Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 13, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Front page flashback: July 14, 1904
1904: A train full of children returning home from a Sunday school picnic was hit by a freight train in Glenwood in what is known as the Picnic Wreck. Eighteen were killed and scores were injured, most of them packed into the second and third cars. The toll was horrible, with some families suffering multiple deaths and injuries. Louisa Geringer, her 15-year-old stepson and 3-year-old daughter all died; a daughter and cousin were injured. Bridgeport, home of the Doremus Congregational Church, was hit hard by the tragedy.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 104 degrees (1995)
- Low temperature: 52 degrees (1975)
- Precipitation: 1.6 inches (2024)
- Snowfall: Trace (1947)
1787: Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for the organization of the Northwest Territory, which included Illinois.
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1894: Patrick Eugene Prendergast was hanged for shooting and killing Chicago Mayor Carter Henry Harrison on Oct. 28, 1893.
Mirroring his father’s political career, Carter Henry Harrison Jr. also served as Chicago’s chief executive. Both former mayors are buried in Graceland Cemetery.
1912: U.S. Sen. William Lorimer of Illinois was expelled from the U.S. Senate for election rigging following the Tribune’s reports of corruption.
Vintage baiduhai: Summer Olympians from the area who won gold
Also in 1912: Harry Hebner, who learned how to swim at a YMCA in Chicago, won a gold medal during the Olympics in Stockholm with a time of 1 minute, 21 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke. Not bad for a man who, as a child, thought he might be “too heavy for swimming.”
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1995: The temperature hit 106 degrees at Chicago’s Midway Airport and hovered between the high 90s and low triple digits for the next five days. Dozens of bodies filled the Cook County medical examiner’s office. On a single day — July 15 — the number of heat-related deaths reached its highest daily tally of 215; refrigerated trucks were summoned to handle the overflow of corpses.
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