Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 21, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 67 degrees (1930)
- Low temperature: Minus 11 degrees (1873)
- Precipitation: 3.44 inches (1997)
- Snowfall: 4.5 inches (1904)
1965: After Malcolm X was assassinated in New York, Chicago-based Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad denied his followers had anything to do with the shooting. “Malcolm is the victim of his own violence,” Muhammad said at his home. “He preached violence and he became a victim of it.”
1993: As part of its realignment of rail lines, the Chicago Transit Authority assigned a color to each one.
2003: The Illinois Supreme Court ruled tax-backed bonds could pay for the renovation of Soldier Field. The ruling, written by Justice Thomas Kilbride, meant the stadium overhaul, which was more than half finished at the time, could go forward without interruption.
Friends of the Parks and Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois had hoped to force the removal of the new steel-and-glass arena rising within the colonnades of the 1924 stadium.
2007: Chief Illiniwek, the controversial mascot of the University of Illinois, performed for the last time.
The subject of threats and lawsuits and NCAA sanctions against the university, the Chief (portrayed by student Dan Maloney) burst onto the basketball court at Assembly Hall for his final, three-minute dance. He left, but returned to a solemn curtain call, standing tall as he raised his arms and turned to each section. With one final kick he ended the school’s eight-decade tradition.
2013: “I did not kill Kathleen!” Before being sentenced to 38 years in prison for the murder of his third wife, former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson cried, raged and whispered during a 40-minute speech.
Peterson was given an additional 40 years in prison in 2016 for trying to hire someone to kill the prosecutor who put him behind bars for killing his third wife.
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