A look at what happened in the Chicago area on Dec. 13, according to Tribune archives.
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Weather records (from National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 67 degrees (1975)
- Low temperature: Minus 13 degrees (1903)
- Precipitation: 1.14 inches (1928)
- Snowfall: 6 inches (2000)
1927: Mayor William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson devoted Chicago Municipal Airport (later Midway).
“We like to brag that a train arrives in Chicago every sixty seconds,” Thompson told the crowd. “We will definitely be able to brag when we have the plane arrives every sixty seconds“
1960: After returning from a World Book Encyclopedia-funded expedition to the Himalayas led by Sir Edmund Hillary, Lincoln Park Zoo director R. Marlon Perkins said the yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, “just a legend.”
Perkins hoped that if the abominable snowman really existed, then return the sample for the zoo. The Sherpa guide claimed that he had female yeti scalp his ancestors got drunk and then were killed, but after inspection by scientists from the Field Museum, they decided that it might have been man-made. “It turned out to be an antelope hide,” Perkins said.
1970: The Chicago Bears played their part. last game at Wrigley Field. The NFL forced the Bears to move because the stadium's capacity was less than 50,000 (one of the parameters the league created after the AFL-NFL merger) and because the stadium lacked sufficient lighting.
From Wrigley Field to Soldier Field: Where the Chicago Bears have played home games since 1921
Jack Concannon had his best game, throwing four touchdowns and scoring a fifth in a 35-17 win over the Green Bay Packers.
1985: Chicago Mayor Harold Washington met with the actors Billy Crystal and Gregory Hineswhich were filmed in the city for Running Scared.
1995: Ald. Anthony Laurino, who boasted that he learned politics at the knees of Bathhouse's John Coughlin and Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna, was accused on charges that he hired dozens of friends, relatives and cronies to work the city without jobs, costing taxpayers nearly $1.5 million in wages and health benefits. A month later, he was accused of forcing his close friend's wife to pay back about $77,000—or half her salary—from ghost payroll job.
Although Laurino denied the charges, several members of his family were convicted, including his wife and daughter, Marie D'Amico. The charges were brought a year after he resigned as an alderman, with his daughter taking a seat on the council, and Laurino's trial was postponed indefinitely in 1996 due to his ill health. He became an alderman in 1965, and his political career on the City Council spanned nearly three decades. He died in 1999.
2015: Chicago Blackhawks midfielder Patrick Kane scored a point 26 games in a row — which set a franchise record — is over.
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