Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Dec. 27, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
High temperature: 61 degrees (2008)
Low temperature: Minus 10 degrees (1950)
Precipitation: 1.74 inches (2008)
Snowfall: 10.1 inches (1894)
1929: The Chicago Bears introduced Ralph Jones, of Lake Forest Academy, as their coach.
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“We believe our hope for development of a winning team would be increased if we could turn the squad over to a professional coach,” Bears co-owner George Halas said. “Neither Ed (Sternaman) nor I had time to coach the Bears. Last season, the worst since we entered professional football with the old Staleys, the coaching responsibility was divided between us and Ralph Scott. As a result our offense was ragged and by midseason the team had lost its morale.”
Jones had a 24-10-7 (.706) record during the 1930-32 seasons.
Soldiers carry Sewell Avery, chairman of the board of Montgomery Ward & Co., out of the building on April 27, 1944, after he was removed from his own office by the army on instructions of Atty. Gen. Biddle. Avery had defied the department of commerce when it tried to take over the huge plant. (Fred Giese/Chicago Tribune)
1944: Eight months after Sewell Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward & Co., refused to renew a union contract on orders of the War Labor Board — and the feds moved in, literally, and moved Avery out — President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered another seizure of the company.
The National Guard has been activated to Chicago 18 times from 1877-2021. Here’s a breakdown.
The company fought the government takeover, saying its goods were not related to the war effort, but it lost its battle in the courts.
Avery didn’t get his company back till 1945. Then, fearing a postwar depression, he refused to expand along with his competitors, and Wards hopelessly lost ground.
One survivor of a North Central Airlines plane that crashed into a hangar and exploded at O’Hare International Airport on Dec. 27, 1968, told the Tribune how he escaped from the aircraft. “I popped open the emergency window, said ‘Let’s get out of here,’ and jumped,'” said U.S. Air Force Sgt. Carl Tessmer. (Chicago Tribune)
1968: Buffeted by wingtip turbulence from a jet that had just taken off, a North Central Airlines Convair 580 lost control while taking off and hit a hangar at O’Hare. Twenty-eight died and 27 others were injured, including several people on the ground.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Plane crashes that stunned our city
This crash and others prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to require a greater interval between jet aircraft on takeoff and landing.
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