Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Jan. 17, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
(Not on the) front page flashback: Jan. 17, 1970
1970: In the name of art, about 100 people gathered at a parking lot at Ontario and St. Clair streets to watch a cement mixer pour 18 tons of fresh concrete over a Cadillac sedan. It was the work of Wolf Vostell of Germany.
Vostell selected the Cadillac as “the epitome of the American auto,” and then poured concrete over it to symbolize traffic congestion. He also encased another car in concrete 12 years earlier — his family’s automobile.
It’s housed today at the University of Chicago’s Campus North parking garage.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 60 degrees (1894)
- Low temperature: Minus 23 degrees (1982)
- Precipitation: 0.70 inches (1910)
- Snowfall: 4.9 inches (1970)
1920: Prohibition began at the stroke of midnight and lasted until Dec. 5, 1933.
“At least half of the 1,000,000 gallons of ‘hard likker’ reported stored in Chicago on July 1 is still here,” the Tribune reported. “And there you are.”
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.”
The Tribune opposed the “noble experiment,” calling it an intrusion into people’s lives and a benefit to the bootleggers and corrupt public officials.
1962: A giant black-and-white passenger terminal — actually two separate 75-foot-long buildings connected by a not-yet functioning rotunda restaurant — opened to the public at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport one day after Mayor Richard J. Daley toured it.
“We now have the greatest concentration of transportation facilities in the world,” he said. “We are first in railroads, first in aviation, trucking, bus movements and the Great Lakes are now the high seas.”
Passengers — including those aboard a United Airlines DC-8 that mistakenly arrived at the new terminal before it was fully operational — could walk from the plane to the terminal via a covered ramp without going outside.
1964: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born to parents Fraser Robinson III and Marian at Provident Hospital. She was the third first lady to be born in Chicago after Betty Ford (1918) and Hillary Clinton (1947), according to the National First Ladies Library.
1980: The city’s official weather recording site changed from Chicago’s Midway Airport to O’Hare International Airport. Weather experts, however, still look at the readings at Midway for comparison.
1994: Former child stars Danny Bonaduce and Donny Osmond participated in a charity boxing match at the China Club. The idea started on Jonathon Brandmeier’s WLUP-FM radio show when Brandmeier goaded the two into getting into the ring after Osmond saw Bonaduce working out at a local gym and teased him.
A split decision in Bonaduce’s favor for a bout that was really too close to call touched off a nasty post-fight confrontation. An incensed Osmond wanted a deciding Round Four.
2013: The Chicago Bears introduced Marc Trestman as head coach. He went 13-19 (.406) from 2013-14.
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