/97)(AP, 12/5/97)
1991 The 45-story tower at 500 W. Monroe St. opened. In 2002 it was sold to the Shorenstein Co. for $250 million.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.B1)
1992 Allan Bloom, political philosopher at the Univ. of Chicago, died. His books included "The Closing of the American Mind" and a translation of Plato’s "Republic." His "Love and Friendship" was published posthumously. In 2000 Saul Bellow authored the novel "Ravelstein" based on Bloom.
(WSJ, 4/14/00, p.W11)
1993 Jan 8, In Palatine, a suburb of Chicago, 7 people were shot to death at a fried chicken restaurant. The victims were forced into two walk-in coolers and shot a total of 24 times with a .38. Some were also stabbed and one had their throat slit. Their bodies were found the next day. On May 16, 2002, Juan Luna (28) and James Degorski (29) were arrested and confessed to the killings. "They just did it to do something big."
(AP, 1/9/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown's_Chicken_massacre)
1993 Jul 26, President Clinton launched a harder sell for his budget at a conference in Chicago, accusing Republicans of gridlock.
(AP, 7/26/98)
1993 Nov 12, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago was accused by a former pre-seminary student of sexual abuse supposedly committed more than a decade earlier. (The accuser, Steven J. Cook, later withdrew his charge).
(AP, 11/12/98)
1994 Jul 15, During a baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox in Chicago's Comiskey Park, umpire Dave Phillips ordered the bat of Albert Belle of the Indians to be removed from the game for later examination for illegal cork. The bat was then stolen by pitcher Jason Grimsley, who crawled through air ducts to take it. The Indians won the game 3-2 and later returned the bat under umpire threats and Belle was given a 10-game suspension that was reduced to 7 games.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.A3)
1994 Sep 1, Chicago police found the body of 11-year-old Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, a suspect in a gang-related killing who apparently became a victim of gang violence.
(AP, 9/1/99)
1994 The United Center, owned by the NBA Bulls and NHL Blackhawks, was completed for $175 million.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A3)
1994 Delray Farms Inc., a food chain started by 3 graduates of the Harvard Business School, opened its first Chicago-area store.
(WSJ, 11/6/97, p.B1)
1994 Two boys aged 10 and 11 dropped 5-year-old Eric Morse 14 floors to his death in a housing project after he refused to steal candy for them.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A3)
1995 Mar 19, After giving up an attempt to become a major league baseball player, Michael Jordan returned to pro basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls.
(AP, 3/19/02)
1995 Aug 22, Congressman Mel Reynolds (Democrat, Illinois) was convicted in Chicago of sexual misconduct involving an underage campaign volunteer. Reynolds was sentenced to five years in prison; he was later convicted of lying to obtain loans and of illegally siphoning campaign money for personal use. Reynolds was later sentenced to five years in prison; he ended up serving 2 1/2.
(AP, 8/22/05)
1995 Ira Glass revitalized radio storytelling with “This American Life," a show on Chicago Public Radio KBEZ featuring stories of ordinary people facing moments of truth.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.E1)
1995 Navy Pier was redeveloped and became a popular tourist attraction.
(WSJ, 11/11/99, p.A24)
1995 The Pritzker family, led by Jay and Robert, agreed to increase family stipends from $100,000 a year at age 25 to $1 million a year after age 40 along with some lump sum payments totaling $25 million.
(WSJ, 12/11/02, p.A9)
1995 A heat wave was blamed for some 700 deaths this year.
(DFP, 7/24/01, p.3A)
1996 Feb 19, Charlie O. Finley (77), baseball showman died in Chicago.
(AP, 2/19/07)
1996 Jul 1, Draugas, the Lithuanian daily newspaper published in Chicago, issued its first English version edition and planned a weekly English edition. The first subscribed edition was planned for Aug 31.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1996 Nov 14, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the senior Roman Catholic prelate in the United States and leader of Chicago's 2.3 million Catholics, died at his home at age 68, surrounded by family and friends.
(SFC, 11/15/96, p.C7)(AP, 11/14/97)
1996 Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art opened on Chicago Ave. It was designed by Josef Paul Kleihues (d.2004), German-born architect. The Kleihues theory of “poetic rationalism" described a style that sought to reinvent the way cities were designed and enrich the functionalist trend of late-modern architecture.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.B7)
1996 Barack Obama (b.1961) was elected to the Illinois senate representing the 13th District of Chicago’s South Side.
(WSJ, 2/11/08, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)
1997 Jan, Patrick Sykes (25) sexually assaulted and beat a 9-year-old girl. Girl X was left blind, unable to walk and brain-damaged. Sykes was convicted in 2001.
(SFC, 4/5/01, p.A4)
1997 Mar 21, In Chicago 3 white teenagers attacked and severely injured a 13-year-old black boy. Lenard Clark (13) was left brain damaged. The suspects, Frank Caruso (18), Victor Jasas (17), and Michael Kwidzinski (19) were released on bonds of $150,000 with charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and a hate crime. Caruso was convicted in 1998 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The other 2 pleaded guilty to reduced charges and were let off with probation and community service.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A7)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A6)
1997 Apr 29, Newspaper columnist Mike Royko died in Chicago at age 64.
(WSJ, 4/30/97, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)
1997 Apr, Sonia Hernandez (43), a teacher was shot and killed. Police arrested Don Olmetti (17), based on an anonymous tip, who confessed after police reportedly hit him during an 18-hour interrogation. Olmetti claimed initially claimed that he was in class a mile from the shooting. Olmetti was released after almost 2 years in jail when school records verified that he was in class at the time of the shooting.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A11)
1997 Oct 4, The Chicago Field Museum of Natural History paid $8,362,500 for the T, rex skull from S. Dakota at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A13)
1997 Oct 29, Nathaniel Abraham (11) shot and killed Ronnie Greene Jr. (18). Abraham was convicted of 2nd degree murder in 1999.
(SFC, 11/16/99, p.A3)
1997 Dec 15, The 5,000-resident Ida B. Wells project was the focus of a PBS documentary by Frederick Wiseman.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.E1)
1998 Feb 18, Harry Caray, baseball broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs and other teams, died at age 77.
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 13, The Ku Klux Klan agreed not to march through Cicero after town officials agreed on a plan to distribute the group’s literature to residents with funding from an anonymous $10,000 donation.
(WSJ, 3/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 14, The Chicago Bulls clinched their sixth NBA championship, defeating the Utah Jazz in game six played in Salt Lake City, 87-86.
(AP, 6/14/03)
1998 Jul 23, The Pacific Stock Exchange announced an agreement to merge with the Chicago Board of Options Exchange.
(SFC, 7/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 27, In Chicago two boys, aged 7 and 8, reportedly killed an 11-year-old girl, Ryan Harris, with a thrown rock that caused the girl to fall and hit her head. The boys dragged her to a wooded area and began to play with her body and later lied to police. The boys faced the juvenile equivalent of first degree murder. Her body was found the next day. Later evidence of semen caused prosecutors to drop murder charges against the boys. The boys later sued Chicago for false arrest and settled for $6.2 million. In September police arrested another suspect whose DNA matched that found on Ryan. The charges on the 2 boys were dropped Sept 4 and in 1999 Floyd Durr was indicted for the murder of Ryan Harris. On March 4, 2005 Floyd Durr, was convicted of three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to 20-year terms of imprisonment on the former convictions and a 15-year term of imprisonment on the latter. On April 10, 2006, Durr was sentenced to life plus 30 years in exchange for pleading guilty to raping and killing Ryan.
(SFC, 8/11/98, p.A3)(SFC, 9/5/98, p.A3)(SFC, 9/23/98, p.A6)(USAT, 3/24/99, p.6A) (http://tinyurl.com/6rkl3d)
1998 Jul, 28, The body of Ryan Harris (11) was found. [see Jul 27]
(SFC, 9/23/98, p.A6)
1998 Jul, The Asian long-horned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, was discovered in the Ravenswood neighborhood. A quarantine and winter destruction of infected trees was planned. The beetle was detected in New York in 1996.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Sep 13 Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit his 61st and 62nd home runs of the season, passing Roger Maris' record and pulling into a tie with St. Louis' Mark McGwire.
(AP, 9/13/99)
1998 Sep 14, In Chicago Vincas Valkavickas (78), a retired factory worker, was put under deportation proceedings. A complaint alleged that he assisted Nazi forces as a Lithuanian police officer and guarded Jewish men, women and children between 1941-1944 at Svencionys, Lithuania.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 29, Harry Weese, Chicago architect, died. His buildings included the Time and Life Building and the Metropolitan Corrections Center. His firm was also contracted for the 100-mile metro system in Washington DC, which was completed in 1976.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.C7)
1998 Nov 12, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley filed a $433 million lawsuit against the firearms industry, declaring that it had created a public nuisance by flooding the streets with weapons deliberately marketed to criminals. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2000; an appeals court ruled in 2002 that the city of Chicago could proceed; but the Illinois Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2004.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A4)(AP, 11/12/08)
1998 Nov, Eighteen Chicago precincts banned the sale of alcohol in their neighborhoods. This made 468 of the city’s 2,450 precincts dry or partially dry.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 1, In Chicago a fire destroyed the historic Pullman building.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1998 In Chicago demolition began on the 28 towers of the Robert Taylor projects. Their construction had only been completed in 1962. In 2008 Sudhir Venkatesh authored “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets," a description of the author’s seven years (1989-1996) following J.T., a gang leader in the projects.
(WSJ, 12/19/00, p.A14)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.81)
1999 Jan 2, About 22 inches of snow fell on the city and across northern Indiana.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A5)
1999 Jan 3, Chicagoans dug out from their biggest snowstorm in more than 30 years.
(AP, 1/3/00)
1999 Jan 23, Jay Pritzker, founder of the Hyatt hotel chain, died at age 76. He was listed in 1998 as the 20th richest man in America and created the $100,000 Pritzker Architectural Prize in 1979.
(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.D8)
1999 Feb 23, Richard M. Daley was elected to a 3rd term as mayor. He defeated former Black Panther Bobby Rush with a 73% vote.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 8, William Wrigley (b.1933), CEO of Chicago-based Wrigley Gum, died. His son William Wrigley Jr. took over the company.
(WSJ, 3/11/06, p.A10)(www.thememoryhole.org/foi/apbnews-list/)
1999 Mar 26, A jury of 13 Methodist ministers found Rev. Greg Dell guilty for officiating at the union of 2 gay men.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A6)
1999 Apr 22, British PM Tony Blair, speaking before the Chicago Economic Club, unveiled his "Doctrine of the International Community" (Chicago Doctrine). Among other things, the doctrine outlines circumstances that warrant the international community to intervene in the affairs of other nations.
(www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-june99/blair_doctrine4-23.html)
1999 Apr 27, Cicero, a Chicago suburb, declared itself a "gang-free zone." The police dept. listed 600 gang members among the 71,000 population.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A3)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.C5)
1999 Jun 4, La Tanya Haggerty (26), a passenger in a car, was shot and killed by police during a chase. Police said they mistook her sell phone for a gun.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun 10, The US Supreme Court struck down a Chicago anti-loitering ordnance aimed against street gangs.
(SFC, 6/11/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun, Cow paintings and sculptures began appearing on downtown streets as part of an outdoor art project "Cows on Parade." The idea was borrowed from a 1998 event in Zurich.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.C6)
1999 Jun, The 25,000th McDonald's Restaurant was scheduled to open in Bronzeville.
(WSJ, 5/13/99, p.B13)
1999 Jul 2, In northern Chicago a driveby gunman, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith (21), killed Ricky Byrdsong, former Northwestern Univ. basketball coach. Smith wounded 6 Orthodox Jews. B.N. Smith fired at Asians and Blacks in 2 Illinois cities the next day and on July 4 Smith killed Won Joon Moon (26), a Korean-born Indiana Univ. student. He then shot himself dead during a police chase.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 20, Alain Robert (37) of France, known as "Spiderman," was arrested after climbing the Sears Tower without suction cups or a safety net.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A3)
1999 Sep 18, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit his 60th homerun and became the 1st major leaguer to hit 60 in 2 different seasons.
(WSJ, 9/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 1, Former Chicago Bear NFL star Walter Payton died at age 45 from a rare cancer of the bile duct. He made the NFL Hall of Fame in 1993.
(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A1,15)
1999 The new $24 million Shakespeare Theater was completed on Navy Pier.
(WSJ, 11/11/99, p.A24)
2000 Feb 8, In Zion, Ill., 2 small planes collided and 3 people were killed including Bob Collins, a popular Chicago radio host for WGN-AM. One of the planes crashed into the roof of the Midwestern Regional Medical Center.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 8, Jeff MacNelly, Chicago Tribune political cartoonist, died at age 52. He won 3 Pulitzer Prizes and his work included the comic strip "Shoe."
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.D5)
2000 Aug 31, The tortured bodies of 2 men were found on the South Side.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A18)
2000 Sep 4, The tortured bodies of 2 more men were found on the South Side several miles from the Aug 31 site.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec, The Goodman Theater moved to a new $46 million theater building in the North Loop behind the old Harris and Selwyn theaters.
(WSJ, 12/13/00, p.A24)
2000 Chicago’s City Hall went green with 20,000 square feet of vegetation planted on its roof 11 stories above LaSalle Avenue.
(Econ, 9/3/11, p.29)
2001 May 10, Boeing picked Chicago for its new corporate headquarters.
(WSJ, 5/11/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 14, Paul Frederick Runge (31) was charged with the murders of 6 women and an 11-year-old girl between 1995-1997.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 3, An elevated commuter train rear-ended another and over 140 people were injured.
(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A3)
2001 Aug 25, Mayor Richard Daley kicked off a city-wide program for residents to read the novel: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.
(WSJ, 8/29/01, p.A12)
2001 Dec 10, The Pritzker Family agreed to pay regulators $460 mil to forestall possible civil litigation from the failure of Superior Bank, of which they owned 50%.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A1)
2002 Mar 9, Scaffolding under high winds tore loose from the John Hancock Center and fatally crushed 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A6)
2002 Apr 30, Benevolence International Foundation, an Islamic charity based in suburban Chicago, and its director were charged with perjury and accused by the FBI of supporting terrorists; the charity maintains its innocence. Enaam Arnaout later pleaded guilty to racketeering, admitting he had defrauded donors by diverting some of the money to Islamic military groups in Bosnia and Chechnya.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2002 May 8, Abdullah Al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was arrested as he flew from Pakistan into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Padilla was alleged to be al-Qaida connected and suspected of plotting to build and detonate a radioactive ''dirty'' bomb in an attack in the United States. A public announcement of his arrest was delayed until Jun 10. In 2008 Padilla was sentenced to just over 17 years in prison for terrorism-related charges. Adham Amin Hassoun was sentenced to over 15 years for recruiting Padilla. Kifah Wael Jayyousi was sentenced to over 12 years for financing the al-Qaida cell.
(AP, 6/10/02)(SFC, 1/23/08, p.A4)
2002 Jun 22, Esther Lederer (83) known as Ann Landers, the widely read columnist who famously urged her readers to "wake up and smell the coffee," died, in Chicago. She took over the Ann Landers column in the Chicago Sun Times in 1955.
(Reuters, 6/23/02)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 31, In Chicago a mob beat Anthony Stuckey (49) and Jack Moore (62) to death after their van veered into over a curb and injured 3 women on the South Side. One woman later died from her injuries. On August 3, seven people were charged with 1st degree murder. In 2003 Antonio Fort (16) was cleared of 34 charges, including first-degree murder. Fort had been charged as an adult.
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A3)(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.A13)(http://tinyurl.com/59zyfm)
2002 Aug 10, Sammy Sosa hit three 3-run homers in Chicago's 15-1 rout of Colorado. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke Willie McCovey's 1969 record for intentional walks in a season with his 46th of the year.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2002 Sep 19, Kansas City first base coach Tom Gamboa was attacked without warning by two fans, a father and son, who came out of the seats at Chicago's Comiskey Park. The father, 34-year-old William Ligue Jr., and his 15-year-old son later received probation.
(AP, 9/19/03)
2002 Dec 11, It was reported that the Chicago-based Pritzker family planned to break up its $15 billion empire over the next decade.
(WSJ, 12/12/02, p.B1)
2003 Jan 13-15, A TV documentary, "Chicago City of the Century," was broadcast based on a book of the same name by Don Miller.
(SFC, 1/11/03, p.D6)
2003 Feb 16, Eleanor "Sis" Daley (95), the matriarch of Chicago's Daley political clan, died.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2003 Feb 17, In Chicago 21 people were killed at the E2 nightclub in an early morning stampede after security guards used mace and pepper spray to halt a fistfight between 2 women. On Sep 23 the owner and 3 others associated with the club were charged with involuntary manslaughter.
(SFC, 2/18/03, A1)(SFC, 9/24/03, p.A3)
2003 May 15, Emergency officials rushed to a series of mock catastrophes in the Chicago area on the busiest day of a national weeklong exercise.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2003 Jun 29, In Chicago a wooden third-floor porch packed with dozens of friends in their early 20s collapsed, killing 12 people as it pancaked onto porches below.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Aug 27, In Chicago Salvador Tapia (36) shot and killed 6 people inside Windy City Core Supply Inc. autoparts warehouse. He opened fire on police and was killed. Tapia had been fired from the auto parts warehouse six months earlier.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2003 Oct 1, Garbage workers in Chicago went on strike.
(SFC, 10/7/03, p.A2)
2003 Oct 5, The Chicago Cubs won their first postseason series since 1908 when they beat Atlanta 5-1 in the decisive Game 5 of the National League playoffs.
(AP, 10/5/04)
2003 Oct 9, Chicago sanitation workers accepted a 28% wage increase over 5 years and ended a 9-day strike.
(SFC, 10/10/03, p.A6)
2003 Oct 15, The Florida Marlins defeated the Chicago Cubs 9-6 in game 7 for the National League pennant.
(WSJ, 10/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 17, In Chicago government workers trapped in a burning downtown office tower frantically dialed 911 as they tried to make their way through smoke-filled staircases and hallways. 13 were found unconscious amid the smoke, 6 of them dead.
(AP, 10/18/03)
2003 Nov 7, The Cincinnati Stock Exchange, located in Chicago, renamed itself the National Stock Exchange. The CBOE owned 68% of it.
(Econ, 11/15/03, p.69)
2003 Dec 31, Chicago regained the title of America's murder capital. It finished 2003 with 599 homicides. That was down from 648 a year earlier and the first time since 1967 that the total dipped below 600. Gary, Ind., appeared to finish 2003 with the nation's highest per capita homicide rate for the ninth straight year.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Chicago passed the Business, Corporate and Slavery Era Insurance Ordnance that required companies doing business with the city to disclose any ties to slavery.
(WSJ, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2004 Jan 30, Malachi Favors (76), jazz bassist for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 2/9/04, p.B4)
2004 Mar, The Sears Tower was sold for $840 million to the Chetrit Group.
(WSJ, 5/11/04, p.C1)
2004 Jul, Chicago’s $475 million Millennium Park opened in Grant Park, 4 years overdue.
(Econ, 7/24/04, p.78)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.34)
2004 Aug 31, A report was filed with the SEC that said Conrad Black and associates systematically looted Hollinger Int’l. of more than $400 million from 1997-2003. In 2007 Black (62) was convicted in Illinois U.S. District Court. He was sentenced to serve 78 months in federal prison, pay Hollinger $6.1 million and a fine of $125,000. Black was guilty of diverting funds for personal benefit from money due Hollinger International when the company sold certain publishing assets and he obstructed justice by taking possession of documents to which he was not entitled. Black's three co-defendants, former Hollinger International vice presidents John Boultbee (64) of Vancouver and Peter Y. Atkinson (60) of Toronto and attorney Mark Kipnis (59) of Chicago were all found guilty of three counts of mail fraud.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.C3)(WSJ, 9/1/04, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black)
2004 Oct 9, A bus carrying Chicago-area tourists to a Mississippi casino crashed and overturned on I-55 in northeastern Arkansas, killing 15 people.
(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A6)(AP, 10/9/05)
2004 James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating and Janice L. Reiff edited “The Encyclopedia of Chicago."
(WSJ, 10/8/04, p.W8)
2004 John Zukowsky and Martha Thorne authored “Masterpieces of Chicago Architecture."
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.E4)
2004 The Chicago Sun-Times revealed a racket in which the city was apparently hiring trucks to do nothing. The head of the program pleaded guilty to federal charges. 35 others were charged, of whom 23 pleaded guilty.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.16)
2004 Australia’s Macquarie Bank organized a deal to take over Chicago’s Skyway toll road under a 99-year lease for $1.8 billion.
(WSJ, 12/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 6, The Chicago-based Pritzker family settled a family suit giving both Matthew (22) and Liesel Pritzker (20) control of $450 million. The family fortune was estimated at over $15 bil.
(WSJ, 1/7/05, p.B1)
2005 Feb 8, Chicago’s Mayor Daly announced that he intends to prevent the stain of crooked old Chicago from spoiling the new city’s gleam.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.30)
2005 Feb 28, US District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow discovered the bodies of her husband and mother inside her Chicago home. An unemployed electrician confessed to the murders in a suicide note. In 2002 she had ordered the white supremacist group World Church of the Creator under Matthew Hale to remove the World Church name from its website. A cigarette butt found in Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow's house was matched to the electrician, Bart Ross, who killed himself Mar 9 during a traffic stop in Wisconsin, and left a suicide note claiming responsibility for the killings. Lefkow last fall dismissed a rambling lawsuit in which Ross claimed that cancer treatments had disfigured his face.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.A13)(AP, 3/11/05)(SFC, 3/11/05, p.A1)(AP, 2/28/06)
2005 Feb, FBI agents arrested thieves, who were unloading a semitrailer of DVDs originating from a warehouse in Memphis, Tenn., for delivery in Chicago. 2 of the men arrested were deputy jailers with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Dept. It was reported that hundreds of semitrailers are stolen or filched from every day in the US.
(WSJ, 9/29/05, p.B1)
2005 Jul 25, The Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees Int’l. Union broke from the AFL-CIO as 1,000 delegates gathered in Chicago for the federation’s 50th annual convention. They formed a coalition called Change to Win with 5 other unions with a mission to emphasize organizing rather than supporting like-minded politicians.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 8, John H. Johnson (b.1919) founding publisher of Ebony (1945), Jet (1951), and Ebony Man (1985), died in Chicago.
(HN, 11/1/98)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.B4)(AP, 8/8/06)
2005 Aug, The Chicago Sun Times exposed a “hired truck" scandal wherein Chicago paid politically connected truck owners to do little or no work. A federal investigation found that many city department hiring practices were rigged. Federal officials questioned Mayor Richard M. Daley for 2 hours.
(Econ, 9/3/05, p.33)
2005 Sep 17, A Chicago commuter train was going almost 60 mph above the speed limit just before it derailed, killing two people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 30, The FAA gave Chicago the go-ahead for a $15 billion expansion of O’Hare Airport. The project required razing nearly 500 homes, a cemetery the relocating of nearly 200 businesses in the suburbs of Bensenville, Des Plaines and Elk Grove Village.
(SFC, 10/1/05, p.A10)
2005 Oct 22, Chicago beat the Houston Astros 5-3 in Game 1 of baseball’s best-of-seven World Series.
(Reuters, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 26, The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros 1-0 to win their first World Series title since 1917.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2005 Dec 8, In Chicago a Southwest Airlines jet trying to land amid heavy snow plowed off a runway at Midway airport and into a street, killing a 6-year-old boy in a car.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Steven Levitt, economics professor at the Univ. of Chicago, and Stephen Dubner authored “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything."
(Econ, 1/19/08, p.86)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.68)
2005 Chicago’s glass towers at 71 S. Wacker and 111 S. Wacker were built.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G5)
2005 Chicago began installing high-tech surveillance cameras atop light poles in troubled neighborhoods.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.B1)
2006 Mar 10, Hoisting American flags into the air, tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly Latino, from the Chicago area marched downtown in a display of support for immigrant rights as a bill to stiffen border enforcement awaits action in the U.S. Senate.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Chicago a jury convicted former Gov. George Ryan of steering state contracts and leases to political insiders during his term as secretary of state in the 1990s and then governor for one term. He was later sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison,
(SFC, 4/118/06, p.A5)(AP, 4/17/07)
2006 Jun 13, Luis Jimenez (b.1940), Chicago sculptor, was killed in Hondo, New Mexico, while hoisting pieces of a massive mustang for final assembly. The work was installed at the Denver Airport in February, 2008.
(SFC, 6/27/06, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Jim%C3%A9nez_(sculptor))(WSJ, 2/7/08, p.A1)
2006 Jun 21, Federal prosecutors charged more than three dozen members of a Chicago street gang with running a drug ring that sold crack cocaine, marijuana, heroin and the potentially lethal prescription painkiller fentanyl.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 22, In Florida FBI agents arrested 7 people in the Liberty City area of Miami in connection with a nascent plot to attack the Sears Tower and federal buildings in south Florida. Narseal Batiste (32), the alleged ringleader, called the group “Seas of David." In 2009 five Miami men were convicted of plotting to start an anti-government insurrection by destroying Chicago's Sears Tower and bombing FBI offices. One man was acquitted.
(SFC, 6/23/06, p.A10)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.26)(AP, 5/12/09)
2006 Jul 11, In Chicago, a Blue Line train derailed and started a fire during the evening rush hour, filling a subway tunnel with smoke and forcing dozens of soot-covered commuters to evacuate.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2006 Jul 15, A Chicago ban on the sale of foie gras became effective. This made Chicago the 1st American city to ban the food.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.37)
2006 Jul 19, Chicago prosecutors reported that local police tortured scores of black suspects from the 1970s to the 1980s to extract confessions, but that the cases were too old or too weak to prosecute.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 3, An apartment fire in Chicago killed six children ages 3 to 14.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2006 Sep 6, In Chicago George Ryan (72), former Illinois governor, was sentenced to 6˝ years in prison for offenses including racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A4)
2006 Oct 11, In Chicago businessman Antoin Rezko (51), top advisor and fund-raiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was indicted for scheming to collect kickbacks from companies doing business with the state. The fraud scheme included political contributor Stuart Levine and other insiders.
(SFC, 10/12/06, p.A4)
2006 Oct 17, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced plans to acquire the Chicago Board of Trade for about $8 billion.
(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 24, In Chicago a gunman who took his neighbor hostage for 23 hours over Thanksgiving ended the standoff by killing the woman and himself.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 The installation of Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, was completed as the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago. The sculpture was nicknamed The Bean because of its shape.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate)
2006 Dec 8, In Chicago a man carrying a cache of weapons into the Citigroup Center chained a law firm's doors closed and fatally shot three people before a police sniper killed him as he held a hostage at gunpoint. Authorities said Joe Jackson (59) felt cheated over an invention.
(AP, 12/9/06)(AP, 12/10/06)
2007 Jan 21, Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship, beating the New Orleans Saints 39-14; Tony Dungy became the second when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title over the New England Patriots, 38-34.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2007 Feb 4, Peyton Manning added the missing ingredient to his Hall of Fame credentials by leading the Indianapolis Colts to a 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.
(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 7, In Chicago Equity Office Properties (EOP), America’s largest commercial landlord, accepted a cash offer from The Blackstone Group, a private equity firm that valued the company at nearly $39 billion (including debt).
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.80)
2007 Feb 15, Hershey Co. said it would cut about 11 percent of its workforce and reduce the number of production lines it operates by more than a third as it spends as much as $575 million to overhaul its manufacturing. The Chicago-based US chocolate maker also said it will build a new, cost-efficient manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico.
(Reuters, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 17, In Chicago 3 women were found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in two apartments on the city's far North Side. Police had a suspect in custody. All were Assyrian Christians, and recent immigrants to the US.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 27, Chicago’s Mayor Daly won a 6th term despite a City Hall corruption scandal.
(WSJ, 2/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 2, Chicago’s police superintendent, Philip Cline, announced his retirement after 2 videos emerged of off-duty police officers beating civilians.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.42)(http://tinyurl.com/2tt8en)
2007 Apr 2, Sam Zell, billionaire real estate investor, reached an agreement to buy the Chicago-based Tribune Co. in a 2-stage deal valued at $8.2 billion. The buyout was completed in December and saddled the firm with $8 billion in new debt. In 2008 the Tribune slid into bankruptcy.
(SFC, 4/3/07, p.C1)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.36)
2007 Apr 5, Darryl Stingley (55), a former New England Patriots player paralyzed during an on-field collision in 1978, died in Chicago.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2007 Apr 23, A Chicago man who spent 25 years in jail for a rape he didn't commit was fully exonerated on the basis of new DNA evidence, bringing to 200 the number of such cases overturned since the 1980s. Jerry Miller (48) was paroled from jail in March 2006 after serving more than half of his 45 year sentence.
(AFP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 25, US federal authorities arrested John P. Tomkins (42) of Dubuque, Iowa, a man suspected of mailing dud pipe bombs to financial companies in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., and threatening letters that were signed "The Bishop."
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 May 6, Carey Bell, Mississippi-born blues harmonica player, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 5/8/07, p.B5)
2007 Jul 4, Johnny Frigo (90), jazz violinist and bassist, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.B8)
2007 Jul 13, A US jury in Chicago found Conrad Black guilty of criminal fraud and obstruction of justice. Black and the others had been accused by US prosecutors of pilfering $60 million in payments that should have benefited Hollinger International, once the world's third-largest English language newspaper chain, and its shareholders. Black was sentenced to a 6 1/2-year sentence and began serving it at a federal prison in Florida.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)(AP, 7/13/08)
2007 Jul 18, NYC and New Jersey claimed $170.2 million in anti-terrorism funds, LA and Long Beach, Ca., claimed $72.6 million, DC claimed $61.7 million, Chicago got $47.3 million, the SF Bay Area got $34.1 million and Houston got $25 million.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 24, Jolee Mohr (36) died in Chicago just weeks after beginning an experimental gene therapy treatment from Targeted Genetics to ease the pain the rheumatoid arthritis in her knee. Doctors later suspected an infection of Histoplasma capsulatum.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A21)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano (32), an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her American-born son, was deported from the US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her campaign to change US immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 28, EarthLink, the Atlanta-based Internet provider, announced that it no longer believed that providing citywide Wi-Fi for San Francisco was viable for the company. Chicago abandoned plans for a city-wide Wi-Fi network to access the Internet as EarthLink underwent restructuring.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.A1)(www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/08/30/too-windy-for-wi-fi.aspx)
2007 Sep 10, In Chicago mobsters James Marcello (65), Joseph Lombardo (78), Frank Calabrese (70) and Paul Schiro (70) were convicted of all counts including racketeering, conspiracy, bribery, illegal gambling and tax fraud. Anthony Doyle (62), a retired police officer, was also convicted for leaking information to the mob known as The Outfit.
(SFC, 9/11/07, p.A5)
2007 Oct 7, Chad Schieber (35), a Michigan police officer, died and dozens of others needed medical care while running the Chicago Marathon as record heat and smothering humidity forced race organizers to shut down the course midway through the event. Kenya's Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by a fraction of a second; an additional 250 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat-related ailments.
(AP, 10/8/07)(AP, 10/7/08)
2007 Nov 30, An Amtrak train and a freight train collided on a track on the South Side of Chicago, injuring dozens of people.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2007 Dec 1, Danny Newman (b.1919), press agent, died at his home in Chicago. He boosted theater success for the Lyric Opera of Chicago beginning in 1954 with the use of subscriptions. His 1978 book “Subscribe Now" became a fund-raising classic.
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A8)
2007 Johan Van Overtveldt authored “The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business."
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.95)
2008 Jan 29, In Mexico City Elvira Arellano, a deported Mexican migrant who holed up in a Chicago church to fight for immigrants' rights, rallied support for Flor Crisostomo (28), another woman now seeking refuge in the same building.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Chicago a tractor trailer that witnesses said didn't seem to slow down rammed into a crowded bus shelter and a Chicago Transit Authority train station during the evening rush hour, killing two people and injuring more than a dozen.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 27, It was made public that Mars Inc. of McLean, Va., together with Berkshire Hathaway had agreed to acquire Wrigley Co. of Chicago, Ill., for about $23 billion.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)
2008 May 31, Barack Obama said he has resigned his 20-year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago "with some sadness" in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and more recent fiery remarks at the church by a visiting priest.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Aug 9, Bernie Mac (50), the actor and comedian, died in Chicago. He had teamed up in the casino heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and gained a prestigious Peabody Award for his sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show."
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 11, Federal prosecutors in NYC charged Joseph Shereshevsky and Steven Byers, partners in Chicago-based WexTrust Capital, with raising over $250 million through a Ponzi scheme, mainly from Orthodox Jews.
(WSJ, 8/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, Chicago’s archdiocese agreed to pay over $12.6 million to settle suits by 16 people who accused priests of sex abuse. This brought the total thus far $65 million for some 250 claims over the last 30 years.
(WSJ, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 18, Chicago Mayor Richard Daly unveiled an aggressive plan to reduce heat-trapping gases. The plan included changing building codes to promote energy efficiency and solar panels at municipal properties as well as alternative fueling stations.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 9, Chicago’s Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart halted evictions on foreclosed properties, saying innocent tenants were being put on the street. But bankers said he was breaking the law.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 24, In Chicago the mother and brother of actress and singer Jennifer Hudson were found shot to death on the city’s South Side. Hudson’s nephew, Julian King (7), was missing. His body was found in an SUV on Oct 27. William Balfour, Jennifer Hudson's estranged brother-in-law, was arrested on Dec 1 at Stateville Correctional Center on a murder warrant and released to detectives as he awaited formal charges in the deaths of the relatives of the singer and Oscar-winning actress. On May 11, 2012, Balfour was convicted of the 3 murders and faced mandatory life in prison.
(SFC, 10/25/08, p.A5)(AP, 10/27/08)(AP, 12/2/08)(SFC, 4/9/12, p.A6)(SFC, 5/12/12, p.A6)
2008 Oct 31, Studs Terkel (b.1912), Chicago radio personality and writer, died. His books included “The Good War," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984.
(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 4, The US Presidential race was called for Barack Obama at 11p.m. on the East Coast. An hour later Obama was on stage at Grant Park in Chicago, speaking to the tens of thousands of supporters gathered there.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 6, David Booth (61), chief executive of Dimensional Fund Advisors mutual fund, said he will donate $300 million to the Univ. of Chicago’s business school.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 2, In Chicago federal prosecutors unveiled a series of elaborate sting operations aimed at officers who hired out to ride shotgun for drug deals and other criminal activities. Those charged include 10 Cook County sheriff's correctional officers, four Harvey police officers and one Chicago police officer.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 8, The Chicago-based Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy as it struggled with $13 billion in debt and a drop-off in advertising.
(SFC, 12/9/08, p.D2)
2008 Dec 31, SF ended the year with 98 homicides. In Milwaukee, Wisc., the total number of homicides dropped 32%, from 105 in 2007 to 71 in 2008, the lowest number since 1985. Detroit had 344 slayings, a 13% drop from the 396 in 2007; Philadelphia's 332 killings were a 15% drop from the 392 in 2007; and the 234 homicides in Baltimore were 17% less than the 392 the year before. Cleveland recorded 102 homicides in 2008, down from a 13-year high of 134 in 2007. Homicides in New York rose 5.2%, to 522 from 496 the year before. Slayings in Los Angeles were down to 376 in 2008 compared to 400 the prior year. Preliminary data in Chicago showed 508 homicides were reported in 2008, the first time the city had more than 500 murders since 2003 and about 15% more than the 442 homicides reported in 2007. Washington, D.C., ended 2008 with 186 homicides, up from 181 in 2007.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.1)(AP, 1/3/09)
2008 IXPI (Intellectual Property Exchange Int’l.) was set up by Ocean Tomo, a Chicago-based merchant bank set up in 2003 that specializes in intellectual property. The IXPI financial exchange would let companies buy, sell and hedge patent rights. It planned to debut in 2012.
(Econ, 5/12/12, p.72)(http://www.oceantomo.com/)
2009 Jan 9, Chicago-based Merisant Worldwide Inc., maker of the artificial sweetener Equal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, hobbled by the global credit crisis and sliding sales.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.77)(http://tinyurl.com/ykx7ghs)
2009 Jan 10, A winter storm left large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast covered in snow and freezing rain. 10 inches of snow forced some 100 cancellations at Chicago’s O’Hare Int’l. Airport. At least 8 inches fell on lower Michigan and Ohio.
(SSFC, 1/11/09, p.A14)
2009 Mar 12, Anthony Doyle, former Chicago police officer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for racketeering. He was accused of providing information on gangland investigations to reputed mob boss Joseph Lombardo.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 31, Sun-Times Media Group, the publisher of the Chicago Sun Times, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, becoming the 5th newspaper company to file for protection since December.
(WSJ, 4/1/09, p.B4)
2009 Apr 20, Chicago cancelled a $2.52 billion deal to privatize Midway Airport after a winning consortium failed to line up funding.
(WSJ, 4/21/09, p.B4)
2009 May 13, Chicago became the first US city to adopt a ban on the sale of baby bottles and sippy cups containing the chemical BPA.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 Jul 16, In Chicago Willis Tower was introduced to Chicago by Mayor Richard M. Daley and others during a public Sears Tower renaming ceremony hosted by Willis Group Holdings. The London-based insurance brokerage secured the naming rights as part an agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of space, and has said it plans to bring hundreds of jobs to the city.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Aug 27, Chicago's 9-story old main post office, which dated from the 1920s and has been vacant for more than a decade, was sold at auction for $40 million to International Property Developers North America Inc, which did not specify its plans.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Sep 12, Christopher Kelly (51), former chief fundraiser for ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, died in Chicago after being found slumped over in his car the previous evening. An overdose of drugs was suspected. Kelly faced at least 8 years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges in 2 separate cases.
(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 18, In Chicago 4 former members of a now-disbanded police unit admitted that they used to barge into people’s homes and steal money. They were sentenced to 6 months in jail and promised to cooperate in an ongoing investigation.
(SFC, 9/19/09, p.A6)
2009 Sep 24, In Chicago Derrion Albert (16), a sophomore at Christian Fenger Academy High School, was beaten to death as 2 groups of students from different neighborhoods engaged in a fight following a shooting earlier in the day. 4 teenagers were charged with murder. The melee was caught on video. On Dec 8, 2010, a 15-year-old boy was convicted of first-degree murder. 4 suspects were still awaiting trial. In 2011 the last of 5 convicted suspects was sentenced to 32 years in prison.
(SFC, 9/29/09, p.A7)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSH2CafhcX4)(AP, 12/9/10)(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A6)
2009 Oct 2, In Denmark the IOC opened a meeting hearing the cases led by government leaders and kings to win the right to stage the 2016 Olympic Games. US Pres. Obama spoke for Chicago, Japan's new PM Yukio Hatoyama spoke for Tokyo, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva spoke for Rio de Janeiro, and Spain's King Juan Carlos and PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke for Spain. Brazil won the bid.
(AFP, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 2, Michael David Barrett (48), accused of taping surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, was arrested at O’Hare Airport as he arrived on a flight from Buffalo, NY. He faced federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online. On March 15, 2010, Barrett was sentenced to 2˝ years in prison.
(AP, 10/3/09)(SFC, 3/16/10, p.A5)
2009 Oct 3, David Headley (b.1960 as Daood Sayed Gilani), a US citizen of Pakistani descent, was arrested in Chicago. He was suspected of doing reconnaissance for the Nov 26, 2008, Mumbai attack that killed 166 people.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.D3)(www.talkleft.com/story/2009/12/7/125726/611)
2010 Jan 14, The Doomsday Clock, set up in 1947, was set back 1 minute for the first time in its 63-year history. In moving the clock from 5 minutes before midnight to 6 minutes before midnight, scientists expressed optimism for humanity's future. The actual clock is housed at the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences (BAS) office in Chicago, Ill.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/doomsdaydeferredendofworldclocksetback1minute)
2010 Feb 14, An apartment fire in Cicero, Ill., killed at least 7 people including 4 children. The fire spread to nearby buildings and over 20 people were left homeless. On March 4 landlord Lawrence Myers (60) and handyman Marion Comier (47) were each charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A9)(www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2085374,CST-NWS-fire05.article)
2010 Mar 18, David Coleman Headley (b.1960), Chicago-based Pakistani American, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of terrorism for his role as a scout for the 2008 coordinated assault in Mumbai that left 173 people dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Headley)(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A8)
2010 Apr 14, In Chicago James Larry (32) shot and killed his pregnant wife, infant son and 2 nieces in their home.
(SFC, 4/17/10, p.A4)
2010 May 24, The US Supreme Court ruled that a group of African Americans may sue the city of Chicago for discriminatory use of an application test that kept them from being hired as firefighters.
(SFC, 5/25/10, p.A4)
2010 Jun 9, The Chicago Blackhawks ended 49 years of Stanley Cup frustration with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Philadelphia Flyers that clinched the National Hockey League's best-of-seven championship series.
(Reuters, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 28, Chicago’s former police Cmdr. Jon Burge (b.1947) was convicted of lying about the torture of suspects and was sentenced to 4˝ years in prison. In 2012 the City Council approved settlements totaling $7.17 million to resolved lawsuits by 2 men who alleged they were victims of police torture during the tenure of Burge.
(SFC, 7/24/12, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge)
2010 Jun 28, The Supreme Court held that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live. The court, in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, forever changed the terms of debate over the right to bear arms. The 5-4 vote extended principles the court laid out in 2008, when it struck down a handgun ban in Washington, D.C.
(AP, 6/29/10)(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100628/pl_ynews/ynews_pl2876)
2010 Jul 2, The Chicago City Council approved what city officials said is the strictest handgun ordnance in the US.
(SFC, 7/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 20, US regulators shut down 8 more banks including 4 in California, one in Chicago, one in Virginia and two in Florida. This brought the total number of failed US banks to 118 for the year thus far.
(SFC, 8/23/10, p.D2)
2010 Sep 19, In Chicago Sami Samir Hassoun, a Lebanese immigrant and candy-store worker, shortly after midnight placed a backpack he believed contained a bomb near the Chicago Bulls baseball stadium. It was part of an FBI sting. In 2013 Hassoun (25) was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/lkj6aqq)(SFC, 5/31/13, p.A6)
2010 Oct 3, Rohm Emanuel, former US White House chief of staff, said in a video on his website that he’s preparing to run for mayor of Chicago.
(SFC, 10/4/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 16, US authorities said 7 people have been arrested following the seizure of nearly 11 tons of marijuana, valued at $22 million, packed into railroad cars from Mexico and destined to Chicago.
(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A13)
2010 Dec 22, In Chicago 2 firefighters were killed when a roof collapsed in a vacant burning building. The tragedy took place exactly 100 years following the Chicago Union Stock Yards fire that killed 21 firemen.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A7)
2011 Feb 2, A massive storm billed as the worst in decades barreled toward the northeast, leaving vast swaths from Chicago to New York paralyzed by snow and ice.
(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 22, Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff from Pres. Obama, was elected mayor of Chicago, overwhelming five rivals.
(SFC, 2/23/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 30, In Chicago final demolition began for the Cabrini Green public high-rises. The complex, dating back to the 1940s, at its peak housed 13,000 people in 23 high-rises.
(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A8)
2011 May 16, Rahm Emanuel (b.1959) took office as Chicago’s 55th mayor. He cut $75 million form the city’s bloated budget on his first day.
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.30)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel)
2011 Jun 4, The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project, begun 1921, was reported complete. It comprised 21 volumes of Akkadian, a Semitic language (with several dialects, including Assyrian) that endured for 2,500 years.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 9, In a federal court in Chicago, a jury found Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana guilty of plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that had printed cartoons of the prophet Muhammad; but they failed to convict him of providing material support to the militant group that planned the deadly attack on Mumbai, India, which killed 166 people.
(AP, 6/9/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Chicago, Illinois, a 26-foot-tall statue of Marilyn Monroe was unveiled on the city’s magnificent Mile. Sculptor Seward Johnson used her famous pose from the film “The Seven Year Itch," where a draft catches her dress as she passes over a subway gate.
(SFC, 7/16/11, p.A8)
2011 Aug 24, Philip Baker (46), former managing director of the collapsed Chicago hedge fund Lake Shore Asset Management Ltd, pleaded guilty for his role in what prosecutors called a $291.8 million worldwide fraud. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission won a court order in August 2007 freezing Lake Shore's assets and a receiver was appointed that October. More than $100 million has been returned to investors so far.
(Reuters, 8/24/11)
2011 Oct 23, Anti-Wall Street demonstrators of the Occupy Chicago movement stood their ground in a downtown park in noisy but peaceful defiance of police orders to clear out, prompting 130 arrests.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Dec 8, Researchers at the Univ. of Chicago reported experiments demonstrating that a rat would free a fellow rat trapped in a restrictive cage even without a payoff, indicating empathy and selfless behavior.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A16)
2012 Jan 10, The Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that it has moved its "Doomsday Clock" one minute ahead to five minutes to midnight.
(AP, 1/10/12)(SFC, 1/11/12, p.A5)
2012 Jan 11, Chicago gang leader Augustin Zambrano was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison.
(SFC, 1/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 18, In Chicago 7 teens were charged in the beating and robbery of a 17-year-old high school student in an incident that stemmed from a previous altercation last October. A video of the beating went viral online. Viewers who posted comments identified the alleged attackers by name.
(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 27, Hull House, the Chicago social services organization founded in 1889 by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, closed after running out of money.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Mar 14, Chicago-based Encyclopedia Britannica said it is shelving its print edition after 244 years in favor of it Web-based version.
(SFC, 3/15/12, p.A6)
2012 May 13, In Chicago 4 mothers were pronounced dead this morning after their speeding car hit a support beam of an elevated train track around midnight, crashing with enough force for the vehicle to split in two.
(AP, 5/14/12)
2012 May 20, Pres. Obama hosted a summit with NATO allies in Chicago. They charted an outwardly confident path to a postwar Afghanistan. Nearly 50 US military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(SFC, 5/21/12, p.A4)(Reuters, 5/21/12)
2012 Jun 27, The Chicago City Council voted to decriminalize marijuana possession. From August 4 police can issue tickets of $250-$500 for someone caught with 15 grams or less of pot. The new law could generated millions of dollars for the city.
(SFC, 6/28/12, p.A7)
2012 Jul 5, Steve Cannon (46) of Des Moines, Iowa, completed a 40-day, 1,037-mile run around Lake Michigan. He started and ended his trek at Caray’s Tavern in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/7/12, p.A5)
2012 Jul 20, Chicago lottery winner Urooj Khan (46) died weeks after winning a $1 million jackpot from the Illinois Lottery. Authorities later said he died from cyanide poisoning and in 2013 began exhumation proceedings.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.A6)
2012 Sep 10, Chicago teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years after their union and district officials failed to reach a contract agreement despite intense weekend negotiations that the union said were productive but still failed to adequately address issues such as job security and teacher evaluations.
(AP, 9/10/12)
2012 Sep 14, Undercover FBI agents arrested Adel Daoud (18) for trying to detonate what he believed was a car bomb outside a downtown Chicago bar. An undercover operation in which an agent pretending to be a terrorist had provided him with a phony car bomb and watched him press the trigger. Prosecutors the next day said Daoud was offered several chances to change his mind and walk away from the plot.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Sep 18, The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates decided to end their strike, the city’s first in the last 25 years.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A6)
2012 Oct 3, Chicago police began top chop down some 1,500 marijuana plants discovered a day earlier on the city’s far South Side.
(SFC, 10/5/12, p.A10)
2012 Dec 25, Chicago mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. (75) died at a federal prison in North Carolina. He was among 5 men convicted in September 2007 at the Family Secrets trial.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A13)
2012 Dec 26, The Chicago Teachers Union sued the nation's third largest school district, saying Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign to reform or close underperforming public schools discriminates against African-American teachers and staff.
(Reuters, 12/27/12)
2013 Jan 17, Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison for providing material support to overseas terrorism.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Jan 27, In Chicago 7 people were killed and 6 wounded in gun violence around the city.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 29, In Chicago Hadiya Pendleton (15) was gunned down in a park. The majorette had recently performed with her King Prep High School band in Washington for Pres. Obama’s inauguration. On Feb 11 gang members Michael Ward (18) and Kenneth Williams (20) were charged with her murder.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A8)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 14, The Chicago Crime Commission name Joaquin “El Chapo" Guzman, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, as the city’s new Public Enemy No. 1, for supplying most of the narcotics sold in the city.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 21, Chicago said it will close 54 schools and 61 school buildings by the beginning of the next academic year in the country's third-largest public school district. Education experts called this the largest mass closing in the nation.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Chicago 7 people were shot and wounded early today at a party at a nightclub in an incident that police said may have been gang related.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Apr 15, The annual Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to six activists for their efforts to protect the world ecosystem. They included Nohra Padilla (50) of Colombia, who began organizing waste pickers in Bogota in 1990 into the Bogota Recyclers’ Assoc.; Rossano Ercolini (57) of Italy for setting up a trash collection and conservation system; Kimberly Wasserman (36) of Chicago her grassroots campaign to close polluting coal-fired power plants; Aleta Baun (50) of Indonesia for organizing villages on west Timor against mining companies clearing forests for marble; Azzam Alwash (54) of Iraq for his efforts to restore Mesopotamian marshland; Jonathan Deal of South Africa for his efforts against hydraulic fracturing in Karoo.
(SFC, 4/15/13, p.A10)
2013 May 22, Chicago officials closed 49 schools that they said were not being fully used.
(SFC, 5/23/13, p.A10)
2013 May 29, Rev. Andrew Greeley (b.1928), Chicago newspaper columnist and novelist, died in Chicago. His work included over 100 non-fiction books and some 50 novels, which included a series of about a bishop-detective, Blackie Ryan.
(SFC, 5/31/13, p.D7)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.94)
2013 May 30, In Chicago a federal judge sentenced Sami Samir Hassoun, (25), Lebanese immigrant and candy-store worker, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for placing a backpack he believed contained a bomb near the Chicago Bulls baseball stadium. The case stemmed from a sting operation in Sep 2010.
(SFC, 5/31/13, p.A6)
2013 Jun 7, Ata Yousef El Ammouri (65), a former Chicago store owner, was taken into custody after arriving from Jordan. He had fled the US in 1979 after being accused of killing Joe Harris, who walked out of his store without paying for a can of beer.
(SSFC, 6/9/13, p.A12)
2013 Sep 19, In Chicago gunmen used an assault-style weapon to spray a crowd watching a basketball game at Cornell Square Park. 13 people were wounded including a boy (3). Four Blackstones gang members, who had sought revenge against the rival Gangster Disciples, were later arrested.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.A5)(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A8)
2013 Nov 27, Two Chicago women became the first same-sex couple to marry in Illinois after a federal judge granted an expedited marriage license because of one of the women’s failing health.
(SFC, 11/28/13, p.A6)
2014 Jan 14, A Chicago federal court sentenced H. Ty Warner (69), the billionaire businessman behind Beanie Babies, to two years probation for not paying taxes on $25 million he had hidden.
(SFC, 1/15/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 15, The Archdiocese of Chicago released 6,000 pages of documents as part of a settlement with sex abuse victims.
(SFC, 1/16/14, p.A6)
2014 Jan 22, Sears said it will close its downtown Chicago store at 2 N. State St., which opened in 2001, this coming April.
(SFC, 1/23/14, p.C3)
2014 Jan, Chicago endured a cold snap. Temperatures fell to -27°C, the lowest since 1884.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.68)
2014 Feb 18, In Chicago an elderly nun who broke into what was supposed to be one of the most carefully guarded nuclear facilities in the US was sentenced to 35 months in prison. Sister Megan Rice (84) cut through fences and several layers of security at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee along with two other members of Transform Now Plowshares -- a pacifist group -- in July 2012. Fellow anti-nuclear activists Michael Walli (64) and Greg Boertje-Obed (58) were sentenced to five years and two months in prison because of their criminal histories.
(AFP, 2/19/14)
2014 Mar 10, A federal judge in Chicago ruled that Branko Bogdanov (58) and his wife Lela (52) are to remain in jail pending trial for stealing $7 million in a decade-long multistate shopping spree. They had emigrated from Yugoslavia and were in the US illegally.
(SFC, 3/11/14, p.A7)
2014 Apr 29, Laws in Chicago and NYC went into effect subjecting electronic cigarettes to the same regulations as tobacco.
(SFC, 4/30/14, p.A6)
2014 Jun 24, Filmmaker George Lucas said he has selected Chicago instead of San Francisco to build his museum of American art and Hollywood memorabilia. Chicago offered a $1-a-year lease for the site.
(SFC, 6/25/14, p.A1)
2014 Jul 18, Chicago-based Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie agreed to buy Shire, a European rival, for around $54 billion. This will allow AbbVie to relocate to Britain for tax purposes.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.D1)
2014 Jul 31, In Chicago Anthony DeFrances (60), a senior executive upset about a job demotion, gravely wounded ArrowStream CEO Steven LaVoie in a downtown office building and then fatally shot himself.
(Reuters, 7/31/14)
2014 Sep 26, In Illinois Brian Howard (36), an FAA contract employee, set fire at the Aurora air traffic control center bringing Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports to a halt with over 2,000 flights cancelled. On May 28, 2015, Howard pleaded guilty to setting the fire during a failed suicide attempt.
(SFC, 9/27/14, p.A7)(SFC, 9/29/14, p.A6)(SFC, 5/29/15, p.A9)
2014 Oct 20, Chicago police shot and killed Laquan McDonald (16) as he reportedly burglarized cars. Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times. Police reportedly deleted 86 minutes of video from a Burger King in the area. His death was also captured on dashcam video. McDonald’s family later received a $5 million settlement from the city. The video was made public in 2015.
(SFC, 11/27/15, p.A10)(SSFC, 11/29/15, p.A12)
2014 Nov 6, The Archdiocese of Chicago released files on three dozen more abusive clergy members to fulfill Cardinal Francis George’s pledge to do so before he retires.
(SFC, 11/7/14, p.A6)
2014 Nov 14, Jane M. Byrne (b.1934), Chicago’s 1st woman mayor (1979-1983), died. In 1994 she authored “My Chicago."
(SSFC, 11/16/14, p.C8)
2014 Nov 24, A US judge in Chicago sentenced Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez (59), a reputed lieutenant of captured Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, to 22 years in prison.
(AP, 11/24/14)
2015 Jan 27, A federal judge in Chicago sentenced twin brothers Pedro and Margarito Flores (35) to 14 years in prison each for running a nearly $2 billion North American drug ring. Their sentences were reduced as a reward for their cooperation against Joaquin Guzman and other cartel leaders.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A10)
2015 Feb 2, A winter storm led to flight cancellations in the Northeast US. The same storm had dumped a foot and a half of snow on Chicago, Detroit and other areas of the Plains and Midwest..
(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 17, In Chicago a civil suit was filed against Mohammad Abdullah Saleem (75), founder of the Institute of Islamic Education, accusing him of abusing an employee and three teenage students. The suit accused Saleem of abusing female students as far back as the 1980s.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 19, Bone-chilling cold in the US Midwest shattered records in Chicago, closing schools and starting its trudge eastward to an already frozen Boston and New York.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Apr 7, In Chicago incumbent Mayor Rohm Emanuel was re-elected with 56% of the vote. Jesus Garcia took 44% in a 40% turnout.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.29)
2015 Apr 14, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a $5.5 million reparations package for suspects (mostly black) who were tortured by police in the 1970s and 1980s.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.28)
2015 May 6, The Chicago City Council voted 42-0 to approve a $5.5 million reparations fund for torture victims of the notorious police commander Jon Burge and his so-called midnight crew of rogue detectives (1972-1991).
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A10)
2015 May 28, A new report said Illinois remains as the 3rd most corrupt US state after New York and California. Chicago was reported as still the most corrupt US city.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.22)
2015 Aug 7, An “unprecedented" agreement between the Chicago Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union went into effect. It will allow independent evaluations of the department’s controversial "stop and frisk" program.
(CSM, 8/8/15)
2015 Oct 13, Barbara Byrd-Bennett (66), the former head of Chicago Public Schools, pleaded guilty to her role in a scheme to steer $23 million in no-bid contracts to education firms for $2.3 million in bribes and kickbacks.
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 2, In Chicago Tyshawn Lee (9) was found shot dead in an alley in a South Side neighborhood. On Nov 27 gang member Corey Morgan (27) was charged with first degree murder.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A4)(SFC, 11/28/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 21, A heavy fall snowstorm hit the Midwestern United States, blanketing states from South Dakota to Wisconsin with as much as 16 inches (40 cm) of snow. The storm affected air travel, with 514 US flights canceled by morning, with Chicago's O'Hare International and Midway International airports the hardest hit.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 22, More than 130 flights were cancelled in and out of Chicago’s O’hare Int’l. Airport as a deep freeze set in across the Midwest.
(SFC, 11/23/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 23, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for calm ahead of the release of a "hideous" video showing officer Jason Van Dyke fire 16 bullets into Laquan McDonald (17). Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged the next day with first degree murder.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Dec 1, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy following the public outcry over the handling of the Oct 20, 2014, shooting of Laquan McDonald (17).
(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A8)
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Subject = Chicago
End of file
