Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on June 9, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Flashback: June 9, 1919
Chicagoans woke up on June 9, 1919, to a major scoop obtained by the Tribune — details of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. (Chicago Tribune)
1919: Under headline “TRIBUNE HAS TREATY,” Tribune scooped the world with details of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. It was the Tribune who presented the U.S. Senate with the original copy of the treaty, setting the newspaper apart from other publications at the time.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 98 degrees (1911)
- Low temperature: 40 degrees (1994)
- Precipitation: 1.31 inches (2018)
- Snowfall: Trace (2011)
Alfred “Jake” Lingle, 38, an 18-year-veteran Chicago Tribune crime reporter was shot on June 9, 1930, in the tunnel under Michigan Avenue leading to the Illinois Central train station at Randolph Street. Lingle, who was killed by a single gunshot to his head, had been covering Chicago’s underworld for years and had come to know local gang leaders. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1930: As Tribune police reporter Alfred “Jake” Lingle walked toward the stairway to the Illinois Central Railroad station at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue — clutching a copy of the Racing Form that he bought at the adjoining newsstand — he was shot in the head and fell over dead.
Splashed across the Tribune’s front page the next morning, was the headline: “OFFER $30,000 FOR ASSASSIN.”
But as details of Lingle’s life subsequently dribbled out, the narrative changed dramatically, leading to a quite different headline: “Tribune reporter was on the take, big time.”
Items belonging to Capt. Bill Pinkney, a Chicago native who became the first Black sailor to solo-circumnavigate the globe around the five great capes in 1992, are on display at the Chicago Maritime Museum in Chicago, May 9, 2024. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
1992: Chicagoan Bill Pinkney sailed into Boston Harbor having circumnavigated the globe all by himself, the third American and the first Black person to have accomplished the feat by taking a route that included the five southernmost capes.
Armed with a satellite phone, an array of prepared foods, a stack of books and a Sony Walkman, Pinkney traveled from Boston to Bermuda and then to the British Virgin Islands, Brazil, Cape Town, South Africa, and across the Indian Ocean to Tasmania. After that, he sailed across the South Pacific around Cape Horn to Uruguay before turning north again to Bermuda.
Pinkney’s journey took place five years after Teddy Seymour completed his circumnavigation of the world solo — but Seymour’s route avoided the capes.
During his voyage, Pinkney experienced some harrowing moments, but no brushes with total disaster.
“I have not had any near-death experiences, thank goodness,” he told the Tribune in 1992. “I was caught in a lightning storm between Argentina and Uruguay. For four hours, the lightning was hitting like mad all around me. I was the tallest thing.”
It took Pinkney 22 months to complete the 27,000-mile circumnavigation.
The Chicago Blackhawks finished off the Philadelphia Flyers on June 9, 2010, to capture the team’s first Stanley Cup since 1961. (Chicago Tribune)
2010: Patrick Kane sealed the Chicago Blackhawks’ first Stanley Cup since 1961, with a goal 4 minutes and 6 seconds into overtime of Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers.
WGN-AM 720’s John Wiedeman made the radio call: “It’s in the back of the net! The Hawks have won the Stanley Cup! Blackhawk fans around the world, you’ve endured 49 years of frustration, but your patience has finally paid off! Sweet Home Chicago!’”
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