Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 28, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: July 29, 1914
1914: World War I began.
On July 28, 1914, the Tribune reported: “Chicago’s foreign sections seethed with excitement yesterday over the news of imminent war abroad. Cafes, coffee houses, beer gardens, even street corners attracted their crowds.”
By the time that paper hit the streets, Austria-Hungary had invaded Serbia.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 100 degrees (1983)
- Low temperature: 51 degrees (1984)
- Precipitation: 2.91 inches (1906)
- Snowfall: None
1888: Jimmy Ryan became the only Chicago Cub to hit for the cycle twice. Against the Detroit Black Sox on July 28, 1888, Ryan came up to bat six times, had four hits and an average of .833.
Ryan did it again on July 1, 1891, against Cleveland.
Vintage baiduhai: Chicago Cubs who have hit for the cycle
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“The day was one continual and lovely picture for Jimmy Ryan,” the Tribune reported. “He went to the bat five times and only one chance for a hit escaped. He commenced with a screaming single in the first; this he followed with a home run over the left wall; then he retrograded some, and his next effort was only a three-bagger. He wound up finally with a drive for two bases.”
1942: Gifted to the zoo in 1924 by Chicago Boy Scouts who collected pennies to buy her, 25-year-old Deed-a-Day — Lincoln Park Zoo’s second elephant — had been suffering from a suspected stomach ailment. After she was put down, it was discovered she “died from trash fed to it by a doting public.”
1961: Gov. Otto Kerner signed bills into law creating new criminal code for Illinois, which became the first state to repeal its sodomy law. Engaging in homosexual activity was no longer a criminal offense in the state starting on Jan. 1, 1962.
1976: Francisco Barrios and Blue Moon Odom posted the only combined no-hitter in Chicago White Sox history.
Chicago White Sox pitchers have thrown 20 no-hitters since 1902 — including 3 perfect games
1979: Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Butkus played nine seasons for the Bears, starting all 119 games he played. He was named first-team All-Pro five times and second-team once and he was voted to the Pro Bowl after his first eight seasons. He’s the Bears’ all-time leader with 27 fumble recoveries.
1982: Stevie Wonder backed out of ChicagoFest, the precursor to Taste of Chicago, after the Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a Black boycott of the event. The boycott was intended to protest Mayor Jane Byrne’s recent appointment of three white people to the Chicago Housing Authority board.
2009: Serial killer Brian Dugan confessed to killing 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico in 1983, and was originally sentenced to death in 2009. Two years later, however, Dugan’s sentence was commuted to life in prison after Illinois abolished the death penalty.
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