Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Oct. 12, 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: 84 degrees (2008)
- Low temperature: 28 degrees (1988)
- Precipitation: 1.4 inches (1973)
- Snowfall: 0.3 inches (2006)
1868: Marshall Field opened his first State Street store.
1907: The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers in Game 5, which was played in Michigan. The Cubs repeated in 1908.
1920: Princess Spearmint, a 720-pound baby hippopotamus purchased by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo. Reporters and photographers waited for a glimpse of the hippo after she arrived by train and was released from her shipping crate, but she immediately descended to the bottom of her 10-foot-deep tank and stayed there.
“I don’t blame the poor animal,” said Alfred E. Parker, zoo director. “It certainly has been a tough trip for both of us. Every time the train stopped the baby would slide to the front of his crate and bump his nose.” The hippo — which would eventually grow to two tons — would live at the zoo until her death in 1942.
Cubs in the World Series: The first 10 trips
1929: Nine outs from tying the World Series at two games a piece, the Cubs blew a lead as the Philadelphia A’s scored 10 runs in the seventh inning. The Athletics won 10-8 and went on to win the series in five games.
1996: Most Chicagoans lost their 312 area code and got 773 instead. As of 2009, 872 also represents Chicago and 708, 847 and 630 the suburbs.
2006: Billionaire Ken Griffin and then-wife Anne Dias Griffin donated $19 million toward construction of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Modern Wing, which opened in 2009. The building’s central hall is named the Kenneth and Anne Griffin Court.
2016: Chicago’s Municipal ID program launched. Suggested in 2015 by a City Council ordinance, Mayor Rahm Emanuel began the program to give all Chicagoans — including immigrants in the U.S. illegally, the homeless, the formerly incarcerated, young adults and the elderly — official identification that does not convey information about national origin or legal status.
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