Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on June 12, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: June 13, 1931
1931: Chicago Outfit leader Al Capone was indicted on 5,000 counts — 4,000 of them were transportation of beer trucks loaded with 32 barrels each. An investigation led by Prohibition agent Eliot Ness estimated Capone and 68 of his associates earned $200 million during a decade-long illegal “beer combine” that brewed, packaged and delivered the contraband throughout the Loop.
The charges came one week after Capone was indicted on tax evasion charges, and surrendered to police.
Capone was found guilty in October 1931 by a federal jury on five counts of income tax indictments and was later sentenced to 11 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Capone was transferred by train in May 1932 to a federal penitentiary in Atlanta. Syphilis-related complications earned Capone an early release from prison in 1939.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 97 degrees (1956)
- Low temperature: 40 degrees (1985)
- Precipitation: 1.5 inches (2021)
- Snowfall: None
1966: In Humboldt Park, white Chicago police Officer Thomas Munyon shot Arcelis Cruz, a young Puerto Rican man, in the leg. The incident ignited two days of rioting along Division Street that sprang from deep frustrations over bad police relations, poor schools and uncaring landlords.
On the first day of unrest, the Tribune reported, three squad cars were burned, 35 people were arrested and 19 people were injured. Stores along Division Street were looted and set on fire. A firebomb was thrown into Schley Elementary School.
Firefighters had a hose wrested from their hands as they tried to extinguish the flames of a burning police car. A Tribune photographer was robbed of his camera, beaten and kicked, until neighborhood residents rescued him. The nearby St. Mary’s Hospital treated both civilians and police officers.
The violence subsided after a heavy rainfall and hundreds of police officers were placed on patrol in the area.
1991: The Chicago Bulls won the first NBA championship in the team’s 25-year history with a 108-101 victory in Game 5 of the NBA Finals over the Los Angeles Lakers. MVP Michael Jordan scored 30 points, Scottie Pippen had 32 and John Paxson added 20. The Bulls won three straight on the road at the Forum.
”(The championship) means so much,” said Jordan, in tears after the game, talking to a national television audience. ”Not just for me but for this team and this city. It was a seven-year struggle. It’s the most proud day I’ve ever had.”
2019: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law sweeping abortion rights legislation that established the procedure as a “fundamental right” for women in Illinois.
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