Today in Chicago History
Illinois Topics: Springfield, IL
Historical Events
Results 1 - 100 of 276
1674-12-04 - Father Marquette builds 1st dwelling in what is now Chicago
1772-06-06 - Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Dusable settles Chicago
1773-03-12 - Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable found settlement now known as Chicago
1830-08-04 - Plans for city of Chicago laid out
1833-08-10 - Chicago incorporates as a village of about 200
1833-08-12 - Chicago is founded.
1835-08-18 - Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
1837-03-04 - City of Chicago incorporates
1837-03-04 - Chicago becomes incorporated as a city.
1847-06-10 - Chicago Tribune begins publishing
1848-06-10 - 1st telegraph link between NYC & Chicago
1851-01-28 - Northwestern University (Chicago) chartered
1860-05-16 - -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln candidate
1865-04-20 - Chicago's Crosby Opera House opens
1866-11-30 - Work begins on 1st US underwater highway tunnel, Chicago
1866-12-06 - Chicago water supply tunnel 3,227 m into Lake Michigan completed
1868-05-20 - Republican National Convention, meets in Chicago, nominates Grant
1869-06-08 - Ives W McGaffey of Chicago patents 1st vacuum cleaner (it sucks)
1871-10-07 - 16-hour fire injures 30 of Chicago's 185 firefighters
1871-10-08 - Great Fire kills 200, destroys over 4 square miles (10 square km) of Chicago buildings, & original Emancipation Proclamation
1871-10-11 - Great Chicago Fire is finally extinguished after 3 days, 300 killed
1871-10-30 - Phila Athletics beat Chicago for 1st Natl Assn baseball pennant
1873-01-11 - 1st livestock market newspaper published, Drover's Journal, Chicago
1875-05-12 - 1st recorded shutout in pro baseball, Chicago 1, St Louis 0
1876-02-02 - Baseball's National League forms with teams in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, St Louis
1879-08-12 - 1st National Archery Association tournament (Chicago)
1881-09-18 - Chicago Tribune reports on a televideo experiment
1882-05-20 - Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
1882-10-06 - 1st World Series game, Cincinnati (AA) beats Chicago (NL) 4-0
1883-03-24 - 1st telephone call between NY & Chicago
1883-06-02 - Chicago's "El" opens to traffic
1883-06-09 - 1st commercial electric railway line begins operation (Chicago El)
1884-05-01 - Construction begins on Chicago 1st skyscraper (10 stories)
1886-05-04 - Haymarket riot in Chicago; bomb kills 7 policemen
1886-10-23 - St Louis Browns win World Championship by beating Chicago 4-3 in 10
1887-11-30 - 1st indoor softball game (Chicago)
1888-06-25 - Republican Convention, in Chicago, nominates Benjamin Harrison
1888-10-20 - Chicago & All America baseball teams play exhibition in Auckland, NZ
1889-01-23 - Dr Daniel Hale Williams forms Provident Hospital in Chicago
1889-04-01 - 1st dishwashing machine marketed (Chicago)
1889-11-17 - Union Pacific begins daily through service, Chicago-Portland & SF
1889-12-09 - President Harrison visits opening of Chicago Auditorium
1890-01-25 - National Afro-American League forms in Chicago
1890-06-09 - Opera "Robin Hood" premieres in Chicago
1891-04-01 - The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1892-10-01 - University of Chicago opens
1892-10-18 - 1st commercial long-distance phone line opens (Chicago-NY)
1893-01-01 - 1st US college extension courses for credit, Univ of Chicago
1893-01-02 - World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago [or 0501]
1893-05-01 - World Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago
1893-06-21 - 1st Ferris wheel premieres (Chicago's Columbian Exposition)
1893-07-24 - For only time in history of US Tennis championships, an event is held off the Eastern seaboard. Men's double championship in Chicago
1893-09-11 - Shaku Soen is 1st Zen teacher to visit the West (Chicago)
1894-01-08 - Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1894-01-27 - 1st college basketball game, U of Chicago beats Chicago YMCA 19-11
1894-07-06 - Cleveland sends 2,000 troops to Chicago to suppress Pullman strike
1894-07-20 - 2000 fed troops recalled from Chicago, having ended Pullman strike
1894-12-25 - 1st midwestern football team to play on west coast, U of Chicago defeats Stanford 24-4 at Palo Alto, CA in football
1895-02-04 - 1st rolling lift bridge opens, Chicago
1896-03-31 - Whitcomb Judson, Chicago, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)
1896-11-26 - A A Stagg of U Chicago creates football huddle
1897-06-29 - Chicago beats Louisville 36-7 (baseball)
1897-10-21 - Yerkes Observatory of University of Chicago is dedicated
1899-02-20 - Ill Tel & Tel granted franchise for Chicago freight tunnel system
1900-01-29 - American League organized in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee & Minneapolis
1900-03-16 - AL meets in Chicago, Ban Johnson announces that an AL team will be in
1900-03-16 - Chicago, KC, Minn, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleve & Buffalo
1902-01-08 - 1st National Bowling Championship held (Chicago, Ill)
1902-03-04 - American Automobile Association (AAA) founded in Chicago
1903-12-28 - Electric lamp sets fire to Iroquois theater in Chicago; 602 die
1903-12-30 - Fire at Chicago's Iriquois Theater kills 602
1904-01-28 - 1st college sports letters given to Seniors who played on U of Chicago's football team are awarded blankets with letter "C" on them
1904-01-29 - 1st athletic letters given (Univ of Chicago football team)
1905-01-17 - Punchboards patented by Charles Brewer & C G Scannell, Chicago
1905-02-23 - Rotary Club International formed by 4 men in Chicago
1905-05-05 - Robert S Abbott published 1st issue of newspaper "Chicago Defender"
1905-06-11 - Penns Railroad debuts fastest train in world (NY-Chicago in 18 hrs)
1906-08-15 - 1st freight delivery tunnel system begins, underneath Chicago
1908-05-21 - 1st horror movie (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) premieres in Chicago
1910-04-20 - Cleve Indians Addie Joss 2nd no-hitter, beats Chicago, 1-0
1913-09-09 - Assn for Study of Negro Life & History organizes in Chicago
1913-12-29 - 1st movie serial, "Adventures of Kathlyn," premieres in Chicago
1914-12-04 - Walter Johnson accepts money from Federal League Chicago Whales Clark Griffith threatens to take Johnson to court
1915-05-25 - Chicago Claude Hendrix no-hits Pitts (Federal League), 10-0
1915-09-07 - St Louis Dave Davenport no-hits Chicago (Federal League), 3-0
1919-06-03 - Liberty Life Insurance Co (Chicago) organized by blacks
1919-07-21 - Dirigible crashes through bank skylight killing 13 (Chicago, Ill)
1919-07-27 - Chicago race riot (15 whites & 23 blacks killed, 500 injured)
1919-08-18 - Anti-Cigarette League of America forms in Chicago Illinois
1919-08-23 - "Gasoline Alley" cartoon strip premieres in Chicago Tribune
1919-08-31 - John Reed forms American Communist Labor Party in Chicago
1919-09-02 - Communist Party of America organizes in Chicago
1919-12-10 - NY, Boston, & Chicago, oppose AL resolution accusing Ban Johnson of overstepping his duties
1920-02-14 - League of Women Voters forms in Chicago
1920-06-12 - Farmer Labor Party organized (Chicago)
1920-10-10 - Phoenix Cardinals (then in Chicago) play 1st NFL game, a 0-0 tie
1922-05-01 - Charlie Robertson of Chicago pitches a perfect no-hit, no-run game
1924-03-28 - WGN-AM in Chicago IL begins radio transmissions
1924-04-11 - WLS-AM in Chicago IL begins radio transmissions
1924-04-19 - "National Barn Dance" premieres on WLS Chicago
Famous Birthdays
Results 1 - 100 of 357
1637-06-10 - Jacques Marquette, jesuit/missionary founder (Chicago)
1801-06-15 - Benjamin Raymond, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1883)
1803-04-07 - James Curtiss, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1859)
1805-01-13 - Thomas Dyer, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1862)
1805-06-15 - William Butler Ogden, first Mayor of Chicago (d. 1877)
1819-08-25 - Allan Pinkerton, founded Chicago detective agency
1823-04-06 - Joseph Medill, St John NB Canada, newspaper editor (Chicago Tribune)
1860-12-23 - Harriet Monroe, Chicago, poet/editor of Poetry magazine (You & I)
1863-01-01 - Aleko Konstantinov, Bulgarian writer (To Chicago & Back)
1866-03-03 - Fred A. Busse, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1914)
1873-04-27 - Harry M O'Connor, Chicago IL, actor (Stranger than Fiction)
1873-05-09 - Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
1876-02-28 - John Alden Carpenter, Chicago Illinois, composer (Sea Drift)
1880-07-30 - Robert Rutherford McCormick, US, editor/publisher (Chicago Tribune)
1881-11-15 - Franklin P Adams, Chicago Ill, columnist (Information Please)
1883-06-20 - Leah Baird, Chicago IL, actress (Lady Gangster)
1883-12-19 - [Francis] Barry Byrne, Chicago Ill, architect
1884-03-10 - Stuart Holmes, Chicago IL, actor (Prisoner of Zenda)
1884-08-27 - Harry Antrim, Chicago IL, actor (Miracle on 34th St, Devil's Doorway)
1888-06-23 - Lee Moran, Chicago IL, actor (Circus Clown)
1888-12-19 - Fritz Reiner, Budapest Hungary, US conductor (Chicago Symphony Orch)
1889-04-28 - Bryant Washburn, Chicago, actor (Exposure, Millionaire Kid, Nabonga)
1890-10-24 - Chicago Mainbocher, uniform designer (Red Cross, Girl Scouts, Waves)
1891-03-05 - Harold Ogden "Chic" Johnson, Chicago Ill, comedian (Olsen & Johnson)
1891-08-28 - Stanley Andrews, Chicago IL, actor (Shine on Harvest Moon)
1892-05-03 - Beulah Bondi, Chicago, actress (It's a Wonderful Life)
1895-03-24 - Sid Saylor, Chicago Ill, actor (Wally-Waterfront)
1895-09-16 - Charles W Bidwill Sr, Chicago, NFL hall of famer (Chicago Cardinals)
1896-06-18 - Blanche Sweet, Chicago, actress (Home Sweet Home, Avenging Conscience)
1898-01-14 - Helen Flint, Chicago, actress (Sea Devils, Married Before Breakfast)
1898-03-06 - Jimmy Conzelman, NFL QB/coach/team owner (Chicago)
1898-06-10 - Virginia Valli, [McSweeney], Chicago IL, actress (Pleasure Garden)
1898-10-07 - Alfred Wallenstein, Chicago Illinois, conductor (Chic Symph 1922-29)
1898-11-29 - Rod La Rocque, Chicago IL, actor (Our Modern Maidens)
1899-01-17 - Al Capone, Italy, gangster (Chicago bootlegging)
1899-03-17 - Gloria Swanson, Chicago IL, actress (Sadie Thompson, Killer Bees) [OS]
1899-03-27 - Gloria Swanson, Chicago Ill, actress (Sadie Thomson, Queen Kelly) [NS]
1899-05-20 - John M Harlan, Chicago, 91st Supreme Court justice (1955-71)
1901-07-01 - Irna Phillips, Chicago, created 6 soap operas (Guiding Light)
1901-08-30 - John Gunther, Chicago Ill, author/host (John Gunther's High Road)
1901-09-28 - William Samuel Paley, Chicago Ill, pres/CEO of CBS (1928-90)
1901-12-05 - Walter Elias Disney, Chicago, animator (Mickey Mouse)
1902-11-22 - Emanuel Feuermann, Kolomea Galicia, cellist (Chicago Symph Orch)
1903-02-16 - Edgar Bergen, Chicago, ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy)
1903-04-19 - Eliot Ness, untouchable (FBI agent-Chicago)
1903-06-11 - Ernie Nevers, NFL fullback (Duluth Eskimos, Chicago Cardinals)
1903-07-16 - Mary Philbin, Chicago IL, actress (Phantom of the Opera)
1904-04-11 - Paul McGrath, Chicago IL, actor (Witness, No Time for Love)
1904-05-21 - Robert Montgomery, Beacon NY, actor/dir (Earl of Chicago, Yellow Jack)
1904-06-17 - Ralph Bellamy, Chicago, actor (Air Mail, Dive Bomber, Trading Places)
1904-11-13 - Gertrude Olmsted, Chicago IL, actress (The Monster)
1904-11-25 - Jessie Royce Landis, [Medbury], Chicago, actress (North by Northwest)
1905-10-09 - Howard St John, Chicago IL, actor (Born Yesterday, Li'l Abner)
1905-10-16 - Rex Bell, Chicago, cowboy actor (Cowboys & Injuns)/lt-gov (Nevada)
1906-07-13 - Harry Sosnik, Chicago, orch leader (Jack Carter Show, Your Hit Parade)
1906-11-06 - James D. Norris, sportsman and businessman (Chicago Black Hawks) (d. 1966)
1907-01-26 - Eddie Ballantine, Chicago, orch leader (Don McNeill TV Club)
1907-03-04 - Eleanor "Sis" Daley, wife of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley (d. 2003)
1907-03-24 - Janet Harmon Bragg, US pilot/columnist (Chicago Defender)
1908-04-05 - George Schick, Prague Czech, conductor (Chicago Symphony)
1908-04-28 - Michael T Fitzmaurice, Chicago IL, actor (Reported Missing, 14 Hours)
1908-11-24 - Ray Carter, Chicago Ill, orch leader (Arthur Murray Dance Party)
1909-05-30 - Benny Goodman, Chicago, clarinetist/bandleader (King of Swing)
1909-09-06 - John Ridgely, Chicago IL, actor (Northern Pursuit, Air Force)
1909-11-11 - Robert Ryan, Chicago, actor (Billy Budd, Dirty Dozen, Longest Day)
1910-02-27 - Peter De Vries, Chicago, author (Reuben Reuben, Prick of Noon)
1910-02-28 - Vincente Minnelli, Chicago IL, director (American in Paris, Gigi)
1910-06-18 - E G Marshall, Owatonna Minn, actor (Playhouse 90, Chicago Hope)
1911-02-08 - Anne Aitken, [nee Hopkins], Chicago, co-found (Diamond Sangha)
1911-04-24 - Jack E Leonard, Chicago Ill, comedian (Disorderly Orderly)
1911-10-01 - Irwin Kostal, Chicago Ill, orchestra leader (Garry Moore Show)
1911-10-07 - Joe Jones, Chicago IL, drummer
1912-04-13 - Roy Winsor, Chicago, producer (Search for Tomorrow, Love of Life)
1912-07-04 - Virginia Graham, Chicago Ill, TV personality (Girl Talk, Where Was I)
1912-07-31 - Irv Kupcinet, Chicago Ill, TV host (Tonight! America After Dark)
1912-10-26 - Don[ald] Siegel, Chicago IL, director (Escape from Alcatraz, Shootist)
1912-12-14 - Morey Amsterdam, Chicago Ill, comedian (Buddy-Dick Van Dyke Show)
1913-03-22 - Karl Malden, Chicago, actor (Mike-Streets of SF, American Express)
1913-03-30 - Frankie Laine, Chicago Ill, actor (Frankie Laine Show, Rawhide)
1913-09-28 - Vivian Fine, Chicago Ill, composer (Women in the Garden)
1914-12-14 - Rosalyn Tureck, Chicago Illinois, pianist (Bach & Rock)
1915-02-22 - Dan Seymour, Chicago Ill, actor (We the People, Sing It Again)
1915-08-19 - Lardner Ring Jr, Chicago, screenwriter (Woman of the Year)
1916-01-17 - Joel Herron, Chicago Ill, orch leader (Jaye P Morgan Show)
1917-01-16 - Buddy Lester, Chicago Ill, actor (Nick-Phil Silvers Show)
1917-03-13 - Ina Ray Hutton, Chicago Ill, orch leader (Ina Ray Hutton Show)
1917-10-02 - William Marshall III, Chicago IL, actor (Blacula, Honky)
1917-10-17 - Marsha Hunt, Chicago Ill, actress (Jennifer-Peck's Bad Girl, Jigsaw)
1917-10-24 - Marshall Goldberg, NFL halfback (Chicago Cardinals)
1918-08-15 - Florian Zabach, Chicago, American musician and TV personality (Hot Canary, Club Embassy)
1918-09-13 - Ray Charles, Chicago, orch leader (Perry Como)
1918-12-22 - Frankie Darro, Chicago IL, actor (Radio Ranch, Valley of Wanted Men)
1919-02-17 - Jock Mahoney, Chicago, actor (Dallas, Yancy Derringer, Day of Fury)
1919-02-17 - Kathleen Freeman, Chicago Ill, actress (Beverly Hillbillies)
1919-05-05 - Tony Canadeo, Chicago, NFL hall of fame halfback (Green Bay Packers)
1919-05-20 - George Gobel, Chicago Ill, comedian/TV personality (I Love My Wife)
1919-07-07 - William Moses Kunstler, defense attorney (Chicago 8)
1919-12-18 - Anita O'Day, Chicago, big band jazz singer (Gene Krupa, Stan Kanton)
1920-04-09 - Art Van Damme, Norway Mich, jazz accordionist (Chicago Jazz)
1920-04-12 - Robert Fizdale, Chicago Illinois, pianist (Misia)
Famous Deaths
Results 1 - 37 of 37
1675-05-18 - Jacques Marquette jesuit/missionaries (Chicago), dies at 37
1818-08-28 - Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, trader, founder of Chicago, dies
1861-05-24 - Elmer Ellsworth, US warrior (Chicago Zouaves), shot to death at 23
1871-04-07 - Alexander Lloyd, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1805)
1882-01-24 - Levi Boone, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1808)
1888-10-16 - John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)
1892-01-01 - Roswell B. Mason, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1805)
1897-05-23 - Aleko Konstantinov, Bulgarian writer (To Chicago & Back), dies at 34
1899-03-16 - Joseph Medill, mayor of Chicago (b. 1823)
1904-02-10 - John A. Roche, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1844)
1931-03-09 - Ida B Wells-Barnett, famous black, dies in Chicago at 78
1933-02-15 - Anton J Cermak, (Mayor-D-Chicago), assassinated in Miami
1933-03-06 - Anton J Cermak, US mayor of Chicago, murdered
1934-07-22 - John Dillinger, shot dead at Biograph Theater in Chicago, at 33
1938-03-13 - Clarence S Darrow, Scopes Monkey Trial attorney, dies in Chicago at 80
1944-03-19 - William Hale Thompson, American mayor of Chicago (b. 1869)
1947-01-25 - Al Capone, Chicago gangster, dies of syphilis at 48
1950-07-01 - Eliel Saarinen, Fins/US architect (Chicago Trib building), dies at 76
1958-05-27 - Samuel Stritch, US cardinal/archbishop (Chicago), dies
1963-11-15 - Fritz Reiner, Hung/US conductor (Chicago Symphony Orch), dies at 74
1967-12-17 - [Francis] Barry Byrne, Chicago Ill, architect, dies at 83
1970-11-26 - B O Davis Sr, 1st black general, dies at 93 in Chicago
1973-05-10 - Jack E Leonard, Chicago Ill, comedian, dies at 62
1975-02-25 - Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam, dies in Chicago at 78
1976-12-20 - Richard J Daley, (Mayor-D-Chicago), dies at 74
1978-01-23 - Terry Kath, rock guitarist (Chicago), accidently shot in head at 32
1979-01-13 - Donny Hathaway, Chicago Ill, rocker (Ghetto), commits suicide at 33
1982-04-25 - John Cody, US cardinal/archbishop of Chicago (1965-82), dies at 74
1985-03-07 - George Schick, Czech conductor (Chicago Symphony), dies at 76
1987-11-25 - Harold Washington, 1st black mayor of Chicago (D, 1983-87), dies at 65
1991-02-15 - Gary Gears, Chicago disk jockey, dies at 46 of a heart attack
1991-02-24 - George Gobel, Chicago, comedian (George Gobel Show), dies at 71
1995-09-04 - William Moses Kunstler, UCLA attorney (Chicago 7), dies at 78
1996-11-14 - Joseph Bernardin, cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, dies at 68
2002-01-16 - Michael Bilandic, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923)
2003-02-16 - Eleanor "Sis" Daley, wife of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley (b. 1907)
2008-01-24 - Randy Salerno, co-anchor of Chicago's CBS 2 News (b. 1963)
