Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 18, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: Feb. 19, 1970
1970: A jury decided five of the Chicago Seven defendants — Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis and David Dellinger — had incited riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but had not conspired to do so.
Defendants Lee Weiner and John Froines were acquitted of all charges. Judge Julius Hoffman, however, sentenced all seven defendants and two defense lawyers to contempt-of-court jail sentences. Those convictions were later reversed.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 70 degrees (2017)
- Low temperature: Minus 14 degrees (1936)
- Precipitation: 1.15 inches (1908)
- Snowfall: 11.1 inches (2000)
1929: Former Chicago newspaperman Ben Hecht was announced as the winner of best original story for “Underworld” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The inaugural Oscar awards were presented later at a ceremony inside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that lasted just 15 minutes, but Hecht didn’t attend.
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Hecht’s Oscar is the most requested artifact at the Newberry Library, where anyone with a card can ask to see nearly any object in their collection, Chicago Tribune reporter Christopher Borrelli says.
1998: Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray died in Rancho Mirage, California. He had been in a coma since he collapsed on Valentine’s Day in a Palm Springs, California, restaurant.
2006: Chicago native Shani Davis became the first Black athlete to win an individual Olympic gold medal with his 1,000-meter victory during the Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
Four years later, Davis became the first skater to defend his title in that event. He also won silver medals in the 1,500 both years.
When Davis competed in his fourth and final Olympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the Tribune wrote: “Davis isn’t here to make you or U.S. Speedskating or the U.S. Olympic Committee comfortable. … He’s a complex man reminding us that athletes don’t have to come in perfectly wrapped packages to root for them.”
2010: Naperville’s Evan Lysacek won a gold medal at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada, during the Winter Olympics.
Shaking off the suffocating pressure of the moment — which actually lasted four minutes and 30 seconds — Lysacek delivered a brilliant, career-best performance to become the first U.S. man to win the Olympic skating gold medal since Brian Boitano in 1988.
2020: Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was released from prison in Colorado after President Donald Trump commuted his 14-year sentence.
Nearly five years later, Trump granted a full pardon to the disgraced former governor.
2021: A half-century after he was first sworn into the Illinois House from Chicago’s Southwest Side, state Rep. Michael Madigan announced his resignation, a little more than a month after he was deposed by fellow Democrats as the nation’s longest-serving statehouse speaker.
In a statement, the embattled 78-year-old lawmaker, ensnarled in a federal corruption investigation, lashed out at his critics as he sought to defend his actions during his 36-year reign as House speaker.
A federal jury convicted Madigan on Feb. 12, 2025, of multiple federal charges, including bribery conspiracy — but jurors deadlocked on other charges in the wide-ranging indictment, including the marquee racketeering conspiracy count.
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