Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on June 25, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
High temperature: 103 degrees (1988)
Low temperature: 41 degrees (1986)
Precipitation: 4.58 inches (1959)
Snowfall: Trace (2024)
1943: The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals played without the aid of lights at Wrigley Field in the National League’s first twilight game. Though the first pitch was thrown at 6 p.m., Major League Baseball still considered it a day game. The Cubs shut out the Cardinals 6-0.
The Cubs’ first night game didn’t take place until 45 years later.
Tribune reporter Walter Simmons reported the invasion of South Korea by North Korea on June 25, 1950. (Chicago Tribune)
1950: Tribune’s Walter Simmons reported the outbreak of the Korean War.
On a hunch, Simmons flew to Seoul and was believed to be one of the first U.S. correspondents to file eyewitness accounts after the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel and the war began.
President Harry Truman ordered U.S. ground forces into action on June 30, 1950. “The attack upon Korea makes it plain beyond all doubt that communism has passed beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent nations and will now use armed invasion and war,” he told Congress.
Simmons returned to his home base in Tokyo three weeks later, wearing a suit so filthy his wife made him take it off and burn it before coming into their home.
“What’s more,” he said in the 1957 profile, “I had fleas.”
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