Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 3, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: July 4, 1999
Northwestern University men’s basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong was shot and killed on July 3, 1999, during a string of drive-by shootings by white supremacist Benjamin Smith. (Chicago Tribune)
1999: Northwestern University men’s basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong died after being shot while walking with his two young children in Skokie. The lone gunman, white supremacist Benjamin Smith, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a short police chase in southern Illinois. Smith was wanted in a spree of apparent hate crimes across Illinois and Indiana.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
High temperature: 102 degrees (1949)
Low temperature: 50 degrees (1980)
Precipitation: 1.57 inches (1871)
Snowfall: None
Illinois 250: Celebrating the state’s fabulous firsts
1899: Judge Richard S. Tuthill, a Civil War veteran, presided over the first case in Cook Count Juvenile Court.
Lena Campbell of 84 Hudson St. accused her 11-year-old son, Henry Campbell, of larceny. Instead of sending the boy to a penal institution, Tuthill sent the boy to New York to live with his grandmother. For thousands of children, the “child-saver” experiment was a huge success, and it expanded to all 50 states.
A crowd of 125,000 would end up filling Soldier Field for the Jewish Day pageant, “The Romance of a People,” during the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago, in 1933. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1933: An estimated 125,000 people attended “The Romance of a People” Jewish pageant. It was one of many cultural or religious events Soldier Field hosted during its early years.
The Grateful Dead concert at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 3, 2015. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
2015: The Grateful Dead returned to Soldier Field for the first time since Jerry Garcia’s death.
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