Chicago has always celebrated moments in world history — especially those that brought family members who served overseas home.
Veterans and locals mingled on the city’s streets to mark the end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918, tossing their hats in the air with excitement and relief.
“Disheveled girls snatched caps from sailors and hats from men and were openly hugged and kissed in joyous revenge,” the Tribune reported. “The kaiser was whipped and that war was over. It was all in fun, all in exultation because Johnny will come marching home.”
A year later, the Armistice Day commemoration began with a minute of silence at 11 a.m. to remember all those who lost their lives defending the country. The quiet was broken by a spectacle of fireworks, baskets of torn paper and ticker tape thrown from windows downtown and the sound of the national anthem played by a scattering of bands.
The festivities were described by the Tribune as “Memorial day, Fourth of July, and Christmas rolled into one.”
As another Veterans Day approaches, here’s a look back at how the city has honored and remembered those who served in the armed forces.
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Civil War: ‘THE END. The old flag vindicated.’
“General Robert E. Lee has surrendered his sword to the Lieutenant General commanding the armies of the United States! The rebel army of Northern Virginia, the most powerful force ever opposed to the authority of the government, has ceased to exist. The rebellion has ended. The sun in his course on this blessed tenth of April, 1865, beholds a Union restored, inseparable, indivisible, eternal!
“Crowds of people thronged the streets in front of the Tribune office and Tremount House, shouting the glad tidings, which were caught up by the Court House bell and borne to distant parts of the city while rockets sped aloft conveying the intelligence that a great victory had been achieved for the cause of Freedom and the Union.” — Chicago Tribune, April 10, 1865
World War I: ‘Chicago gets out of bed; bedlam reigns in Loop’
“The first news of the signing of the armistice reached The Tribune office at 1:55 o’clock this morning. It came in a flash from the Associated Press by telephone. The text of the flash was simply: ‘Armistice signed.’ The Associated Press operator then hung up the phone. …
“The Tribune sires were at least five minutes ahead of any other noise producing instruments in informing the public of the news.
“Within ten minutes a long procession of bluejackets who were asleep in downtown hotels or awaiting trains in hotel lobbies had poured into the street and formed a cheering procession past The Tribune office in Madison street. Jackies and soldiers in other parts of the city soon were emulating the first detachments and they were joined inside of half an hour by yelling, howling throngs of civilians, who made the sleeping loop resemble the jam and jumble of midday.
“Bandsmen were quickly tumbled from their beds and formed into units of loud sound, announcing to the town that it was over over there.” — Chicago Tribune, Nov. 11, 1918
“With emotions wrung dry by a series of war climaxes, Chicagoans will receive the official announcement today that victory has been achieved in the war in Europe.
“It will be a sober day — almost a sorrowful day — because of the realization that another war needs to be fought in Asia and because of the memory that the price of V-E day was paid with the lives and blood of many Chicago sons.” — Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1945
V-J Day: ‘Joyous bedlam loosed in city’
“Chicago greeted peace last night.
“Pent up restraint and anxieties burst with President (Harry) Truman’s announcement at 6 p.m.
“Demonstrations began immediately through the whole city. The loop, the traditional place to celebrate, set the pace.
“Within minutes after the announcement, 10,000 persons jammed downtown sidewalks and streets. By 10 p.m. half a million persons had visited — or tried to visit — the area.
“They were noisy. They represented all ages and all classes. Elderly men and women were as numerous as bobby soxers.
“The celebrants shouted, they sang, and danced, but they were orderly. Taverns and cocktail lounges had closed their doors immediately.
“Thousands of sailors, soldiers, and marines were there. Young women kissed them until their faces were smeared with lipstick.” — Chicago Tribune, Aug. 15, 1945
“For more than a year, then, (Thomas J.) Stack and a small group of fellow veterans had sweated, cajoled, begged and borrowed the Chicago parade into existence. The idea of seeing the day when he and his fellow veterans could look back with pride on their service and their sacrifice may have had a special urgency for Stack. He is battling lymph cancer, now in remission after a year and a half of chemotherapy. It is the type of cancer that many thousands of Vietnam veterans now are battling, linked to Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant widely used to uncover the jungle sanctuaries of the enemy.
“And so it was that at 9:30 on this balmy Friday morning in the middle of June that four men, each wounded in his own way and still suffering from a war that ended 11 years earlier, led off a parade in its remembrance. And the collection of humanity they were leading was awesome.
“Two hundred thousand men and women veterans from every state in the union had gathered patiently at Navy Pier. Each had come because he or she wanted to come, underscoring that each in some fashion or degree also felt wounded by the war. Some had come alone, some in twos and threes. Many came with large groups of fellow veterans. Thousands brought their wives and children to march with them. Some came with their fathers, veterans of earlier wars. A few mothers came alone, bearing photos of dead sons, yearning for a moment of public recognition of their sacrifice. They were white, black, Hispanic, Oriental and American Indian. They were shod in sturdy work boots and supple wingtips. They wore pinstriped suits and motorcycle jackets. Their mood was an almost eerie combination of jubilant pride and funereal solemnity.” — Chicago Tribune, Aug. 17, 1986
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