Ron Grossman – Page 23

Texas Guinan waves from the steps of a train in Chicago, circa 1928.

Flashback: Texas Guinan danced her way through Chicago — until it killed her

September 30, 2025 at 9:16 a.m.

Texas Guinan had no reason to be concerned about her health when she left Chicago in 1933. The city's medical authorities were slow to trace an outbreak of amoebic dysentery...

Children play hopscotch at a West Park playground in Chicago in 1928. (baiduhai historical photo)

Flashback: At the turn of the century, Chicago’s children were hurting from too few parks. This movement changed that.

April 8, 2026 at 4:53 p.m.

Delegates to the first convention of the Playground Association of America gathered in the Art Institute's Fullerton Hall to hear famed social reformer Jane Addams explain her support for their...

Flashback: Love it or hate it, here’s how the Electoral College came to be

November 7, 2020 at 9:14 a.m.

As they do every four years, pundits and newscasters again are explaining why we choose a president in the peculiar way we do. By now, our customary amnesia has set...

People attending a campaign rally for President Donald Trump on Oct. 25, 2020, in Londonderry, New Hampshire, watch a video that includes Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Column: Pondering how to parlay a Biden victory into a more united country

October 26, 2020 at 5:00 a.m.

With Joe Biden's poll numbers holding strong, my wife and I cautiously look forward to Nov. 3 as a day of deliverance. So, too, does virtually everyone we know. Yet...

Thomas "Tommy" Maloy, center, business agent for the projectionists union, stands in front of a judge in Chicago on March 28, 1933, in connection with the investigation of Fred Oser's slaying. This was the second union killing that cast suspicions on Maloy.

Flashback: Movie projectionist’s slaying exposed the wrath of a power-drunk union boss in 1930s Chicago

October 26, 2020 at 4:17 p.m.

It might seem odd that Jacob Kaufman, who lived in a Jewish neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, would have his car worked on in an alley garage in a Black...

Steve Sumner, right, of the Milk Drivers Union, stands next to his new armored car, which he acquired as a reaction to mob tactics.

Flashback: During Chicago’s violent milk wars, unions, the mob and farmers battled for price, control

October 16, 2020 at 1:00 a.m.

When union leader Steve Sumner sat down with a state's attorney investigator in 1933, he looked perfect for a movie version of the story he was about to tell. The...

Shortly after Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell died in 1970, a shoe box, above, was found filled with cash in his hotel suite, bottom right photo. In photo at bottom left, Powell is honored at a 1968 dinner attended by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. (baiduhai)

From hero to bum in a flash

October 14, 2020 at 9:08 a.m.

When Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell's body was found Oct. 11, 1970, in a Rochester, Minn., hotel room, political heavyweights tripped all over one another offering bipartisan tributes to...

President Woodrow Wilson goes over papers at his desk as first lady Edith Wilson looks on in the mid-1910s. Edith Wilson was often referred to as "secret president" because of the important role she played in Wilson's presidency during his long and debilitating illness following a stroke.

Column: History may not repeat itself, but it sometimes comes mighty darn close

October 8, 2020 at 1:00 a.m.

About a century ago, the secretary of state convened a Cabinet meeting and asked the president's physician to sign a statement that Woodrow Wilson was medically unfit to continue as...

A post card shows the Lady Elgin, which was lost in Lake Michigan on Sept. 8, 1860, killing possibly as many as 400 people. This view of the Lady Elgin is from the north side of the Chicago River at the Clark Street bridge looking southwest in Chicago.

Flashback: ‘Waiting for the waves to give up their dead’: Lady Elgin disaster sent hundreds to their deaths

October 2, 2020 at 10:33 a.m.

The Lady Elgin didn't pull away from a Chicago River dock until just before midnight on a late summer day 160 years ago. Passengers were reluctant to head out on...

The Tribune's political viewpoint was evident in its coverage of the disputed 1876 presidential election. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was eventually declared the winner.

Flashback: All the twists and turns of the election of 1876. Spoiler: We came close to major civil strife.

September 25, 2020 at 9:49 a.m.

On Election Day in 1876, the Republican Party chairman went to bed thinking the party's presidential candidate had lost. In a preliminary vote count, the Democratic candidate's lead seemed impossible...

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