Since its first edition was published on June 10, 1847, the Chicago Tribune has covered every milestone in the city’s history.
Here’s a look back at more than 175 years of breaking news, Pulitzer-winning investigations, and photography that documents the stories of those who lived and worked in our neighborhoods and impacted the arts, politics, sports and more.
[ [Read more] Chicago Tribune’s 175th anniversary ]
[ Quiz: Test your Chicago history knowledge ]
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1800s
June 10, 1847: Chicago Daily Tribune publishes first edition
The newspaper — as well as its parent company and later media conglomerate, the Tribune Company — was founded in 1847 by three Chicagoans. The newspaper didn’t initially have a political affiliation when it was founded. However, it often showed support for the Whig or Free Soil parties as opposed to the Democrats.
[ Diary of Our City: Tribune celebrates 175 years of Chicago stories ]
Aug. 30, 1847
Cyrus McCormick establishes reaper works in Chicago.
Jan. 21, 1848
The telegraph reaches Chicago.
April 3, 1848
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) is founded.
April 10, 1848
Illinois and Michigan Canal opens after 12 years of digging.
Nov. 20, 1848
The inaugural run of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad — from Chicago to Oak Park and back — is completed with the third-hand locomotive, the Pioneer.
Jan. 22, 1849
Illinois General Hospital of the Lakes — later known as Mercy Hospital — is established at Rush Street and the Chicago River, making it the first hospital in Chicago. The building formerly housed Lake House, an opulent hotel.
March 12, 1849
An ice flood in the Chicago River tears ships from moorings and hurls them, along with blocks of ice, against bridges. The bridges at Madison, Randolph and Wells Streets were swept away.
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1850s
1850
Gas lamps light Chicago streets for the first time and the city planks 6.7 miles of streets, including 12,000 feet of State Street.
Also in 1850
Allan Pinkerton opens his detective agency.
1851
The city’s first public water board is organized to handle recurring cholera epidemics.
Jan. 28, 1851
The charter for Northwestern University is passed by the Illinois General Assembly. The school opens four years later in Evanston.
Feb. 20, 1852
The first direct train from the East arrives on the Michigan Southern and Indiana Northern Railroad.
Dec. 5, 1853
Constable James Quinn becomes the first Chicago police officer to be killed in the line of duty, but this recognition would not be honored until March 2, 2010.
1854
Cholera epidemic in Chicago intensifies; eventually claims 1,424 victims.
June 5, 1854
The Rock Island Railroad connects Chicago to Lockport and the Mississippi River.
April 21, 1855
One person is killed and 60 more are arrested during the Lager Beer Riot, which protests a 600 percent increase in tavern license fees and Sunday closings. It is considered Chicago’s first civil disturbance.
May 26, 1855
Cyrus Bradley is appointed as Chief of Police and serves in that position until 1856. He would later introduce the Department motto: “At danger’s call, we’ll promptly fly; and bravely do or bravely die.”
June 18, 1855: Joseph Medill and partners buy Tribune
The Chicago Daily Tribune was transformed by the arrival in 1855 of editor and co-owner Joseph Medill, who turned the paper into one of the leading voices of the new Republican Party. Daily circulation grew from about 1,400 copies in 1855 to as high as 40,000 during the Civil War, when the paper was a strong supporter of President Lincoln and emancipation. By 1853, Roman Catholics and foreign citizens were frequently criticized in xenophobic editorials, and the newspaper also became a strong supporter of temperance. In 1855, the Chicago Tribune formally decided to affiliate with the nativist American or Know Nothing party. The party’s candidate, Levi Boone, was then elected as Mayor of Chicago in March.
Dec. 31, 1855
Chicago begins project to raise streets (and buildings) out of muck; completion takes decades.
Jan. 29, 1856
William Rand cofounds what would become Rand McNally’s first print shop with the Chicago Tribune on Chicago’s Lake Street. Twelve years later, the company buys the Tribune’s share and begins printing railroad tickets and timetables.
March 6, 1857
Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision sharpens divisions on slavery.
Early February 1858
The city buys its first steam fire engine — nicknamed “Ye Great Skwirt Long John” after Mayor Long John Wentworth.
June 27, 1858
‘Poisonous thorns’: The times Abraham Lincoln got mad — like, really mad — at the Chicago Tribune. “How, in God’s name, do you let such paragraphs into the Tribune?” he furiously scribbled in Springfield on June 27, 1858, firing off a gruff note to Charles H. Ray, the editor-in-chief of the Chicago Press & Tribune, then in business for only 11 years. Lincoln scholar and Dickinson College professor Dr. Matthew Pinsker describes the June 27 letter to the Tribune as “the angriest, nastiest written statement Lincoln ever produced (at least as far as we know).”
Aug. 21, 1858
First of seven Lincoln-Douglas debates. Tribune reports the debates in full.
April 25, 1859
Four horse-drawn streetcars — the city’s first — travel the rails from Lake to 12th Streets on State Street.
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1860s
May 18, 1860: Abraham Lincoln nominated for president
Lincoln nominated, with critical push from Tribune, for president at the Republican Convention at the Wigwam building (at what is now Wacker Drive and Lake Street) in Chicago.
[ Vintage Chicago Tribune: How Chicago became the go-to city for political conventions ]
Sept. 7, 1860
Nearly 400 are killed in the wreck of the sidewheel steamer ship Lady Elgin on Lake Michigan.
April 12, 1861
Confederates attack Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., starting the Civil War. In the following months, the Chicago Zouaves, Irish Brigade and Lincoln Rifles are among local companies to march off to fight.
1862
Camp Douglas is converted into a Confederate prisoner of war camp.
Jan. 1, 1863
Emancipation Proclamation takes effect.
July 1, 1863
First National Bank of Chicago — the second “national” bank in the country — opens on the corner of LaSalle and Lake streets.
Read the actual story from 1863
Feb. 7, 1865
Gov. Richard J. Oglesby signs a bill repealing Illinois’ 1853 “Black Law” that prohibited African Americans from coming into the state.
April 9, 1865
Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox (Va.) Court House. The Tribune reports: “THE END.”
April 14, 1865: Lincoln assassinated
Dec. 25, 1865
Union Stock Yards open on Chicago’s South Side.
1866-1867
City completes two-mile tunnel into lake to draw “pure water.”
1867
St. Stanislaus Kostka parish is first of many to serve the Polish community.
March 9, 1867
Originally formed in 1835 as one of the first of its kind in the United States, a new Board of Health is established.
Aug. 26, 1868
Two pairs of swans arrive in Chicago, establishing the Lincoln Park Zoo, which has remained free to its patrons ever since.
Oct. 12, 1868
Marshall Field opens his first State Street store.
1869
Chicago Water Tower is completed.
Feb. 10, 1869
The Woman Suffrage Convention — the first of its kind in Chicago — is held at Library Hall.
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1870s
1871
James L. Shelton becomes the first Black Chicago police officer.
Oct. 8-10, 1871: Great Chicago Fire
The fire leaves nearly 300 dead, 90,000 homeless and 17,450 buildings destroyed.
The first post-fire edition carried a famously upbeat editorial: “CHEER UP! … CHICAGO SHALL RISE AGAIN.”
[ Read more: 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire ]
Oct. 11, 1871
Tribune leads fight for city’s recovery with “CHEER UP” editorial.
Nov. 7, 1871
Medill elected mayor of Chicago.
Aug. 27, 1872
Aaron Montgomery Ward establishes the first major mail-order business.
Dec. 6, 1872
The Tribune reports a Black fire company — Engine 21 — will be stationed on May Street. Just six years later the station’s “sliding pole” was invented there and would later be adopted worldwide.
Jan. 1, 1873
Chicago Public Library opens its doors at the southeast corner of LaSalle and Adams streets in a circular water tank that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. A large donation of books is made by Queen Victoria.
Nov. 21, 1875
Holy Name Cathedral dedicated.
April 25, 1876: Chicago White Stockings play first National League game
The White Stockings (later Cubs) play their first National League baseball game in Louisville — and win (4-0). Later the same season the team would win the National League’s first title.
July 23-26, 1877
30 people are killed during Great Railroad Strike.
May 24, 1879
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (later renamed Art Institute of Chicago) incorporated.
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1880s
1880
Rabbi Emil Hirsch takes over Chicago Sinai Congregation and builds it into city’s largest.
Sept. 1, 1880
Rome designates the Diocese of Chicago an archdiocese, raising it to preeminence among all dioceses in the region and establishing its bishop as an archbishop.
May 22, 1881
Tribune prints entire text of newly revised, plain-English version of New Testament.
Feb. 23, 1882
The era of Chicago cable cars begins on State Street.
1884
George Pullman completes Pullman, a company town on Lake Calumet. His belief that it should turn a 6 percent profit leads to the Pullman strike of 1894 when employee-residents faced cuts in wages, but not rents.
1884: World’s first steel-frame skyscraper built
The 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago — William Le Baron Jenny’s building at LaSalle and Adams streets — becomes the world’s first steel-frame skyscraper.
March 25, 1886
Charles T. Yerkes buys control of the North Chicago City Railway. For next 13 years, Tribune campaigns against Yerkes’ attempt to gain monopoly over public transportation system.
May 4, 1886: Haymarket Riot
Unknown bomb-thrower at labor rally sparks Haymarket Riot on Near West Side; eight policemen and at least four civilians die.
July 10, 1886
Capt. George Streeter’s steamboat Reutan runs aground on Near North Side sandbar now known as Streeterville.
1887
Richard Sears moves his mail-order business from Minneapolis to Chicago.
Thanksgiving Day 1887: Softball invented
Games are soon played all over Chicago, in social clubs, YMCAs and armories.
June 29, 1889
The city nearly quadruples in size — from 45 to 174 square miles — with annexation of the municipalities of Lake View, Hyde Park, Jefferson and Lake.
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1890s
Jan. 1, 1890
Census reports that as of this year, Chicago now nation’s second city, breaking million mark with 1,099,850 residents.
1890
Aaron Montgomery Ward — “watchdog of the lakefront” — sues the city to keep Grant Park open. His litigation continues until he’s successful in 1910.
Oct. 16, 1891
Theodore Thomas leads debut of Chicago Orchestra (later renamed Chicago Symphony Orchestra).
June 6, 1892
Service begins on first segment of Chicago’s “L” between Congress and 39th Streets.
Oct. 1, 1892
University of Chicago opens for class.
May 1, 1893: World’s Columbian Exposition opens
World’s Columbian Exposition, a project championed by Tribune, opens in Jackson Park and features the first Ferris wheel.
July 9, 1893
Black physician Daniel Hale Williams performs first successful open heart surgery at Chicago’s Provident Hospital.
Oct. 28, 1893
Mayor Carter Harrison assassinated.
Dec. 8, 1893
The Art Institute Chicago formally opens in its current location with a members’ reception.
March 8, 1894
British writer William T. Stead publishes “If Christ Came to Chicago,” an expose about corruption.
May 11, 1894
Pullman factory workers on far Southeast Side begin protracted and bloody strike.
June 2, 1894
The Field Museum opens to the public in Jackson Park (on the site where the Museum of Science and Industry stands today).
Nov. 28, 1895
The nation’s first organized automobile race — from Chicago’s Jackson Park to Evanston and back — is held.
1896
City uses landfill to extend Grant Park into lake.
Nov. 10, 1896
Chicago Federation of Labor founded.
July 8, 1896
William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech at Democratic Convention in Chicago makes party champion of social reform.
1897
Chicago Teachers Federation founded.
Oct. 3, 1897
The Loop’s elevated railroad is completed.
March 12, 1898
Five boats participate in the first Chicago-to-Mackinac sailboat race.
April 21, 1898
May 7, 1898
Tribune scoop on Commodore George Dewey’s victory at Manila Bay; President William McKinley gets news in phone call from Tribune.
1899: “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” written
L. Frank Baum writes “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” at his Humboldt Park home.
March 16, 1899
Medill dies at 76.
April 17, 1899
The filthy Chicago River catches fire and the flames rise 50 feet to ignite the Kinzie Street Bridge.
July 1, 1899
The country’s first Juvenile Court opens in Chicago.
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1900s
Jan. 2, 1900
Sanitary and Ship Canal (a project long championed by Tribune) completed, reversing flow of Chicago River.
February 1900
The Everleigh sisters open their carriage trade brothel, the opulent Everleigh Club, 2131 S. Dearborn St. It would be shut down in 1911.
March 15, 1901
Tribune installs its first color press.
Dec. 5, 1901
Walt Disney is born in Chicago.
1902
The Cortland Street Bridge — Chicago’s first trunnion bascule bridge — is built over the North Branch of the Chicago River.
1903
From 1903 until about 1920, murders accredited to the “Black Hand Society” dominate the newspapers and spread fear throughout Chicago, especially in the Italian settlements.
Dec. 17, 1903
Wilbur and Orville Wright take first flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. — but did you know their sister Katherine made an awesome chicken salad?
Dec. 30, 1903: Iroquois Theatre fire
More than 600 die in Iroquois Theatre fire; Tribune devotes entire front page next day to casualty list.
July 2, 1904
1905
The Industrial Workers of the World is founded.
May 5, 1905
Chicago Defender newspaper founded.
1906
Electric cars replace cable cars on State Street.
Jan. 16, 1906
Marshall Field dies in New York of pneumonia contracted during a winter game of golf.
Feb. 26, 1906: “The Jungle” published
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” exposes conditions in Chicago stockyards.
May 1, 1906
Bosnians establish Chicago’s first Muslim benevolence society.
Oct. 9, 1906: The all-Chicago World Series
The World Series pitting the Cubs against the White Sox begins (Spoiler alert: The White Sox win series, 4-2).
Aug. 10, 1907
Essanay Studios begins its 10-year run of making movies in Chicago, featuring Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and other box-office stars.
September 1907
Utility magnate Samuel Insull creates Commonwealth Edison Co.
Oct. 12, 1907: Cubs win first World Series
Cubs win first World Series title.
Nov. 29, 1907
Albert A. Michelson, a University of Chicago scientist, becomes the first American to win a Nobel Prize — in Physics.
1908
Jesse Binga founds a Binga State Bank, Chicago’s first Black-owned bank.
April 1908
Garfield Park Observatory opens.
Oct. 14, 1908
Cubs repeat as World Series champions, defeating the Detroit Tigers.
Dec. 21, 1908
Chicago first city in nation to pass law requiring pasteurization of milk.
Dec. 26, 1908
Jack Johnson becomes first black heavyweight boxing champ, in Australia.
1909
Plans completed for Robie House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style masterpiece, in Hyde Park.
Feb. 12, 1909
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded, partially in response to race riots in Springfield from the previous year in which seven people died.
April 6, 1909
Commander Robert Edwin Peary reaches North Pole.
July 4, 1909
Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett’s Plan of Chicago issued.
Sept. 1, 1909
State and Madison becomes zero point in cleaned-up numbering grid.
Sept. 6, 1909
Commander Robert Edwin Peary announces he reached the North Pole five months earlier.
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1910s
July 1, 1910: First game at Comiskey Park
The White Sox lose to the St. Louis Browns 2-0 in the first game at Comiskey Park.
Sept. 22, 1910
Seventeen young women abandon their sewing machines at the Hart, Schaffner & Marx clothing manufacturer in Pilsen, initiating a strike that would last four months and eventually involve some 40,000 workers.
Oct. 25, 1910
Chicago Vice commission created to take up “the big problem of raising the moral conditions of the city,” the Tribune reported.
Dec. 22-23, 1910: Stockyard fire
Stockyard fire kills 22 firefighters, including the chief.
1911
Chicago and North Western Railway Terminal, the city’s largest at the time, is completed.
Feb. 9, 1911
Infant Welfare Society of Chicago established.
Aug. 29, 1911
“The Greatest Issue of the World’s Greatest Newspaper” appears on the Chicago Tribune front page for the first time. “World’s Greatest Newspaper” became a regular front-page feature beginning on Aug. 29, 1911, and ended Dec. 31, 1976.
April 14-15, 1912
Titanic sinks on maiden voyage, killing 1,517.
July 13, 1912
U.S. Sen. William Lorimer of Illinois expelled from the U.S. Senate for election rigging following Tribune reports of corruption.
Nov. 23, 1912
The Rouse Simmons, known as the “Christmas Tree Ship,” vanishes in a storm on Lake Michigan during its trip from Michigan to Chicago. There were no survivors. A diver found the well-preserved remains of the Rouse Simmons in 1971, resting in about 170-foot deep waters northeast of Two Rivers, Wisc.
June 3, 1913
In 1913, journalist Ring Lardner returned to the Chicago Tribune, which became the home newspaper for his syndicated column In the Wake of the News (started by Hugh Keough, who had died in 1912). The column appeared in more than 100 newspapers. He would go on to report on the Black Sox scandal.
Read the first column from 1913
June 26, 1913
In 1913, women in Illinois were successful in gaining partial suffrage. They became the first women east of the Mississippi River to have the right to vote in Presidential elections.
Aug. 13, 1913
Chicago police department appoints its first female officers as 10 women take the oath of office as Chicago police officers. Of this group, Alice Clement emerges as one of the most famous law enforcers in the nation. Yet, women would not become patrol officers until 1974.
April 23, 1914
The first major league baseball game takes place at Weeghman Park with the Federals defeating Kansas City 9-1. The ballpark became known as Cubs Park in 1920 after the Wrigley family purchased the team from Charles H. Weeghman. It was named Wrigley Field in 1926 in honor of William Wrigley Jr., the club’s owner.
May 13, 1914
Robert R. McCormick and cousin Joseph Patterson begin to share Tribune’s editing and publishing duties.
July 28, 1914: World War I begins
1915
Oscar Stanton De Priest becomes Chicago’s first Black alderman.
July 24, 1915: Eastland Disaster
Steamship Eastland capsizes in Chicago River, killing more than 800. Display’s early use of photography in newspapers.
1916
The Great Migration begins, with more than 500,000 Blacks moving to Chicago from the South in the following 50 years.
July 4, 1916
Municipal Pier (later known as Navy Pier) opens.
Feb. 12, 1917
“The Gumps,” for decades one of the most popular comic strips, introduced in Tribune.
Feb. 27, 1917
Tribune correspondent Floyd Gibbons is on British ocean liner Laconia torpedoed by a German submarine in the North Atlantic. Widely reprinted, it stiffened American support for war with Germany by depicting the emotional roller coaster of Americans on a sinking ship. Gibbons was famous for having traveled with Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary hunted by the U.S. Army, in 1915. He was also a well known World War I correspondent who lost his eye during a battle.
April 6, 1917
Dec. 22, 1917
Mother Cabrini, later the first American canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, dies in Columbus Hospital.
1918
Grace Wilson becomes the first Black woman to join Chicago police.
March 19, 1918
First U.S. trial of daylight-saving time.
Sept. 8, 1918
The arrival of the flu pandemic in the Chicago area is first reported among sailors at Naval Station Great Lakes.
1919
Daily News founder Joseph Medill Patterson starts the Chicago Tribune Syndicate after Sidney Smith’s comic strip The Gumps begins running in the then-brand new (New York) Daily News and Chicago Tribune. Demand from other newspapers for the comic gives rise to the syndication company, which begins distributing content from the two papers across the country.
June 9, 1919: Treaty of Versailles unveiled
Under headline “TRIBUNE HAS TREATY,” Tribune scoops world with details of Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. The Chicago Tribune managed to obtain the text of the Treaty of Versailles, creating one of the best scoops in the newspaper’s history. It was the Tribune who presented the U.S. Senate with the original copy of the Treaty, standing the newspaper apart from other publications at the time.
July 21, 1919
At about 5 p.m., the Goodyear blimp Wingfoot Air Express hurtled through a lobby skylight of the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank at 231 S. LaSalle St., killing 13 people and injuring 28. It was America’s first recorded commercial aviation disaster.
July 27, 1919: Chicago race riots begin
Start of five days of Chicago race riots. The cataclysmic event that left 38 people dead (23 Black and 15 white), more than 500 injured and hundreds homeless due to arson influenced many of the city’s leaders who would face issues about race relations for decades.
Oct. 9, 1919
White Sox lose World Series to Cincinnati Reds; eight “Black Sox” players later tossed out of baseball for fixing games.
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1920s
Jan. 17, 1920: Prohibition begins
Prohibition begins. The passing of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America on January 16, 1919 dealt a serious blow to the brewing industry of Chicago. Prior to prohibition, saloon licensing fees contributed 25% of the city’s annual revenues, resulting estimated losses of at least $8,000,000 per year. Associated industries and markets also suffered losses, including the malting plants, brewery equipment manufacturers, and grain dealers.
May 11, 1920
Big Jim Colosimo is murdered, the father of the Chicago Outfit, sparking gang wars.
May 14, 1920
Michigan Avenue Bridge (now known as DuSable Bridge) opens.
Aug. 18, 1920
19th Amendment, giving U.S. women the right to vote, is ratified.
Sept. 17, 1920
Professional organization that became National Football League created in auto showroom in Canton, Ohio, by George Halas and others.
1921
KYW, the first Chicago radio station, begins broadcasting.
Feb. 8, 1921
Medill School of Journalism opens at Northwestern University.
May 2, 1921
Field Museum of Natural History opens in present lakefront location.
Oct. 15, 1921
Tribune, sued for libel by City of Chicago, wins case, which sets precedent protecting media’s right to criticize government.
Oct. 26, 1921
June 10, 1922
Tribune Tower design competition announced as part of 75th birthday celebration.
Aug. 9, 1922
Louis Armstrong moves to Chicago.
April 3, 1923
Wiliam “Decent” Dever — a “wet” Democrat — elected mayor on the reform ticket, trying to clean up the rampant vice in the city.
Sept. 2, 1923
Tribune provides first reports to America on great Japanese earthquake — a temblor measuring 7.9 in Tokyo and resulting in 100,000 deaths from the subsequent fires..
Nov. 6, 1923
Mary Bartelme is elected Circuit Court judge, becoming the city’s first female judge. She is reelected in 1927.
March 24, 1924
Archbishop George William Mundelein becomes Chicago’s first cardinal.
April 7, 1924
Postal clerk Henry Gerber forms the Society for Human Rights. He is soon arrested for being gay. He was never convicted, but the publicity (including a newspaper headline reading “Strange Sex Cult Exposed”) leads to his firing for conduct unbecoming a postal worker. The group quickly disbands. In 2015, Gerber’s home at 1710 N. Crilly Court in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood is designated a National Historic Landmark.
May 21, 1924: Leopold and Loeb commit ‘perfect murder’
Fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks is lured into a car as he walked toward his Hyde Park home and beaten to death by two wealthy University of Chicago students, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who dumped the boy’s body near Wolf Lake in Indiana, confessed to the murder and were brought to trial for what would became the “Crime of the Century.”
June 1, 1924
WDAP radio station renamed WGN by Tribune in honor of paper’s slogan.
Sept. 6, 1924
Though the facility is not yet complete, more than 45,000 people attend a competition in field events by Chicago police officers to dedicate Municipal Grant Park Stadium. On Nov. 11, 1925 — Armistice (now Veterans) Day — its name is changed to Soldier Field.
July 6, 1925: Tribune Tower opens
Tribune Tower is completed and open to the public for inspection.
May 16, 1925
July 10, 1925
John Thomas Scopes, charged with teaching evolution, goes to court in celebrated “Monkey Trial.” WGN broadcasts Clarence Darrow’s defense of Scopes.
April 9, 1926
Former Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins writes the play “Chicago.”
May 8, 1926
Chicago’s first municipal airport opens. Today, it’s known as Midway International Airport.
Nov. 11, 1926: First football game at Soldier Field
The Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals face each other in the first professional football game played at Soldier Field. Soldier Field wouldn’t become the Bears’ home stadium until 1971.
Jan. 7, 1927
Abe Saperstein and his Chicago-based Harlem Globetrotters basketball team play first road game in Hinckley, Ill.
May 21, 1927
Tribune reporter Henry Wales is first to greet Charles Lindbergh in Paris after his historic trans-Atlantic flight.
May 26, 1927
Buckingham Fountain opens and is dedicated three months later.
Aug. 13, 1927
“Lucky Lindy” Charles Lindbergh touches down in Chicago in his Spirit of St. Louis aircraft to promote commercial air travel several months after his historic solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Sept. 22, 1927
Heavyweight boxer Gene Tunney beats Jack Dempsey before 104,943 at Soldier Field in “long count” bout.
Oct. 13, 1927
Though still under construction, Arlington Park opens for its first season of business. More than 20,000 fans brave the cold weather to celebrate the event in high style. Jockey Joe Bollero guides Luxembourg to victory in the first-ever race at Arlington.
Dec. 3, 1927
The city’s first Prep Bowl, which the Tribune dubbed “the football championships of all the Chicago high schools,” pits Schurz, winner of the Public League, against undefeated Catholic League champion Mount Carmel.
Feb. 14, 1929: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Seven members of George “Bugs” Moran’s gang are slain on St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in a garage at 2122 N. Clark St.
August 1929
Aug. 11, 1929
First Bud Billiken Parade is hosted by Chicago Defender founder Robert Sengstacke Abbott as a way to thank the children who hawk his newspaper.
Oct. 29, 1929
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1930s
May 5, 1930
May 12, 1930
The Adler Planetarium, the first planetarium in the western hemisphere, opens. It’s followed 18 days later by the John G. Shedd Aquarium.
June 9, 1930
Tribune police reporter Alfred “Jake” Lingle shot and killed. It is later revealed he had mob ties.
Aug. 16, 1930
Bushman, a 40-pound, 2-year-old gorilla from Cameroon, arrives at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Dec. 10, 1931
Jane Addams is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She becomes the second woman to win it.
Oct. 4, 1931
Dick Tracy, written by Chester Gould, first appears in the Detroit Mirror and is distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, the predecessor syndication company to present-day Tribune Content Agency.
[ Vintage Chicago Tribune: Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy and the rise of newspaper comics ]
Oct. 24, 1931: Al Capone goes to jail
Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone goes to prison for tax evasion.
June 24, 1932
Amelia Earhart flies over Chicago then receives a medal for her trans-Atlantic flight in 1931 during a show for the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth.
July 1, 1932
Democratic Convention in Chicago nominates Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president.
Aug. 26, 1932
Thomas Dorsey’s wife dies during childbirth, prompting him to later write “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” The song ushers in the birth of gospel music in Chicago.
Oct. 1, 1932
If Babe Ruth really did call his shot, then it happened at Wrigley Field in the third game of the 1932 World Series.
Feb. 15, 1933
Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak is shot by an assassin’s bullet presumably intended for President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami; he dies March 6.
May 27, 1933
Century of Progress — the city’s second world’s fair — opens in Chicago, along with Museum of Science and Industry.
July 6, 1933
Comiskey Park hosts baseball’s first All-Star Game, conceived by Tribune sports editor Arch Ward.
Dec. 5, 1933
April 17, 1934
After Nation of Islam founder Wallace D. Fard disappears, Elijah Muhammad assumes leadership of the Nation of Islam and moves its headquarters to the South Side.
May 19, 1934
July 22, 1934: John Dillinger killed
John Dillinger slain by police in North Side alley outside Biograph Theater.
July 24, 1934
Chicago records its hottest temperature on record — 105 degrees.
July 28, 1934
The Chicago Tribune is the first outside company to be permitted to use the underground tunnels when the newspaper signs an agreement with the two companies operating the system. The Tribune uses the tunnels to transport rolls of newsprint 1,400 feet from its warehouse on North Water Street to the printing plant in Tribune Tower.
Aug. 31, 1934
First Tribune-sponsored All-Star Football Game at Soldier Field. (Spoiler alert: It ended in a scoreless tie.)
Aug. 5, 1935
Leo Burnett starts Chicago ad agency that will create Jolly Green Giant and Pillsbury Doughboy.
Aug. 3, 1936
Jesse Owens wins first of four gold medals at Summer Olympics in Berlin.
Dec. 10, 1936
News of King Edward VIII of England forsaking the throne for American divorcee Wallis Simpson makes the Tribune’s front page.
January 1937
Chicago Housing Authority created.
Feb. 7, 1937
Su-Lin, the first panda brought to the U.S. to live in captivity, arrives at Brookfield Zoo. It would die of pneumonia the following year. It is now part of the Field Museum’s taxidermy collection.
March 15, 1937
Pioneering blood bank opens at Cook County Hospital.
May 30, 1937: Republic Steel Massacre
10 marchers die in confrontation with police at Southeast Side plant.
June 22, 1937
Joe Louis wins heavyweight boxing championship at Comiskey Park.
July 2, 1937
Amelia Earhart, who attended Hyde Park High School, disappears during Pacific flight.
September 1937
The original ivy vines at Wrigley Field are purchased and planted by Bill Veeck. Veeck strung bittersweet from the top of the wall to the bottom, then planted the ivy at the base of the wall.
Oct. 5, 1937
President Roosevelt dedicates the Outer Drive bridge, which includes the infamous ‘S’ curve.
Oct. 18, 1938
Mies van der Rohe arrives in Chicago.
May 12, 1939
Tribune becomes first newspaper to print color photo of breaking news event — a grain elevator fire.
Oct. 26, 1939
Armour Institute of Technology and Lewis Institute announce they will merge to form Illinois Institute of Technology.
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1940s
March 1, 1940
Richard Wright’s “Native Son” published four years after he founded the South Side Writers Group.
July 4, 1940
The American Negro Exposition, showcasing Black people’s accomplishments in the 75 years since Juneteenth, opens at the Chicago Coliseum.
Dec. 8, 1940
The Chicago Bears play the Washington Redskins (now known as the Washington Commanders) for the professional world football championship, winning 73-0.
Dec. 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor prompting the U.S. to enter World War II.
June 7, 1942
Stanley Johnson was an Australian-American journalist who, as a correspondent during World War II, wrote a story for the Chicago Tribune that inadvertently revealed the extent of American code-breaking activities against the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The story resulted in efforts by the United States government to prosecute Johnston and other Chicago Tribune journalists, an effort what remains the only time the Espionage Act was used against journalists in the United States.
Aug. 29, 1942
Mayor Edward J. Kelly dedicates the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses, the city’s first wartime housing project, at the intersection of Chestnut Street and Cambridge Avenue. The development is named after Mother Frances X. Cabrini, an Italian American nun, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the first American citizen to be named a saint.
Dec. 2, 1942
University of Chicago scientists complete the first, manmade nuclear reaction in a squash court under Stagg Field.
Oct. 16, 1943
Chicago dedicates its first public subway and the 5-mile State Street stretch opens.
July 1, 1943
Two teams of all-stars from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded by Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley, play under lights at Wrigley Field following a Red Cross recruitment rally.
Dec. 3, 1943: Pizzeria Uno opens
Pizzeria Uno, home of Chicago-style pizza, opens at Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue.
April 27, 1944
Sewell Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward and Co., balks at government war regulations and is carried unceremoniously out of his office by two soldiers.
June 4, 1944
Germany’s U-505 submarine captured — later to become major exhibit at Museum of Science and Industry.
July 20, 1944
In a speech brodcast from a naval base on the Pacific Ocean, President Roosevelt accepts the nomination for a fourth term during the Democratic National Convention at Chicago Stadium. He won re-election on Nov. 7, 1944.
Dec. 27, 1944
Tribune critic Claudia Cassidy publishes her review of “The Glass Menagerie,” by Tennessee Williams, which had debuted the night before at the Civic Theatre. The review is widely credited as being a pivotal moment in Williams’ career that set the play down the path to becoming an American classic.
1945
Jan. 27, 1945
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz death camp.
May 8, 1945: V-E Day
Victory in Europe (V-E) Day as Germany surrendered to the Allies.
Aug. 6, 1945
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Aug. 14, 1945
June 5, 1946
Sixty one people are killed in a fire at the LaSalle Hotel.
Oct. 21, 1946
Navy Pier becomes Chicago branch of University of Illinois to accommodate veterans returning to college on GI Bill.
April 15, 1947
Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson breaks baseball’s color line in game against Boston Braves.
June 5, 1947
With the announcement of Marshall Plan, U.S. prepares to finance recovery of war-devastated Europe.
June 10, 1947
Tribune turns 100 years old.
Oct. 1, 1947
City’s buses, streetcars, subways and elevated lines begin running under municipal ownership, the Chicago Transit Authority.
April 5, 1948
May 14, 1948
Nov. 3, 1948
Dec. 1, 1949
The Midwest Stock Exchange (now known as Chicago Stock Exchange), which merged the old Chicago Stock Exchange and the exchanges in St. Louis, Cleveland and Minneapolis-St. Paul, begins trading.
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1950s
1950
Chicago population peaks at 3,620,962.
May 1, 1950
Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
May 25, 1950
Thirty four people are killed and 50 injured when a Green Hornet streetcar crashes into a gasoline truck at 63rd and State streets.
June 1950
June 25, 1950: Korean War
Tribune’s Walter Simmons first to report outbreak of Korean War.
Sept. 6, 1950
Chicago’s first bi-level commuter train debuts.
Dec. 20, 1951
Edens Expressway (first in Chicago) opened during a snowstorm.
1952
Both political parties hold national conventions in Chicago; the Republicans select Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Democrats dominate Adlai E. Stevenson.
1953
Chicago American Giants, Negro Leagues team, disbands — five years after the color barrier was broken in the major leagues.
March 5, 1953
May 29, 1953
New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay first to reach summit of Mt. Everest.
July 27, 1953: Korean War ends
Armistice signed, ending Korean War.
Dec. 1, 1953
Hugh Hefner launches Playboy magazine in his Hyde Park apartment.
Feb. 5, 1954
Lyric Theater of Chicago (later Lyric Opera) debuts.
May 17, 1954
Supreme Court strikes down public school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
June 26, 1954
A seiche hits Chicago. Or, did it?
April 1, 1955
April 5, 1955
Richard J. Daley elected mayor for first of six terms.
April 15, 1955
First McDonald’s franchise opens in Des Plaines.
Sept. 6, 1955
WTTW (Window to the World) launches.
Oct. 29, 1955
O’Hare International Airport begins scheduled service. Despite rain and low clouds, Trans World Airlines Flight 94 bound for Paris, then Cairo, was the first to depart with passengers from what was then the world’s largest airport.
Dec. 15, 1955
Congress Expressway opens (later renamed Eisenhower Expressway).
Oct. 20, 1956
Tribune buys the Chicago American, which had been continuously published since July 4, 1900.
March 28, 1957
Elvis Presley plays before 12,000 fans at the International Amphitheater in Chicago.
Dec. 1, 1957
Old Town School of Folk Music opens.
June 21, 1958
Last Chicago streetcar makes its final run.
Dec. 1, 1958
Our Lady of Angels school fire on West Side kills 3 nuns and 87 children.
July 6, 1959
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip arrive for a 14-hour visit — the first visit of a reigning British monarch to the Windy City.
Sept. 22, 1959
The “Go-Go Sox” win a pennant — the team’s first since the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
Dec. 16, 1959
Second City comedy cabaret debuts.
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1960s
Nov. 5, 1960
Northwest Expressway opens (renamed Kennedy Expressway in 1963).
1960
Summerdale police scandal — cops linked to burglary ring.
May 1, 1960
White Sox owner Bill Veeck‘s “exploding” scoreboard at Comiskey Park — the first in baseball — is christened when Sox outfielder Al Smith hits a two-run homer off Jim Bunning in the bottom of the first against the Tigers.
Sept. 26, 1960
Sept. 26, 1960: Kennedy-Nixon debate
First televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, at WBBM-TV studios in Chicago.
Nov. 18, 1960
McCormick Place, named for late Tribune publisher who had campaigned for new convention facilities, opens.
1961
DuSable Museum of African American History founded.
April 16, 1961
Chicago Blackhawks win third Stanley Cup.
Sept. 11, 1961
“Bozo’s Circus” debuts on WGN-TV.
March 5, 1962
The first family moves into the new Robert Taylor Homes public housing development.
Dec. 15, 1962
March 23, 1963
President John F. Kennedy arrives in Chicago — just eight months before he would be assassinated — not only to dedicate the city’s airport but also to stump for Mayor Richard J. Daley’s election for a third term just 10 days later.
Aug. 12, 1963
University of Chicago student Bernie Sanders, 21, is arrested at a South Side protest. He’s charged with resisting arrest, found guilty and fined $25.
Aug. 28, 1963
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C.
Dec. 29, 1963
The Bears defeat the New York Giants 14-10 to win the National Football championship at Wrigley Field.
July 2, 1964
Civil rights bill signed into law by President Johnson.
Aug. 7, 1964
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution deepens American involvement in Vietnam.
Sept. 5, 1964
The Beatles play the first concert in Chicago at the International Amphitheatre.
Oct. 24, 1964
Completion of Southwest Expressway (soon renamed Stevenson Expressway).
Feb. 21, 1965
Malcolm X assassinated in New York.
Spring 1965
University of Illinois’ Chicago Circle Campus opens.
Sept. 20, 1965
Cesar Chavez leads strike against California grape growers.
Jan. 26, 1966
Martin Luther King Jr. and his family move into a third floor apartment in North Lawndale.
June 12, 1966
The Division Street riots begin when a white police officer shoots a Puerto Rican young man in the leg.
June 30, 1966
National Organization for Women formed.
July 14, 1966
Eight student nurses found slain on Southeast Side; Richard Speck later convicted.
Aug. 5, 1966
During a march in Marquette Park to protest racial inequality in housing, Martin Luther King Jr. is struck by a rock. “I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I have never seen — even in Mississippi and Alabama — mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago,” King told reporters afterward.
Jan. 16, 1967
McCormick Place is destroyed by fire.
Jan. 26-27, 1967
Blizzard dumps 23 inches of snow on Chicago — it’s the city’s worst snowstorm on record.
April 21, 1967
At least 10 tornadoes touch down in northern Illinois, killing 58 people and injuring 1,000.
April 28, 1967
Muhammad Ali stripped of heavyweight title for refusing induction into the U.S. Army.
Aug. 15, 1967
Pablo Picasso’s untitled sculpture unveiled in Civic Center (now Daley) Plaza.
Oct. 3, 1967
April 4, 1968: MLK assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis. Riots explode on Chicago’s West Side.
May 1968
The 100-story John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue is topped out.
June 6, 1968
Robert Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles.
July 20, 1968
The first Special Olympics games is held at Soldier Field.
Aug. 26, 1968
Chicago’s ill-fated Democratic National Convention begins.
1969
The Jane Collective is founded in Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago, a medical underground that assisted women seeking to end their pregnancies.
May 15, 1969
The Young Lords, a civil rights group comprised of Puerto Rican, Black and Latino youth, takes over the administration building of McCormick Theological Seminary.
July 20, 1969
Neil Armstrong becomes first man on the moon.
Sept. 24, 1969
Sept. 24, 1969: Chicago Seven Trial begins
Oct. 8-11, 1969
Days of Rage demonstrations organized by the Weathermen.
Dec. 4, 1969
Police raid Illinois Black Panther Party stronghold, killing party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
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1970s
May 4, 1970
National Guardsmen fire on Vietnam war protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four.
June 27, 1970
More a march than a parade, the city’s Gay Liberation Movement stages its first rally and procession as part of Gay Pride Week. A short Tribune story the next day says 150 people listened to speakers in Bughouse Square (now Washington Square Park) before walking to the Civic Center (now Daley Plaza) where they formed a chain around the Picasso statue and shouted, “Gay power to gay people.”
July 17, 1970
Two Chicago police officers walking in Seward Park, Sgt. James Severin and Patrolman Anthony Rizzato, are shot and killed by snipers firing high-powered rifles from a Cabrini-Green high-rise. Within minutes, other officers arrive to retrieve their bodies and return gunfire.Later, Johnny Veal and George Knights are convicted in the shooting deaths. Both are serving 100-to-199-year sentences.
Jan. 3, 1971
New McCormick Place opens with 700 exhibits of women’s fashions.
July 30, 1971
Union Stock Yards close.
Sept. 19, 1971: First Bears home game at Soldier Field
After playing 50 seasons at Wrigley Field, the Bears defeat the Steelers in their first home game at Soldier Field — in the rain. Capacity is cut to 57,000.
Dec. 18, 1971
Rev. Jesse Jackson announces the formation of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).
Oct. 4, 1972
Following Tribune vote fraud investigation, 79 election judges and precinct captains indicted; series of articles wins Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
Dec. 8, 1972: Flight 553 crash
United Airlines Flight 553 crashes into a row of bungalows on West 70th Place, in Chicago, while approaching Midway airport, killing 43 of the 61 persons aboard, and two in a home.
Jan. 22, 1973
In Roe vs. Wade decision, Supreme Court establishes women’s right to legal abortion. (The decision was overturned on June 24, 2022.)
Jan. 27, 1973
U.S. agrees to pull forces out of Vietnam. Its last military unit leaves the country two months later.
April 6, 1973
American League institutes designated hitter.
May 3, 1973
Ironworkers bolt last girder into place, making Sears Tower world’s tallest building until 1997.
May 1, 1974
Tribune first to publish entire 246,000-word transcript of Watergate tapes, scooping even the government printing office by several hours.
Aug. 9, 1974
Nixon resigns presidency following Watergate scandal.
Feb. 1, 1975
Steppenwolf Theatre incorporates and produces a play that summer.
June 3, 1975: ‘Chicago’ debuts
The musical “Chicago” debuts on Broadway, based on the 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins of the Chicago Tribune.
Sept. 4, 1975
Dueling movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert begin their decades-long TV partnership with the show “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You” on WTTW.
May 3, 1976
Tribune wins a Pulitzer Prize for two major investigations, one demonstrating devastating effect of FHA loans on inner-city neighborhoods, the other exposing shoddy conditions and practices at several Chicago hospitals.
Oct. 21, 1976
Saul Bellow wins Nobel Prize for literature.
Dec. 20, 1976
Dec. 31, 1976
Last appearance of “World’s Greatest Newspaper” on Tribune’s masthead.
Feb. 4, 1977
Eleven people are killed and 160 injured when several ‘L’ cars plunge over the curve at Lake and Wabash streets.
Aug. 16, 1977
Sept. 25, 1977
The Chicago Marathon — then known as the Mayor Daley Marathon — debuts.
March 4, 1978
The Chicago Daily News publishes its final edition.
Dec. 21, 1978: John Wayne Gacy arrested
John Wayne Gacy arrested in murders of 33 young men and boys; remains of many victims found under his Norwood Park Township home.
Jan. 12-14, 1979
The city is walloped by a massive blizzard that dumps 20.3 inches of snow. At the time it was the second-largest snowfall in city history. Today, it’s the fourth-largest.
Feb. 27, 1979
In wake of city’s inept handling of record January snowstorms, Jane Byrne upsets Mayor Michael Bilandic in Democratic primary.
May 25, 1979: American Airlines crash
American Airlines DC-10 crashes after takeoff at O’Hare, killing 273.
July 12, 1979
The celebrated ”Disco Demolition Night” results in a forfeit to the Detroit Tigers.
Oct. 5, 1979
Pope John Paul II visits Chicago.
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1980s
Feb. 14, 1980
City firefighters strike for first and only time as first female recruit begins her career.
March 28, 1980
Wisconsin Steel closes Southeast Side plant, more than 3,000 lose jobs.
July 4, 1980
Taste of Chicago debuts on North Michigan Avenue.
July 21, 1980
Walter Polovchak, 12, who said he did not want to go back home in Ukraine when his family returned to the then-Soviet republic, is granted political asylum in Chicago.
Jan. 20, 1981
Iran releases 52 hostages seized 444 days earlier at U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
March 31, 1981
At 8:30 p.m., a limousine carrying Mayor Jane Byrne from a $150-a-plate dinner in the Conrad Hilton hotel pulls up to the Cabrini-Green housing development. The mayor, her husband and bodyguards rush quickly through the front door and, avoiding the elevator, walk up four flights of stairs to apartment 416. Byrne moves into the Cabrini-Green apartment and stays for 25 days.
May 25, 1981
“Spider Dan” Goodwin scales the Sears Tower — the first person to scale what was then the world’s tallest building.
June 17, 1981
Tribune Co. announces agreement to buy Cubs. It holds onto the team until 2009, when it is bought by the Ricketts family.
1982
Chicago bans handguns (law overturned in 2010).
Sept. 29, 1982
Twelve-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village dies after taking an Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule. Seven people would die as the result of poisoning from drug tampering in the Chicago area.
April 12, 1983
Harold Washington elected Chicago’s first black mayor.
Aug. 1, 1983
Fred Rice becomes the first Black superintendent for Chicago police.
1984
Oprah Winfrey hosts “A.M. Chicago.” “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is picked up nationally in 1986.
Jan. 11, 1984
Mike Royko brings his column to Tribune.
Sept. 3, 1984
CTA trains extended to O’Hare.
Jan. 20, 1985
Temperature hits all-time record low, -27 degrees at O’Hare International Airport.
May 6, 1985
Helmut Jahn‘s 17-story structure made its 1985 debut as the State of Illinois Building. Its $172 million price tag was nearly double the original estimate. The center was renamed for former Gov. James R. Thompson in 1993.
May 24, 1985
Opening of first 31 miles of Deep Tunnel.
June 7, 1985
Studs Terkel’s “The Good War” wins Pulitzer Prize.
July 31, 1985
An early morning fire in the adjacent Post and Paddock Club leads to greater tragedy when the fire spreads and destroys the main grandstand at Arlington Park. No one is injured.
Jan. 26, 1986
Chicago Bears win Super Bowl XX, defeating New England Patriots, 46-10.
Jan. 28, 1986
Space shuttle Challenger explodes after launch, killing seven crew members including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
April 21, 1986
Geraldo Rivera hosts “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults,” a live, two-hour broadcast from the depths of the former Lexington Hotel at Michigan Avenue and Cermak Road on the city’s Near South Side. Spoiler alert: A few empty bottles and a sign were all that was found during the show.
April 26, 1986
Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine.
June 13, 1986
A nearly five-hour parade dedicated to Vietnam veterans marches through downtown Chicago — 11 years after the war ended.
March 15, 1987
Ann Landers’ column moves to Tribune.
[ Vintage Voices: A look back at Chicago Tribune columns through the years ]
Oct. 19, 1987
Starbucks opens its first Chicago location at 219 W. Jackson Blvd. The bar features a variety of coffees and espresso drinks as well as steamed cider, cocoa and mineral water. One “shot” of espresso is 81 cents, including tax.
Nov. 25, 1987
Mayor Washington dies of heart attack.
Aug. 8, 1988
Night baseball comes to Wrigley Field; game rained out in fourth inning.
April 4, 1989
Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J., elected mayor.
Nov. 9, 1989
East Germany opens Berlin Wall.
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1990s
Feb. 11, 1990
Nelson Mandela freed after 28 years in South African prison. He’s elected the country’s president on May 2, 1994.
Aug. 28, 1990: Tornado kills 29
The strongest tornado to hit the Chicago area touches down in Plainfield, killing 29 people and injuring 300.
Sept. 30, 1990
Last game at old Comiskey Park.
Jan. 16, 1991
U.S. launches Operation Desert Storm against Iraq.
April 18, 1991
Chicago White Sox shut out by Detroit Tigers 16-0 in debut of new Comiskey Park.
June 12, 1991: Bulls win championship
The Chicago Bulls win first of six championships.
April 1, 1992
Matt L. Rodriguez becomes the first Hispanic superintendent for Chicago police.
April 13, 1992: Great Chicago Flood
Chicago River water pours through crack in freight tunnel, triggering Great Chicago Flood.
Sept. 21, 1992
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin establishes an independent panel to review complaints of sexual abuse by priests and plans to appoint a victim assistance minister — someone who is not a priest — to handle the complaints.
Oct. 13, 1992
Shortly after the 9 a.m. school bell, 7-year-old Dantrell Davis is shot in the head by a sniper while walking with his mother from his Cabrini-Green high-rise to the Jenner Academy of the Arts. Half an hour later, he is pronounced dead at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Later that day, police arrest reputed street gang leader Anthony Garrett, 33, in connection with Dantrell’s murder.
Jan. 1, 1993
Tribune Co.’s CLTV debuts as Chicago’s first all-news 24-hour cable channel.
Jan. 8, 1993
Seven people — five employees and the couple that owned the restaurant — are killed inside Brown’s Chicken & Pasta at 168 W. Northwest Highway in Palatine.
March 16, 1993
Aug. 29, 1994
The United Center hosts its first sports event — WWE’s SummerSlam.
April 19, 1995
Bomb destroys federal building in Oklahoma City; 168 die, more than 500 injured.
July 1, 1995: Killer heat wave begins
Beginning of heat wave that takes 733 lives in Chicago.
July 9, 1995
The Grateful Dead’s last concert before Jerry Garcia’s death takes place at Soldier Field.
Sept. 27, 1995
Crews begin demolition of a Cabrini-Green high-rise, the first to be razed.
Jan. 1, 1996
Northwestern Wildcats make first Rose Bowl appearance since 1949, but lose to USC, 41-32.
March 14, 1996
Tribune begins publishing on the Internet.
June 16, 1996
Chicago Bulls capture fourth NBA title after record-setting 72-10 season.
Nov. 5, 1996
Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama is elected state senator for the 13th District.
Nov. 14, 1996
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin dies at 1:33 a.m. in Chicago after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer; he was 68.
June 10, 1997
Tribune turns 150 years old.
June 13, 1997
Chicago Bulls win their 5th NBA title.
Oct. 4, 1997
Field Museum buys fossils for T-Rex named Sue for $8 million. It goes on display in 2000, and moves into new digs at the museum in 2018.
Feb. 18, 1998
Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray dies in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He had been in a coma since he collapsed in a Palm Springs, Calif., restaurant on Feb. 14.
June 14, 1998
Chicago Bulls win their 6th NBA title — and last with Michael Jordan, who hits the game-winning jumper.
June 20, 1998
First season for Chicago Fire soccer team.
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2000s
June 23, 2001
Boeing moves headquarters to Chicago.
Sept. 11, 2001: Attacks
Nearly 3,000 people are killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers take control of four large passenger jets, flying two into the World Trade Center’s twin towers buildings in Manhattan and a third into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashes in a Pennsylvania field when passengers prevent it from reaching its destination in Washington, D.C.
May 2002
Former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla arrested at O’Hare in terrorism case.
Jan. 11, 2003
Two days prior to leaving office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commutes the sentences of 164 death row inmates to life in prison without parole, citing a system that is “haunted by the demon of error.” Ryan pardoned four Death Row inmates, resulting in the release of three. Another three Death Row inmates had their sentences shortened to 40-year terms. The actions take 167 people off Death Row.
Feb. 17, 2003
A stampede ensues when security guards use pepper spray to break up a scuffle at E2 nightclub on South Michigan Avenue at about 2 a.m. With doors blocked, a crushing, smothering pile-up leaves 21 people dead and 50 injured. It’s the deadliest disaster in Chicago in more than two decades.
March 20, 2003
U.S. invades Iraq and remains there until December 2011.
Also on March 30, 2003
Daley rips up Meigs Field runways in surprise raid.
June 29, 2003
During a balcony porch party at an apartment building at 713 W. Wrightwood Ave. in Lincoln Park, a third-floor porch holding partygoers gives way, caving onto the second-floor porch below and barreling down to the ground floor. Thirteen people died and more than 50 are injured.
Dec. 13, 2003
July 16, 2004
Millennium Park officially opens.
Nov. 2, 2004
Obama elected to U.S. Senate. In defeating Republican Alan Keyes by the largest margin ever in a Senate contest here, the 43-year-old Obama becomes the only African-American elected this year to the world’s most powerful legislative body and only the third since Reconstruction.
April 2, 2005
Pope John Paul II dies in Vatican City.
Aug. 23, 2005
Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane, hits Louisiana.
Oct. 26, 2005
Chicago White Sox win first World Series title since 1917.
Jan. 20, 2006
Rev. Daniel McCormack, the pastor of St. Agatha Church, 3147 W. Douglas Blvd., is charged with sexually abusing three boys in his parish. McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to sexually abusing five children. He was released from prison in 2021.
March 10, 2006
Immigration reform rally draws up to 100,000 to Loop.
May 15, 2006
Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” is dedicated in Millennium Park. Better known by its nickname The Bean, the art installation is completed two years after it was first unveiled at more than twice its estimated cost.
Feb. 4, 2007
The Bears reach Super Bowl but lose to the Indianapolis Colts.
Nov. 4, 2008: Obama elected president
Barack Obama, the first African-American to claim the highest office in the land, wins the presidency and makes his victory speech in Grant Park. He is the first president elected from Chicago and the first to rise from a career in Illinois politics since Abraham Lincoln emerged from frontier obscurity to lead the nation through the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
Dec. 9, 2008
At 6:15 a.m., Gov. Rod Blagojevich is roused from his Ravenswood Manor home, arrested, handcuffed and hauled before a federal magistrate on sweeping charges that he conspired to sell his office many times over — including putting a price on the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
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2010s
June 9, 2010
Blackhawks beat Flyers to win Stanley Cup first of modern era since 1961. The team repeats in 2013 and 2015.
June 28, 2010
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules Chicago’s gun ban is “unenforceable,” stating Americans nationwide have a constitutional right to have a handgun at home for self-defense, even in cities which until now have outlawed handguns. Yet, the court stops short of overturning the ban.
Also on June 28, 2010
Decades after torture allegations were first leveled against former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge’s “Midnight Crew,” a federal jury convicted him on all three counts of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying in a civil lawsuit about the torture of suspects in attempt to obtain confessions. He was sentenced to prison and released in 2014. Burge died in 2018.
Dec. 9, 2010
Annie Ricks, the last resident of Cabrini’s last-standing housing tower, and her family leave their home of 20 years, Apartment 1108 at 1230 N. Burling St.
Feb. 22, 2011
Rahm Emanuel elected Chicago’s 55th mayor.
March 30, 2011
Demolition of the last Cabrini-Green high-rise begins.
May 1, 2011
Osama bin Laden killed in a U.S.-led operation in Pakistan.
May 25, 2011
The final episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” airs.
June 27, 2011
Former Gov. Blagojevich is convicted of several shakedown attempts, including allegations that he brazenly tried to sell President Barack Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat in 2008. He’s sentenced to 14 years in prison and reports to Federal Correctional Institution-Englewood in Colorado on March 15, 2012. President Donald Trump commutes his sentence on Feb. 18, 2020, and Blagojevich is released from prison.
Oct. 16, 2011
Chicago police arrest about 175 Occupy Chicago protestors in Congress Plaza just after 1 a.m. Sunday, about 90 minutes after police issued their first warning that the group was violating municipal code.
May 20-21, 2012
Though President Obama relocates a planned G-8 Summit to Camp David, a NATO summit takes place as scheduled in Chicago, drawing thousands of protestors to the city’s streets.
Nov. 21, 2013
Gay marriage legalized in Illinois.
Oct. 20, 2014
Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shoots 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times near 41st Street and Pulaski Road. McDonald is later pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Nov. 2, 2014
Nik Wallenda twice — the second time blindfolded — walks more than two city blocks on a tightrope suspended above the Chicago River between Marina City and the Leo Burnett Building in a live event for the Discovery Channel.
December 2014
The Illinois Supreme Court approves a long-awaited pilot program allowing cameras in courtrooms at the Leighton Criminal Court Building beginning in January 2015.
June 6, 2015
Chicago’s new elevated track and park system, The 606, opens.
Nov. 24, 2015
Hours after Jason Van Dyke is ordered held without bond on a first-degree murder charge, the city releases shocking police dash-cam video that captures the white office officer opening fire on Black teenager Laquan McDonald in Oct. 20, 2014.
Nov. 2, 2016
After 108 years of waiting, the Cubs win the 2016 World Series with a wild 8-7, 10-inning Game 7 victory over the Indians at Progressive Field in Cleveland. The triumph completes the team’s climb back from a 3-1 Series deficit to claim their first championship since 1908.
Jan. 21, 2017
An estimated quarter-million demonstrators pour into downtown to draw attention to women’s rights, as well as other issues including civil rights, immigration and racial justice. Organizers of the Women’s March on Chicago say the event was planned for the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators packed the streets of several other cities, from New York to Los Angeles and Paris to Sydney.
Oct. 5, 2018
Former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke is convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm in the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke is released from prison in February 2022.
Jan. 29, 2019
Actor Jussie Smollet reports he’s a victim of a racist and homophobic attack. He’s later charged with making it up and is convicted in December 2021, of five out of six felony counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police. He’s sentenced to 150 days in Cook County Jail.
April 2, 2019
Lori Lightfoot becomes first Black woman elected mayor of Chicago.
July 16, 2019
After eluding capture for a week in the Humboldt Park lagoon, a 5-foot-3 alligator nicknamed “Chance the Snapper” appears for a news conference with its trapper Frank Robb. He’s relocated to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida.
July 19, 2019
Music festival Mamby on the Beach is canceled due to the arrival of a pair of federally endangered Great Lake Piping Plover shorebirds on Montrose Beach. Nicknamed Monty and Rose, the pair continued to migrate to the area and hatch chicks for three consecutive summers. Monty died on his fourth visit to Montrose Beach in May 2022.
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2020s
Jan. 1, 2020
People in Illinois buy recreational marijuana legally for the first time.
Jan. 24, 2020: First COVID-19 case in Illinois
A Chicago woman who traveled to China becomes first confirmed COVID-19 case in Illinois.
Feb. 18, 2020
Former Gov. Blagojevich is released from prison in Colorado after President Donald Trump commutes his 14-year sentence.
March 16, 2020
A retired nurse becomes Illinois’ first coronavirus fatality.
March 20, 2020
Gov. Pritzker issues a stay-at-home order for the entire state due to the coronavirus.
May 30, 2020
A Chicago protest, in response to George Floyd’s death by police in Minneapolis, becomes violent and looting takes place around the city for the next three days.
Nov. 4, 2020
More than 1 million Chicago-area voters shatter records as they cast ballots with ‘a sense of hope and purpose.’
Dec. 15, 2020
Illinois begins administering COVID-19 vaccine.
Jan. 6, 2021
Jan. 6, 2021: Capitol riot
Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Sept. 25, 2021
An estimated 10,000 people attend Arlington’s final day of the 2021 season, possibly placing their last bets ever at the racetrack. The 326-acre property is for sale.
Oct. 17, 2021
Chicago Sky win team’s first WNBA championship.
Nov. 3, 2021
Chicago children begin receiving pediatric COVID-19 vaccines.
Nov. 19, 2021
Jury finds Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts in fatal shootings during Kenosha protests.
Feb. 28, 2022
Mask mandates end in most of Chicago and Illinois. Days later, masks become optional in CPS schools.
March 2, 2022
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan — long the state’s most powerful politician — is indicted on federal racketeering charges.
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![Four years into cannabis legalization in Illinois, celebrations of the April 20 informal weed holiday known as 420 are getting bigger and more widespread. Named for the time of day a group of friends met to get high, 420 has become a chance for marijuana users to publicly share a previously illegal drug and the counter-cultural atmosphere surrounding it. The main event in downtown Chicago likely will be the second annual 420 Sesh Fest, at Green Rose Dispensary. The party will include live music, a magic show, carnival games, food trucks, pop ups, and product discounts. It also will feature Grammy-nominated […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ctc-l-Illinois-marijuana_175925141.jpg?w=546 "Four years into cannabis legalization in Illinois, celebrations of the April 20 informal weed holiday known as 420 are getting bigger and more widespread. Named for the time of day a group of friends met to get high, 420 has become a chance for marijuana users to publicly share a previously illegal drug and the counter-cultural atmosphere surrounding it. The main event in downtown Chicago likely will be the second annual 420 Sesh Fest, at Green Rose Dispensary. The party will include live music, a magic show, carnival games, food trucks, pop ups, and product discounts. It also will feature Grammy-nominated […]")