Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on March 10, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: March 11, 1948
1948: A Delta Air Lines DC-4 crashed and burned on takeoff from Chicago’s Midway International Airport.
A gust lock, intended to prevent wind damage to the tail’s control surfaces when the plane was on the ground, was suspected. Twelve of the 13 people on board died.
“Witnesses at the airport said the huge plane took off into a north wind and had a clear field ahead,” the Tribune reported. “The first hint of trouble was the flare-up and explosion when the plane hit the earth.”
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Plane crashes that stunned our city
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 70 degrees (1955)
- Low temperature: 2 degrees (2003)
- Precipitation: 0.87 inches (2013)
- Snowfall: 2.6 inches (1943)
1959: Bill Veeck and investors bought the Chicago White Sox.
The “Go-Go” White Sox clinched the American League pennant in Cleveland against the Indians that season.
1982: Chicago Cubs general manager Dallas Green told reporters lights would have to be installed at Wrigley Field, “or we’ll have to think about playing in another ballpark.”
Though Green quickly followed that up by saying lights “are not a priority at this time,” his words prompted protests from Citizens United for Baseball in Sunshine and other Wrigleyville neighbors opposed to night games.
Green resigned as general manager and team president in 1987, when the Cubs finished last in the National League East and accused the team of quitting.
1995: Michael Jordan quit the Chicago White Sox, citing the MLB labor dispute’s effect on his development.
“As a 32-year-old minor leaguer, who lacks the benefit of valuable baseball experience over the past 15 years, I am no longer comfortable that there is meaningful opportunity to continue my improvement at a satisfactory pace,” Jordan wrote in a statement.
2004: Target Corp. announced it was putting Chicago retailing icon Marshall Field’s up for sale.
Field’s was sold to May Department Stores Co. in June 2004, for $3.24 billion. Then, May’s was acquired by Federated Department Stores Inc. — the parent company of Macy’s — in 2005.
2006: An immigration reform rally drew up to 100,000 people to the Loop.
The trigger for the rally was a controversial federal bill that would crack down on those who employ or help immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission. But the broader message — carried mostly by Mexicans, but also by a smattering of Poles, Irish and Chinese — was that immigrants are too integral and large a part of Chicago to be ignored.
The rally drew some of the state’s most powerful politicians, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Richard M. Daley, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and dozens of aldermen and state lawmakers.
2019: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra went on strike over pension and salary concerns, which caused the cancellation of some performances. Conductor Riccardo Muti joined his striking colleagues saying, “I am with the musicians.”
The musicians voted unanimously in late April 2019 to ratify a contract that settled the matters.
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