Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Dec. 16, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 66 degrees (2021)
- Low temperature: Minus 12 degrees (1951)
- Precipitation: 1.67 inches (1921)
- Snowfall: 4.8 inches (2008)
1872: William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody embarked on his career as a showman when dime-novel fabulist Ned Buntline’s “The Scouts of the Prairie” debuted at Nixon’s Amphitheatre on Clinton Street (not far from today’s Ogilvie Transportation Center) in Chicago.
Despite his limited acting skills — the Tribune critic claimed Cody delivered his lines “after the manner of a diffident school-boy in his maiden effort” — Chicagoans loved Buffalo Bill. Full of sound and fury, the play, with its tall, ridiculously handsome leading man, “attracts more people than the house can hold,” noted the Tribune. “Crowds are turned away nightly.”
1903: Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison revoked the license of the South Loop’s Lone Star Saloon, 527 State St. The proprietor, known for doctoring customers’ drinks and stealing their valuables after they passed out, was Michael Finn, aka Mickey Finn. It’s where the expression “to slip someone a mickey” comes from.
1929: The Chicago Blackhawks played their first game inside Chicago Stadium, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 in front of more than 14,000 fans.
1959: Second City comedy cabaret debuted at 1842 N. Wells St. in Chicago.
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1966: The airplane taxi bridge over the Kennedy Expressway opened at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
This improvement allowed the largest jets to access the airport’s gates without the need for a lengthy circular taxi route.
1991: Federal authorities arrested con man and former suburban police officer Jeffrey Erickson, 33, of Hanover Park, in Schaumburg. His wife, Jill, 27, fled and after a dramatic 11-mile car chase and shootout with police, was found fatally shot inside the van. The couple had been suspected in the “bearded bandit” bank robberies. Erickson was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
As he was being led from the Dirksen Federal Building on July 20, 1992, Erickson uncuffed his hands with a key, disarmed a guard and fatally shot Deputy U.S. Marshal Roy “Bill” Frakes and court security officer Harry Belluomini, a retired Chicago police officer.
Erickson, mortally wounded in an exchange of gunfire with Belluomini, shot himself in the head a few feet from a rush-hour Loop crowd.
2018: The Chicago Bears sacked Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers five times on their way to clinching the NFC North for the first time in eight years with a 24-17 win at Soldier Field.
2020: MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, donated $25 million to United Way of Metro Chicago, the largest donation in the organization’s history at that time.
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