Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 6, 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: 103 degrees (2012)
- Low temperature: 46 degrees (1983)
- Precipitation: 3.93 inches (1943)
- Snowfall: Trace (1943)
1925: Tribune Tower —”the world’s most beautiful office building” — was completed and open to the public for inspection.
“Judges and society matrons, folks from out of town, a mother with a couple of perspiring children dragging at her arms, a sister in her heavy black robes, an old fellow who boasted he’d read the Tribune for 35 years, all these and many more packed themselves into the lobby of the tower and swarmed over every one of its 34 floors,” the Tribune reported.
1932: Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges was shot in the left side and left hand by 21-year-old dancer Violet Popovich Valli, who also shot herself at the Hotel Carlos. She later appeared at a local theater as Violet ”I Did It For Love” Popovich.
1933: Comiskey Park hosted baseball’s first All-Star Game, conceived by Tribune sports editor Arch Ward.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: When British royals — including King Charles — visited the Windy City
1959: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip arrived for a 14-hour visit — the first visit of a reigning British monarch to the Windy City.
1973: “Now cool it. I’ve never seen such violence.”
Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant admonished the crowd at the band’s sold-out performance at Chicago Stadium after audience members broke through security barriers, began fighting with security guards and tried to clamber onstage.
1997: Tiger Woods was the major reason almost 200,000 fans flocked to Cog Hill, where he won the Western Open with a 13-under-par score of 275.
2001: Tionda Bradley, who was 10 at the time, and her sister Diamond, who was 3, disappeared. Tionda left a note saying the girls were visiting Doolittle School, about a block from their home. Their mother, Tracey Bradley, went to work early that morning. When she returned to the Lake Grove Village complex at East 35th Street and Lake Park Avenue in Bronzeville, the family’s apartment was empty.
Their mother, Tracey Bradley, initially gave contradictory accounts of her whereabouts to police. She later said she did so because she feared a backlash from police for leaving the girls alone. The family searched and finally called the police around 6 p.m.
In one of the most extensive manhunts in recent Chicago police history, officers searched more than 5,000 abandoned buildings and interviewed more than 1,000 individuals, but the girls were not found.
2012: Chicago reached 100 degrees for three consecutive days — July 4, 5 and 6 — tying records set in July 1911 and August 1947. The average temperature over three days was 91.4 degrees, making it the second-warmest three-day average for Chicago, behind July 28-30, 1916.
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