How a Chicago Data Geek Helped the MLB Sleuth Negro League Stats
For years, Scott Simkus and his pals dug through old newspapers looking for long-lost Negro League box scores. Now, the MLB is adopting their research.
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Let’s All Get Into Stargazing This Winter
Appreciating your smallness in the universe during a global pandemic is either inspiring or depressing, but we’re gonna go with the former.
Richard Babcock
For Chicago’s 50th anniversary, we talk to the former longtime editor, 73, about putting a nude woman on the cover and reporting on Trump and Lady Di
Gil Melott’s Lamp Fixer
The interior designer behind Studio 6F shares who keeps him lit.
The Queen of Sherwin Avenue
Every building tells a story — about its residents, its neighborhood, its city. Prompted by a new historical research project, novelist Kathleen Rooney got to know one of them.
50 Moments That Shaped Chicago 1970–2020
A lot has happened since Chicago published its first issue 50 years ago this month. Mayors have toppled the status quo, championships have been won and lost (and won again), a blizzard paralyzed the city, protests rocked it, a pandemic galvanized it. In honor of our anniversary, here’s our ranking of the most significant events of the last half century.
17. The Sears Tower is Completed
Photo: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images May 3, 1973 By the time construction topped out on the 110-story skyscraper from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chicago had snatched that most coveted of big-city bragging rights — and away from New York, no less. The building at Adams and Franklin edged out the World Trade Center by 82 feet, making it … Read more
15. Dantrell Davis is Murdered
Photo: John Kim/Chicago Tribune October 13, 1992 There were 943 slayings in Chicago that year — the highest per capita ever recorded — but few of them sickened Chicagoans as deeply as that of the 7-year-old boy killed on his way to school by a sniper firing from one of the Cabrini-Green towers. (The shooter claimed he was aiming … Read more
13. The City Council Approves Reparations for Jon Burge Torture Victims
Jackie Wilson (center), one of Burge’s victims, after his case was dropped this year Photo: Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune May 6, 2015 The South Side police commander had been convicted five years earlier of lying in court about leading a ring of cops who tortured confessions from dozens of detainees. Now, with the City Council voting … Read more
9. Unrest Grips Downtown After the Killing of George Floyd
Photo: John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune May 30, 2020 Cries for justice don’t wait for a pandemic. Already reeling from the COVID-19 lockdown, Chicagoans bore witness to an explosion of anger, protest, and confrontation not seen since the 1960s, and in the city’s very heart. Suddenly the sorrow and righteous indignation that had been a fixture … Read more