We’ve had so much fun looking back into Chicago history this year.
Photo editors Andrew Johnston and Marianne Mather and myself sincerely enjoy bringing you great finds from the Tribune’s archives each week. We hit the photo stacks almost daily to see what surprises might lie within the thousands of manila file folders there — especially since most of these items are not already digitized. The thrill of the chase is when we discover these rarely seen treasures and share them with you.
In 2023, we marked a variety of milestones — from Chicago Bears owner Virginia McCaskey’s 100th birthday to the 20th anniversary of the overnight shut down of Meigs Field by Mayor Richard M. Daley to the 50th anniversary of the first cell phone call (which was made on a Motorola phone) and the 75th anniversary of the Tribune’s infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline.
Next year we look forward to marking even more significant occasions. And if you have any suggestions, please get in touch with us.
Did you miss a week? Here’s a comprehensive list.
The beloved WGN-TV chief meteorologist — who is celebrating his 45th anniversary at the station — will retire at the end of February.
Skilling recalled some of the most brutally frigid and blizzard-like conditions Chicago has ever endured. Read more here.
These beautiful photos showing wintry outdoor activities that Chicagoans have loved for generations encouraged us to get outside! See more here.
Henry V. Porter, an Illinois High School Association official who was later inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, is credited with originally using the phrase to describe the state’s high school basketball tournament in 1939.
The Tribune adopted it in 1940, but Porter’s motto remained largely a regional phenomenon for four decades until CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger, a former Chicago newspaper reporter, began using it during the NCAA tournament in 1982.
The term caught on — maybe a little too quickly. The IHSA sued to stop NCAA corporate sponsor GTE from distributing a video game bearing the March Madness title. Read more here.
Twenty years ago, Mayor Richard M. Daley shut down Chicago’s third airport: Merrill C. Meigs Field.
A wrecking crew used bulldozers to carve giant X’s into the airstrip late on March 30, 2003. The next day — with the runway rendered useless to aircraft — Daley told reporters he was trying to reduce any airborne threat against downtown buildings “in these very uncertain times” only a year and a half after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
For 55 years the small airport hosted private and regional charter flights, becoming the busiest single-runway airport in the United States in 1955. Dignitaries loved it because it provided easy access to downtown Chicago without the need to travel on the city’s expressways.
But it was well-documented that Daley wanted to close the airport in order to convert Northerly Island to a park. By making that transition, ironically, Daley was fulfilling a major component of Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago from 1909. Read more here.
The most exhilarating live television event of 1986 was the Chicago Bears winning Super Bowl XX, for some.
For others, it was a two-hour broadcast from a basement.
On April 21, 1986 — 37 years ago — Geraldo Rivera hosted “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults” from the depths of the former Lexington Hotel at Michigan Avenue and Cermak Road on the city’s Near South Side.
Spoiler alert: The early experiment in unscripted programming was one of the most fascinating busts in Chicago history. Read more here.
It’s an incredible true story.
An experimental capsule designed by an eccentric explorer to cross a large body of water disappears while on an epic journey, scrambling volunteers and authorities to search for it while family and friends anxiously wait for updates knowing oxygen supplies are limited.
The saga mirrors that of the submersible Titan, which was attempting to visit the wreck of the Titanic in June before it exploded, but happened 119 years ago in Chicago.
Known as Foolkiller No. 3, the 30-foot long and 20-foot wide canvas-covered vessel looked more like a floating blimp than a submersible. It was not designed to sink, but to glide — across land or water — when propelled by the wind. Its cavity was dotted with one glass porthole on each end and hollow except for an axle to help the watermelon-shaped machine turn while its occupant was seated atop it.
Peter Nissen, its inventor, packed up some food, pumped up his vessel by hand than set out to cross Lake Michigan — powered by the wind like a tumbleweed — on Nov. 29, 1904. Read more here.
We remember Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. each Jan. 15, which was the slain civil rights leader’s birthday.
But, did you know, Illinois was the first state to recognize it as a holiday 50 years ago?
Schools here began commemorating the occasion in 1969. They wouldn’t, however, close for the day until Gov. Dan Walker made it a legal holiday on Sept. 17, 1973. The bill’s sponsor: Illinois Rep. Harold Washington.
It would take another decade before the federal government designated the third Monday in January as a national holiday in honor of King. By then, Washington had become Chicago’s first Black mayor. Read more here.
Chicagoans are familiar with disappointment.
“There’s always next year,” was the motto for generations of Cubs fans who waited 108 years between the team’s last two championships.
Yet, there have also been times when it appeared that Chicago was ready for its moment in the sun — before suddenly, unexpectedly stumbling.
Those are the disappointments that really hurt. Read more here.
The Chicago Tribune covered its first presidential election in 1848.
The race a century later, however, would result in the newspaper’s most famous headline: “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.”
The Tribune was on deadline the night of Nov. 2, 1948. In the absence of election results, the newspaper assumed that New York governor Thomas E. Dewey (Republican) would sink incumbent Harry S. Truman (Democrat). He didn’t. And the blunder appeared atop a single edition of the Tribune 75 years ago.
The headline isn’t the only problem with the page — it’s a typographical mess. Lines and type are askew. It’s a mishmash of type styles. And in the second paragraph of the lead story, five lines of type ran upside down.
Several news organizations made the same miscalculation, but no other’s was displayed gleefully by Truman for what’s become an iconic photograph. Read more here.
Thanks for reading!
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Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at rgrossman@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com.
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