Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 3, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: July 4, 1999
1999: Northwestern University men’s basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong died after being shot while walking with his two young children in Skokie. The lone gunman, white supremacist Benjamin Smith, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a short police chase in southern Illinois. Smith was wanted in a spree of apparent hate crimes across Illinois and Indiana.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 102 degrees (1949)
- Low temperature: 50 degrees (1980)
- Precipitation: 1.57 inches (1871)
- Snowfall: None
1899: Judge Richard S. Tuthill, a Civil War veteran, presided over the first case in Cook Count Juvenile Court.
Lena Campbell of 84 Hudson St. accused her 11-year-old son, Henry Campbell, of larceny. Instead of sending the boy to a penal institution, Tuthill sent the boy to New York to live with his grandmother. For thousands of children, the “child-saver” experiment was a huge success, and it expanded to all 50 states.
1933: An estimated 125,000 people attended “The Romance of a People” Jewish pageant. It was one of many cultural or religious events Soldier Field hosted during its early years.
2015: The Grateful Dead returned to Soldier Field for the first time since Jerry Garcia’s death.
More Top Picks Weather Headaches And Barometric Pressure Migraines Explained
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