Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 24, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: Feb. 25, 2022
2022: Russian president Vladimir Putin unleashed the largest ground war in Europe since World War II by launching an invasion of Ukraine.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 64 degrees (1930)
- Low temperature: Minus 11 degrees (1873)
- Precipitation: 1.11 inches (2001)
- Snowfall: 6.5 inches (1965)
1890: “Great is Chicago. It gets the World’s Fair.” The city was awarded the event by the U.S. House of Representatives on the eighth ballot.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893 and Century of Progress, 1933-1934
The Senate concurred on April 21, 1890. President Benjamin Harrison signed it into law on April 25, 1890.
The World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago on May 1, 1893.
1993: A secret Chicago police internal report surfaced cataloging more than 50 instances of “methodical” and “systematic” torture by Jon Burge and his subordinates.
Stories of the violence committed under Burge — including beatings, electric shock, suffocation with typewriter covers and games of Russian roulette — proved to have a long reach. Although most of Burge’s alleged misconduct took place in the 1970s and ’80s, his accusers played a fundamental role in former Gov. George Ryan’s decision to vacate Illinois’ death row in 2000 and declare a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.
Burge himself never was charged directly in any of the torture allegations, though he was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 1993. Years later, in 2010, he was convicted of lying to federal authorities about his conduct and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2014 and returned to his waterfront home south of Tampa. Burge died in Florida in 2018.
Lawsuits from Burge’s victims have cost taxpayers many millions in settlements and judgments, much of it paid out of city coffers.
2001: The XFL’s Chicago Enforcers played their first home game at Soldier Field — and lost 13-0 to the New York/New Jersey Hitmen. The league folded after one season.
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