Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Aug. 28, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: Aug. 29, 1955
1955: Eight days after 14-year-old Emmett Till took the City of New Orleans train from Chicago to stay with his great-uncle Moses Wright and great-aunt Elizabeth Wright in Money, Mississippi, the Black teen was taken from the Wrights’ home by several white men. It was the last time his family saw Till alive.
The abduction made the front page of the next morning’s Tribune under the headline “Fear Chicago Boy Kidnapped.”
Till’s body was discovered by a fisherman nine days later and recovered from the Tallahatchie River near Pecan Point, about 12 miles north of Money.
“Till had been shot in the head and severely beaten,” the Tribune reported. “The body was weighed down with a gin pulley, a cast iron wheel used to operate a cotton gin. The wheel, approximately a foot and a half in diameter, weighed 150 to 200 pounds. It was attached to the boy’s body with barbed wire wrapped around his waist.”
Vintage baiduhai: The death of Emmett Till and his legacy, as reported by the Tribune
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 97 degrees (1955)
- Low temperature: 42 degrees (1986)
- Precipitation: 1.45 inches (1932)
- Snowfall: None
1929: The Graf Zeppelin flew over Chicago — including Soldier Field — for 18 minutes as it made its way to Lakehurst, New Jersey, ending its 20,000-mile trip around the world in 21 days.
1990: An EF5 tornado touched down outside Oswego about 3:15 p.m., striking Plainfield and roaring toward Joliet. Thirty minutes later, it was over. In all, 29 people were killed and at least 300 more injured, and 1,500 buildings were damaged or destroyed, according to the National Weather Service.
Vintage baiduhai: Tornadoes that left an impact on the area
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Weather experts say technological advancements, as well as improvements in communication that came about as a direct response to the 1990 Plainfield tragedy, make it unlikely that a tornado of this magnitude could ever occur again with so little warning.
1994: Black Disciples-affiliated Robert “Yummy” Sandifer was a 4-foot, 6-inch 11-year-old on the run after he allegedly fired the shot on Aug. 28, 1994, that wounded 16-year-old Kianta Britten. Two hours later, Sandifer shot and killed his 14-year-old neighbor Shavon Dean.
After an intense police manhunt, Sandifer was found dead, his body lying in the mouth of a pedestrian walkway at 108th Street and Dauphin Avenue. Less than 24 hours later, neighbors Derrick Hardaway, 14, and his 16-year-old brother, Cragg, were charged with Sandifer’s slaying. Both were convicted of murder in 1997. Derrick was sentenced to 45 years in prison, but was released in December 2016. Cragg was sentenced to 60 years.
Sandifer’s photo was used on the cover of Time magazine in September 1994.
2005: Ryne Sandberg’s No. 23 jersey was retired by the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
2008: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president and became the first Black presidential nominee from a major political party.
Obama — who spoke 45 years to the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. — was elected the first Black president of the United States on Nov. 4, 2008. He was reelected on Nov. 6, 2012.
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