Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 24, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Here are Chicago’s hottest days — with temperatures of 100 degrees or higher — on record
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 105 degrees (1934)
- Low temperature: 53 degrees (2000)
- Precipitation: 3.64 inches (2010)
- Snowfall: Trace (1911)
A victim is carried up the SS Eastland as the steamship lies on its side in the Chicago River after rolling over. More than 800 drowned on July 24, 1915. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1915: The SS Eastland — packed with Western Electric Co. employees and their families for a day trip to Michigan City, Indiana — rolled to its side in the Chicago River between LaSalle Drive and Clark Street. More than 840 people of the 2,500 aboard died, many of them trapped inside the vessel as water poured in when the ship tipped over only a few feet from the riverbank.
The Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue where John Dillinger was killed by FBI bullets in 1934. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1934: Chicago recorded its hottest temperature — 105 degrees.
Sid Luckman, right, shakes the hand of Chicago Bears owner George Halas after signing a two-year contract with the Bears in July 1939. Luckman broke out into another smile a bit later when he was told he had been elected to the Tribune’s All-Star squad. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1939: Columbia University halfback and future Hall of Famer Sid Luckman signed his first contract with the Chicago Bears after he was selected by the team with the second pick of the 1939 NFL draft.
The 6-foot, 197-pound Brooklyn native was voted first-team All-Pro five times in the 1940s.
The Bears have won nine championships in their 99-year history. Luckman was the quarterback for four of them, in 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946. In 1943 he won the Joe F. Carr Trophy as the NFL’s most valuable player. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.
The dark secret behind the success of Sid Luckman, the greatest Bears quarterback ever
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