Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on June 20, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Column: How ‘Jaws’ changed our chumminess with swimming 50 years ago this summer
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 104 degrees (1953 and 1988)
- Low temperature: 43 degrees (1992)
- Precipitation: 2.71 inches (1928)
- Snowfall: Trace (1997)
1947: Ground was broken for Chicago’s lakefront airport on Northerly Island, which would be known as Meigs Field.
1953: Chicago recorded its second-hottest temperature: 104 degrees. (It was also 104 degrees on June 20, 1988, and on July 13, 1995).
Here are Chicago’s hottest days — with temperatures of 100 degrees or higher — on record
“Of the estimated 350,000 persons who sought relief at beaches and pools, five drowned, scores suffered heat prostration, and thousands took home second-degree sunburns,” the Tribune reported.
1993: The Chicago Bulls won the team’s third NBA championship by outlasting the Phoenix Suns 99-98. Guard John Paxson sunk a three-point shot with 3.9 seconds remaining on the clock.
“Horace Grant sealed the historic night by blocking the Suns’ Kevin John last-second shot attempt,” Tribune reporter Sam Smith wrote. “The night will forever be engraved in the conscience of sport.”
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