{"id":493980,"date":"2026-01-05T11:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493980\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:43:12","slug":"first-child-born-to-bears-owner-george-halas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493980\/","title":{"rendered":"First child born to Bears owner George Halas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Jan. 5, according to the Tribune\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n<p>Is an important event missing from this date? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2026\/01\/05\/january-5-chicago-history\/mailto:krumore@chicagotribune.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Email us<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Front page (of the Business section) flashback:<\/strong> Jan. 6, 2021<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Macy's announced on Jan. 5, 2021, it was closing the department store chain's flagship store inside Water Tower Place. (Chicago Tribune)\" width=\"2222\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CTC-L-MACYS-WATER-TOWER-PLACE-2021-01.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"31083208\" \/>Macy&#8217;s announced on Jan. 5, 2021, it was closing the department store chain&#8217;s flagship store inside Water Tower Place. (Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<p>Macy\u2019s announced plan to <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-macys-exiting-mag-mile\/187776525\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">close its store<\/a> in Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weather records <\/strong>(from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/wrh\/climate?wfo=lot\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Weather Service, Chicago<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>High temperature: <strong>56 degrees<\/strong> (1890)<\/li>\n<li>Low temperature: <strong>Minus 18 degrees<\/strong> (1884)<\/li>\n<li>Precipitation: <strong>0.80 inches<\/strong> (1929)<\/li>\n<li>Snowfall: <strong>8.7 inches<\/strong> (2014)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Virginia Halas McCaskey with Terry Bradshaw after the Chicago Bears beat the New Orleans Saints 39-14 to win the NFC Championship game on Jan. 21, 2007 at Soldier Field in Chicago. (John Smierciak\/Chicago Tribune)\" width=\"3416\" height=\"445\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CTC-L-mitchell-4c-830pm-0122-cl-0_189536913.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"31004059\" \/>Virginia Halas McCaskey with Terry Bradshaw after the Chicago Bears beat the New Orleans Saints 39-14 to win the NFC Championship game on Jan. 21, 2007, at Soldier Field in Chicago. (John Smierciak\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<p><strong>1923:<\/strong> A baby girl was born to Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2023\/01\/05\/virginia-mccaskey-turns-100-qa-with-former-tribune-reporter-don-pierson-about-the-chicago-bears-matriarch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Virginia Halas McCaskey<\/a> was the principal owner of the team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/02\/06\/virginia-mccaskey-chicago-bears-owner-dies\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">until her death<\/a> in February 2025 at 102.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"DFGlGCr0IR\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/02\/06\/chicago-bears-virginia-mccaskey-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Who is Virginia McCaskey? 8 things to know about the owner of the Chicago Bears.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI had assumed \u2014 and so had Min (Minnie, his wife) \u2014 that the new arrival would be George Stanley Halas Jr.,\u201d the founder and owner of the Bears said in the 1979 book \u201cHalas by Halas: The Autobiography of George Halas.\u201d \u201cI already had visions of drawing my son into the thick of the Bears. We didn\u2019t even have a name for a girl. After some searching we decided on Mary Barbara, for her two grandmothers. But my brother Frank already had appropriated those names for his daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>1937:<\/strong> Mayor Edward Kelly appointed five men to function as the newly created <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-chicago-housing-authorit\/138209226\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Housing Authority<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"An abandoned brick yard at 2600 N. Narragansett Ave., was turned into the first ski area within Chicago, which opened in early 1968. Little snow, however, forced its closure and leveling for the next establishment on the site Brickyard Mall. (Chicago Tribune)\" width=\"1277\" height=\"425\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CTC-L-THUNDER-MOUNTAIN-1967-01.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"17871358\" \/>An abandoned brickyard at 2600 N. Narragansett Ave. was turned into the first ski area within Chicago, which opened in early 1968. Little snow, however, forced its closure and it was leveled for the next establishment on the site, Brickyard Mall. (Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<p><strong>1968:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-chicago-gets-1st-resort\/161965738\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thunder Mountain<\/a>, the first ski resort within Chicago\u2019s city limits, opened.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Dan Fitzpatrick, of Bensenville, shops for Craftsman tools at the Sears store in the Oak Brook Center Mall on Black Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)\" width=\"3600\" height=\"437\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CTC-L-CT-BIZ_Sears_Black_Friday01_178881607.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"31083213\" \/>Dan Fitzpatrick, of Bensenville, shops for Craftsman tools at the Sears store in the Oakbrook Center mall on Black Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<p><strong>2<\/strong><strong>017:<\/strong> Sears <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2017\/01\/05\/sears-sells-craftsman-brand-to-stanley-in-deal-that-could-top-1-billion\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sold the Craftsman brand<\/a> to Stanley Black &amp; Decker.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"2rTE0p10RQ\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2021\/09\/16\/sears-timeline-rise-fall-and-restructuring-of-a-chicago-icon-over-130-years\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sears timeline: Rise, fall and restructuring of a Chicago icon over 130 years<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Want more vintage Chicago?<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to the free\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/membership.chicagotribune.com\/newsletters\/subscribe\/lid\/2d8200fe-eefd-4f1d-bcaa-26a0ce79a461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/membership.chicagotribune.com\/newsletters\/subscribe\/lid\/2d8200fe-eefd-4f1d-bcaa-26a0ce79a461\">Vintage Chicago Tribune<\/a>\u00a0newsletter, join our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/762760217263236\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/762760217263236\/\">Chicagoland history Facebook group<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/vintagetribune\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/vintagetribune\/\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0for more from Chicago\u2019s past.<\/p>\n<p>Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2026\/01\/05\/january-5-chicago-history\/mailto:krumore@chicagotribune.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">krumore@chicagotribune.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2026\/01\/05\/january-5-chicago-history\/mailto:mmather@chicagotribune.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mmather@chicagotribune.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Jan. 5, according to the Tribune\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[222428,960,531,6387,20171,156690,49014,472,5386,1818,222424,30572,81048,1620,222426,222425,222427],"class_list":["post-493980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-black-decker","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bears","tag-chicago-history","tag-chicago-housing-authority","tag-craftsman","tag-george-halas","tag-history","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-january-5","tag-macys","tag-sears","tag-stanley","tag-thunder-mountain","tag-virginia-mccaskey","tag-water-tower-place"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115842318775948709","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}