Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 29, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 68 degrees (1998)
- Low temperature: Minus 2 degrees (1872)
- Precipitation: 1.73 inches (2006)
- Snowfall: 3 inches (1942)
1907: Albert A. Michelson, the first head of the physics department at the University of Chicago, won the first Nobel Prize ever presented to an American (though he was born in Prussia) in science. The U.S. Naval Academy graduate measured the speed of light with unsurpassed accuracy and built several machines for studying the length of light waves.
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Michelson died at age 78 in Pasadena, California, where he continued to tinker with speed of light analysis.
Prize motivation: “For his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid.”
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Rudyard Kipling was a fellow laureate in 1907. There was, however, no public ceremony due to the death of Sweden’s King Oscar II two days earlier.
1934: The defending champion Chicago Bears defeated the Detroit Lions 19-16 in the first nationally broadcast NFL game on NBC radio.
1959: The Chicago Cardinals played their last home game at Soldier Field. The lost to the Bears 31-7 at Soldier Field.
In March 1960, the NFL granted team managing director Walter Wolfner’s request to move the Cardinals to St. Louis.
2018: Ald. Edward Burke’s City Hall and 14th Ward offices were raided as part of a federal investigation as his wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, was sworn in to a 10-year term.
The longest-serving alderman in Chicago history had been under federal scrutiny several times but never like this. On May 31, 2019, he was indicted on 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
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At trial, Burke was acquitted on one count of conspiracy to commit extortion related to the redevelopment of a Burger King in his ward, but the guilty verdicts, including on charges he shook down developers wanting to redevelop the Old Post Office, capped a stunning fall for Burke.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall sentenced Burke to two years in prison — eight years less than the 10-year term that prosecutors originally sought — and fined him $2 million.
2024: The Bears fired head coach Matt Eberflus — the first time the organization fired its coach midseason in 105 seasons. It happened a day after the team dropped its sixth consecutive game — a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.
The team hired Ben Johnson, Detroit’s offensive coordinator, in January 2025.
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