Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Oct. 21, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Front page flashback: Oct. 22, 1982
1982: A Johnson & Johnson employee conducting tests on Extra-Strength Tylenol bottles returned from Chicago-area retailers discovered cyanide-laced capsules in a bottle that had been turned in for a refund at a Chicago Dominick’s near where Paula Prince had made her purchase.
Prince was one of seven people who died after taking capsules filled with potassium cyanide. Widely regarded as an act of domestic terrorism — a term not in the country’s vernacular at the time — the murders led to tamper-evident packaging, copycat killings and myths about tainted Halloween candy.
The Tribune wrote about the case in a news story and a six-part serial, as well as a companion podcast, “Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders.”
The Tylenol murders: Timeline of key events before and after the 1982 poisonings
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 87 degrees (1953)
- Low temperature: 26 degrees (1952)
- Precipitation: 2.28 inches (1933)
- Snowfall: 1.9 inches (1913)
1864: Chicago City Council passed an ordinance that converted a 60-acre tract at the north end of City Cemetery into Lake Park.
1946: Navy Pier opened the Chicago branch of the University of Illinois to accommodate World War II veterans returning to college on the GI Bill.
Almost 20 years later, the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle campus opened. Its name came from its location — at the circular junction of what became the Kennedy, Eisenhower and Dan Ryan expressways.
1976: Novelist and University of Chicago professor Saul Bellow won the Nobel Prize for literature.
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Bellow became the seventh American to win a Nobel Prize in 1976 and the seventh American to win the literature category. He was frazzled the morning of the announcement, but the reason had nothing to do with the award — he was moving.
When asked what the award meant to him, Bellow responded: “It means I can stop thinking about recognition. Now I can think about more serious matters.”
1985: “The Bears thrilled the nation with their P-formation,” Tribune reporter Don Pierson wrote.
Defensive tackle William Perry
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became an overnight sensation. Inserted at fullback, “The Fridge” scored a touchdown and barreled over Green Bay linebacker George Cumby twice, allowing Walter Payton to score in the Bears’ victory over the Packers.“I said I wanted to help the team anyway I could,” said Perry, the Bears’ No. 1 pick in the 1985 NFL draft.
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