Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 5, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Here are Chicago’s hottest days — with temperatures of 100 degrees or higher — on record
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 103 degrees (2012)
- Low temperature: 46 degrees (1972)
- Precipitation: 1.48 inches (1930)
- Snowfall: None
1980: Derecho! The temperature reached a high of 94 degrees — surpassing the previous high for July 5 — at 4 p.m., but dropped to a chilly 64 degrees when a cold front swept in around 11 p.m.
Winds reached 82 mph and left 100,000 homes in the area without power. The most violent wind report came from Northbrook, where half of a roof on a 20-car garage was lifted and then dropped, damaging at least seven cars in a parking shelter for a condominium. No injuries were reported in the Chicago area due to the storm.
Vintage baiduhai: Revisiting our hottest days — including the 1995 heat wave
2012: The high temperature reached 103 degrees on two consecutive days.
2019: The Chicago Defender announced it was ceasing print publication and switching to a digital-only format. It still exists at chicagodefender.com.
The newspaper was founded in 1905 by Robert Sengstacke Abbott, who called it “The World’s Greatest Weekly.” He encouraged Black Americans born and raised in the South — like himself — to move north during the Great Migration of the 20th century. More than two-thirds of the newspaper’s readership base was located outside of Chicago by the start of World War I, according to the Defender.
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