Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Oct. 6, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Front page flashback: Oct. 7, 1969
1969: Chicago’s Haymarket Police Memorial was destroyed by a bomb. The bronze statue of a police officer commemorated the Haymarket Affair, in which eight police officers and at least four civilians were killed during a peaceful outdoor labor meeting. An unknown bomb-thrower sparked a riot at the May 4, 1886, labor rally on the Near West Side. The Tribune called it “A hellish deed.”
Weather Underground members took credit for the 1969 blast, which Mayor Richard J. Daley called “an act of disrespect” and “an attack on all the citizens of Chicago.”
The reconstructed police monument stands outside Chicago police headquarters at 3510 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. The Haymarket Memorial stands at 175 N. Desplaines St., Chicago.
Flashback: Chicago’s place at the forefront of labor history
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 94 degrees (1963)
- Low temperature: 28 degrees (1952)
- Precipitation: 1.57 inches (1955)
- Snowfall: Trace (1935)
1818: Shadrach Bond, Illinois’ first governor, was inaugurated. He informed his audience that the state treasury was nearly empty and its credit badly damaged. Bond also set the stage for a social agenda of sorts, decrying the harshness of some criminal penalties. He opposed the use of whipping and confinement in the stock, and a speech transcript shows him remarking that “in many cases the punishment for crimes is unnecessarily severe.”
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1945: Billy Goat Tavern owner Bill Sianis and his goat, Murphy, were denied entrance to Wrigley Field, starting the curse of the goat.
1949: Iva Ikuko Toguri D’Aquino, aka “Tokyo Rose,” whose family lived in Chicago, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She was convicted on one count of treason for broadcasting propaganda targeting American troops during World War II. But she was not the only female broadcaster on Radio Tokyo.
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During the 12-week trial, Toguri’s husband, Felipe D’Aquino, testified that two American reporters — Clark Lee and Harry Brundidge — promised his desperate wife $2,000 for an interview about her work on “Zero Hour.” They reneged on their mutually signed contract and turned over her words to the U.S. government.
Toguri received a presidential pardon in 1977 following a flurry of media attention.
1969: A movement began immediately after the Rev. Martin Luther King’s 1968 death to create a national holiday in his honor. The first successful sponsor of such a bill was an elected official in Illinois — state Rep. Harold Washington of Chicago. The future mayor of the city was the architect of a measure that created a commemorative holiday on King’s birthday (Jan. 15) and was signed into law by Gov. Richard Ogilvie.
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Schools, however, wouldn’t be closed for the occasion and businesses had no obligation to shut their doors, either. Ogilvie vetoed a 1971 bill that would have made King’s birthday a legal holiday — which would close schools, businesses and government offices — saying it could have “a severe impact” on commerce since it wasn’t observed elsewhere. Ogilvie’s successor, Gov. Dan Walker, signed a bill creating the legal holiday while also approving a measure to prohibit the state from ordering busing to achieve racial balance in public schools.
1971: Chicago’s Water Tower was designated a city landmark.
1993: Chicago Bulls G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan announced his first retirement from the NBA.
“I have reached the pinnacle of my career,” he told reporters at a news conference. “I just feel I don’t have anything else to prove.”
Jordan returned to the Bulls in 1995 with a two-word fax: “I’m back.”
1997: City Council Committee of Fire and Police adopted a resolution exonerating Catherine O’Leary — and her cow — 126 years after the Great Chicago Fire. The resolution was introduced by then-14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke.
2020: Sue the T. rex was no longer the priciest T. rex specimen after “Stan,” another T. rex, sold for $31.8 million at Christie’s in New York City.
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