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Today in Chicago History: Albert Einstein visits Chicago on his 54th birthday

Albert Einstein and his wife (not pictured) made a stop at Union Station in Chicago on March 3, 1931. The pair were passing through from Pasadena, California, on their way to New York. Einstein was greeted by pacifists and delivered a speech saying how brave those resisting war are. "The scientist was accompanied by Mrs. Einstein," wrote the Chicago Tribune, "who seemed to be spending most of her time seeing that her husband got into his overcoat and getting him to pose for photographers for the 300th time in America."(Chicago American)
Albert Einstein and his wife (not pictured) made a stop at Union Station in Chicago on March 3, 1931. The pair were passing through from Pasadena, California, on their way to New York. Einstein was greeted by pacifists and delivered a speech saying how brave those resisting war are. “The scientist was accompanied by Mrs. Einstein,” wrote the Chicago Tribune, “who seemed to be spending most of her time seeing that her husband got into his overcoat and getting him to pose for photographers for the 300th time in America.”(Chicago American)
By | krumore@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune
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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on March 14, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Flashback: March 14, 1996

The Sears Tower in Chicago on April 29, 2004. (Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune)
The Sears Tower in Chicago on April 29, 2004. (Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune)

1996: The Sears Tower’s 23-year reign as the world’s tallest building apparently came to an end.

Completed a month earlier than expected, steel spires were placed atop the twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that brought their uppermost point to be 33 feet higher than the Sears’ roof.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

  • High temperature: 81 degrees (2012)
  • Low temperature: 7 degrees (1993)
  • Precipitation: 1.62 inches (1944)
  • Snowfall: 8.4 inches (1904)
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein spoke to the Standard Club in Chicago on March 14, 1933. (Chicago Tribune)
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein spoke to The Standard Club in Chicago on March 14, 1933. (Chicago Tribune)

1933: Albert Einstein visited Chicago on his 54th birthday. During a talk given at The Standard Club, the physicist told the crowd there’s never been a time when scientific problems were so “terribly interesting.”

It was a return trip for Einstein, who had stopped at Chicago’s Union Station on his way from Pasadena, California, to New York.

“He didn’t spend much time talking shop,” the Tribune reported in 1931. “He spoke mostly to a delegation of peace advocates and gave his attention to Yvonne, the small daughter of the Frank Lloyd Wrights, who visited the Einsteins in their compartment.”

1996: The Tribune began publishing on the internet.

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