Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Sept. 22, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Sports flashback: Sept. 22, 1959
1959: Fittingly, the “Go-Go” White Sox clinched the American League pennant in Cleveland against a team they owned all season — beating them 15 times — with plenty of dramatics. The first White Sox pennant since 1919 (yes, that “Black Sox” team) came “with the bases filled with Cleveland Indians, only one out, and the White Sox in danger of losing a two-run lead,” the Tribune reported. Manager Al Lopez brought in Gerry Staley to stem the bleeding.
The Tribune’s Edward Prell provided the historic play-by-play in the next morning’s edition: “Staley pitched one ball — a sinker low and outside. Vic Power swung and Luis Aparicio glided to his left, spearing the ball. For a split second, it seemed he thought of making the toss to Nellie Fox. But he flashed three or four steps, hit the base with his spikes, and rifled the ball to Ted Kluszewski at first base.”
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 94 degrees (2017)
- Low temperature: 32 degrees (1995)
- Precipitation: 1.73 inches (2006)
- Snowfall: Trace (1952)
1910: Seventeen young women abandoned their sewing machines at the Hart, Schaffner & Marx clothing manufacturer in Pilsen, initiating a strike that lasted four months and eventually involved some 40,000 workers. They were furious because the Chicago clothing manufacturer had cut their rate from 4 cents to 3 ¾ cents a garment. Other female employees soon joined them — including their leader Bessie Abramowitz.
For their representative, the strikers chose Chicago attorney Clarence Darrow, the famed “defender of lost causes,” and on Jan. 16, 1911, workers began returning to Hart Schaffner & Marx’s shops on the hopes of a deal being reached.
1927: “The Long Count” fight. The buildup to the Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey heavyweight title bout was relentless; four days before the fight, the Tribune wrote: “Never in the annals of prize fighting has such a match as this been promoted.” Ticket sales exceeded $3 million — $1 million more than any prior championship.
Soldier Field was jammed with nearly 105,000 fans who came to see the rematch one year after Dempsey lost his title to the underdog Tunney.
In the seventh round, challenger and ex-champ Dempsey knocked Tunney off his feet for the first time in the champion’s career. But Dempsey was late moving to a neutral corner, so referee Dave Barry delayed starting his count. Most ringside reports agreed that Tunney had 13 seconds to clear his head before he arose on Barry’s “nine” count.
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“I just couldn’t move,” Dempsey would say later about his delay in getting to the corner. “I wanted him to get up. I wanted to kill the SOB.”
Tunney got to his feet and went on to win the fight and retain the crown by unanimous decision.
1969: Jesse Jackson lead a “Black Monday” protest before an estimated 3,000 people at Chicago’s Daley Plaza. The protesters then marched in objection to discriminatory union hiring practices.
1981: Two Chicago firefighters were killed when an elevator plunged more than 15 floors after its cables snapped from the heat of a fire they were battling in the 38-story Willoughby Tower office building on 8 S. Michigan Ave.
Fire Commissioner William Blair said the elevator was engulfed in burning embers and smoke, and “there was no way out” for veteran Joseph Hitz and rookie Craig McShane, who were found dead in the elevator shaft on the ninth floor.
1985: The first Farm Aid concert took place in Champaign.
“It was the biggest country music concert in history,” the Tribune wrote. “For more than 14 hours, Memorial Stadium on the University of Illinois campus was transformed into Rockabilly Heaven before a rain-soaked but spirited crowd of about 78,000 and a national television audience estimated at more than 24 million.”
The event was the brainchild of country singer Willie Nelson, who was inspired by fellow musician Bob Dylan to hold a concert to raise money for American farmers.
1995: Chicago experienced its earliest first freeze of the fall season at O’Hare International Airport, the city’s official recording site.
Chicago weather: What’s normal for fall’s first freeze and first snow? And when does it happen?
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