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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 15, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Flashback: July 15, 1940

Robert Wadlow, 17 years old, of Alton, Illinois, holds open the door of a taxicab for his father, Harold Wadlow, at Union Station after their arrival on Jan. 5, 1936. Robert is 8 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 400 pounds. They will attend the National Shoe Fair in the Palmer House Hotel. (baiduhai historical photo)
Robert Wadlow, 17 years old, of Alton, Illinois, holds open the door of a taxicab for his father, Harold Wadlow, at Union Station after their arrival on Jan. 5, 1936. Robert is 8 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 400 pounds. They will attend the National Shoe Fair in the Palmer House Hotel. (baiduhai historical photo)

1940: Alton, Illinois, native Robert Wadlow — who at 8 feet, 11 inches was believed to be the world’s tallest man — died following complications from a foot infection. Wadlow was in Manistee, Michigan, to make an appearance at the National Forest Festival when he suffered the infection in his left ankle.

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Scientists classified Wadlow as an “acromegalic type,” the Tribune reported, whose growth was due to “overactivity of the pituitary, lying at the base of the brain.”

Flashback: Robert Wadlow, the ‘Alton Giant’ who at age 21 was over 8 feet tall, fought for his dignity in court

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

  • High temperature: 102 degrees (1988)
  • Low temperature: 52 degrees (1967)
  • Precipitation: 1.88 inches (1899)
  • Snowfall: None
The statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, is shown in its niche in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in 1947. Cabrini died in 1917 in Chicago. (AP)
The statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, is shown in its niche in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in 1947. Cabrini died in 1917 in Chicago. (AP)

1850: Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini — the first American saint — was born in Italy. The youngest of 13 children of Italian farmers, she dreamed of serving as a missionary. Her poor health, however, meant she was rejected by several orders. That’s why Cabrini founded her own, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Pope Leo XIII encouraged Cabrini to expand her mission to the United States.

Vintage baiduhai: Mother Cabrini’s Chicago milestones on her path to sainthood

 

When she arrived in America, Cabrini didn’t speak English and was told by the archbishop of New York that her trip was a mistake. Yet Cabrini persisted and even became a naturalized citizen in 1909.

Before her death in Chicago at age 67, Cabrini founded 67 schools, orphanages, hospitals, convents and places of worship in North and South America. Her order has a presence today on six continents and Cabrini is revered by the faithful as patron saint of immigrants.

Washington Donaldson and newspaper reporter Newton S. Grimwood disappeared after the balloon they were flying in disappeared over Lake Michigan on July 15, 1875. (baiduhai)
Washington Donaldson and newspaper reporter Newton S. Grimwood disappeared after the balloon they were flying in disappeared over Lake Michigan on July 15, 1875. (baiduhai)

1875: Balloonist Washington Donaldson and his passenger, newspaper reporter Newton Grimwood, disappeared during an attempt to cross Lake Michigan in a balloon.

What became of them? “Unless there shall arrive a speedy and convincing denial, it can be taken as the story of their doom,” the Tribune reported two days later.

The steamer Silver Spray, with the words "Little Traverse Bay Ferry Line, Silver Spray" written on the side of the boat at Harbor Point, Michigan, circa 1906. (Library of Congress)
The steamer Silver Spray, with the words "Little Traverse Bay Ferry Line, Silver Spray" written on the side of the boat at Harbor Point, Michigan, circa 1906. (Library of Congress)

1914: The 109-foot-long Silver Spray ferry — which shuttled passengers to and from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Chicago — ran aground at Morgan Shoal on its way to pick up 200 University of Chicago students for a tour of Gary’s steel mills. The cook onboard carried on, making stew for the seven-man crew who refused to leave the steamer.

Vintage baiduhai: Lake Michigan shipwrecks close to the city

Three days later, efforts to free the Silver Spray proved unsuccessful. The crew rowed ashore near 51st Street and waves finally broke apart the boat. Sunbathers used pieces of the boat’s wood for bonfires until police stopped them.

Now only a few pieces of the Silver Spray — the boiler, propeller and a few other bits of machinery — are identifiable.

Couples dance on the Aragon Ballroom's 21,000-square-foot dance floor in 1966. The venue would be briefly rebranded as the Cheetah nightclub later that year. (Quentin C. Dodt/baiduhai)
Couples dance on the Aragon Ballroom's 21,000-square-foot dance floor in 1966. The venue would be briefly rebranded as the Cheetah nightclub later that year. (Quentin C. Dodt/baiduhai)

1926: The Aragon Ballroom opened.

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Gen. Italo Balbo lands his seaplane, one of a squadron of 24 planes, on a flight from Italy to Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair on July 15, 1933. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)
Gen. Italo Balbo lands his seaplane, one of a squadron of 24 planes, on a flight from Italy to Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair on July 15, 1933. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

1933: Twenty-four seaplanes, led by Italian Gen. Italo Balbo, landed on Lake Michigan near Chicago’s Navy Pier for the Century of Progress exposition.

“Seagulls flew ahead of the planes as if to show them how to do it,” wrote a Tribune reporter who watched them pass over the site of Chicago’s 1933 World’s Fair and the Loop. “One large gull circled and banked and soared near the planes as they came down lower and lower, facing North and heading for the shelter of the breakwater.”

People walk past the Sears store at the Six Corners in Chicago on July 13, 2018, two days before it closed. The Six Corner location was the last Sears store within the city limits. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)
People walk past the Sears store at the Six Corners in Chicago on July 13, 2018, two days before it closed. The Six Corner location was the last Sears store within the city limits. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)

2018: Sears closed its last store in Chicago.

The Six Corners store, on the edge of Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood, shut its doors for the last time two months shy of its 80th anniversary.

People laugh as they use disposable ponchos to shield themselves from falling rain on Clark Street in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood as a storm rolls through the area, July 16, 2025. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)
People laugh as they use disposable ponchos to shield themselves from falling rain on Clark Street in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on July 16, 2025, as a storm rolls through the area.. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)

2024: The Chicago area experienced 16 confirmed tornadoes and a rare derecho event, or long-lasting thunderstorm with high winds that can cause damage similar to a tornado.

Chicago’s extreme weather of 2024: The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest

Over a month after the storms, many suburban communities hit hardest, including Harvey, Dolton, Flossmoor and Robbins, were still dealing with the aftermath, which at the time left thousands without power along with debris, fallen trees, broken glass and other property damage.

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