Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 18, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 72 degrees (1953)
- Low temperature: 8 degrees (1880)
- Precipitation: 1.44 inches (1921)
- Snowfall: 2.5 inches (1986)
A Chicago and Alton Railroad map shows the new time zones created in 1883 to help railroads with scheduling. (Rand, McNally & Co.)
1883: Standard Time — based on the mean solar time at the central meridian of each time zone — was formally inaugurated on a day that came to be known as the “Day of Two Noons.”
The time zones were enacted during the General Time Convention at the Grand Pacific Hotel at LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard in Chicago. A plaque at the location — which is just north of the Chicago Board of Trade Building — notes its significance.
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The purpose — to develop a better and more uniform system of railroad scheduling. Prior to then, a Chicagoan asked to tell what time it was could give more than one answer and still be correct. There was local time, determined by the position of the sun at high noon at a centrally located spot in town, usually City Hall. There was also railroad time, which put Columbus, Ohio, six minutes faster than Cincinnati and 19 minutes faster than Chicago. Scattered across the country were 100 different local time zones, and the railroads had some 53 zones of their own.
McCormick Place, Chicago’s new lakefront exposition center, is pictured from the south as work was wrapping up on Nov. 17, 1960. Traffic flows along Lake Shore Drive on the left. (Jack Mulcahy/Chicago Tribune)
1960: Some 500 people attended a dedication dinner to celebrate the opening of McCormick Place, which was named for late Tribune publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick who had campaigned for new convention facilities. President-elect John F. Kennedy was invited to speak at the reception, but couldn’t make it.
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The Modern Living Home and Flower Show was the first convention held in the blockwide and 3-blocks-long facility and marked the first commercial use of the exposition center. It kicked off with a parade down State Street overseen by actor and parade marshal Jerry Lewis. Among the items on display inside McCormick Place for the expected 1 million visitors were five complete houses.
A retired United Airlines 727 made its way to the Museum of Science and Industry where it was to be placed on exhibit in September 1993. After it was taken apart, the plane was loaded into the museum piece by piece on Nov. 18, 1993. (Chicago Tribune)
1993: A United Airlines Boeing 727 was moved inside the Museum of Science and Industry — piece by piece — for an exhibit. The 133-foot-long, 41-ton aircraft arrived in September 1993, by barge from Burns Harbor, Indiana, then was pulled onto 57th Street Beach and across Lake Shore Drive to the parking lot of the museum.
The aircraft is part of the Take Flight exhibit, which was renovated and reopened in 2021.
Archbishop Blase Cupich, right, leaves the altar after his elevation ceremony on Nov. 18, 2014, at Holy Name Cathedral on Chicago’s Near North Side. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
2014: Blase Cupich was installed at Holy Name Cathedral as the ninth archbishop of Chicago. He replaced Cardinal Francis George.
Congressman Danny Davis, right, and his son, Stacey Wilson, speak during a news conference at the Chicago Police Department’s 5th District on Nov. 18, 2016, in the Pullman neighborhood. Fifteen-year-old Javon Wilson, the grandson of Danny Davis and son of Stacey Wilson, was fatally shot at his house. (Alyssa Pointer/ Chicago Tribune)
2016: Fifteen-year-old Javon Wilson, the grandson of 10-term U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, was shot and killed inside his Englewood home as he tried to break up a fight between his siblings and two teens. Tariq M. Harris, 16, and Dijae T. Banks, 17, were charged as adults and convicted of first-degree murder and home invasion in 2019. They were both sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The defendants who were found guilty on all counts in the “ComEd Four” trial are, from left, Jay Doherty, the former head of the City Club of Chicago; ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, Michael Madigan’s longtime confidant; Michael McClain, of downstate Quincy; and former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore. (Chicago Tribune photos)
2020: Michael McClain, a close friend of House Speaker Mike Madigan; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore; lobbyist and former ComEd executive John Hooker; and Jay Doherty, former head of the City Club of Chicago; were indicted on charges of bribery conspiracy and bribery.
McClain and Pramaggiore were each sentenced to two-year prison terms in July. Doherty was given a one-year sentence and reported to prison in September. Hooker was given a year and a half behind bars.
Madigan was convicted in a separate trial of an array of schemes that included the ComEd bribery payments. He was sentenced in June to 7½ years and reported to a West Virginia prison in October.
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