Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Oct. 31, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Halloween weather in Chicago: The warmest, coldest, snowiest and wettest since 1871
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
High temperature: 84 degrees (1950)
Low temperature: 23 degrees (1873)
Precipitation: 2.26 inches (1994)
Snowfall: 3.4 inches (2019)
An earthquake centered in Missouri was felt throughout the Midwest on Oct. 31, 1895. (Chicago Tribune)
1895: An earthquake with a 6.8-magnitude was centered in Charleston, Missouri, but felt by Illinoisians. No one was killed and no substantial buildings collapsed.
More than 5,000 Shriners were at the northwest corner of Rush and Ontario streets on Oct. 31, 1911, for the laying of the cornerstone of the Medinah Temple. (Chicago Tribune)
1911: The cornerstone was laid for Medinah Temple “at the mystic hour of midnight.” It opened the following year.
Northwestern upset Minnesota on Oct. 31, 1936. “The four year reign of Minnesota’s mighty men ended on the sodden, rain swept gridiron of Dyche Stadium yesterday as a band of fighting Wildcats presented Northwestern’s greatest homecoming throng with a stirring 6 to 0 victory,” Tribune reporter Wilfred Smith wrote. (Chicago Tribune)
1936: Coach Bernie Bierman’s Minnesota Golden Gophers had played 28 games without defeat and were gunning for a third straight Big Ten title. But captain Steve Reid, linebacker Fred Vanzo and halfback Steve Toth led a Northwestern upset in Dyche Stadium. Vanzo’s linebacking held Gophers star Andy Uram in check. Toth plunged 1 yard for the game’s only score. The Wildcats went on to win their last Big Ten title before the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
Children from the Chicago Boys Club help assemble Colleen Moore’s lavish dollhouse at The Fair Store in 1948. Proceeds from the exhibition went to the club. (Howard Borvig/Chicago Herald-American)
1949: Silent film star Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle went on public exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, where it remains on display today.
Chicagoans turned out by the thousands, including Mayor Jane Byrne, at Daley Plaza on Oct. 1, 1981, to honor the Chicago Sting, who beat the New York Cosmos 1-0 to claim the North American Soccer League championship on Sept. 26, 1981, in Toronto. (James Mayo/Chicago Tribune)
1974: The Chicago Sting, named after the popular movie “The Sting,” was born. Chicagoan Lee B. Stern paid $250,000 for a franchise team with the North American Soccer League.
The Sting beat the New York Cosmos 1-0 in Toronto for the North American Soccer League championship in 1981. It was the city’s first professional sports championship in 18 years. They won it again in 1984. The team folded in 1988.
“I have left my team to my family and my children, and that’s the way I want it,” George Halas, whose desk is shown in 1983, told Sid Luckman. (Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune)
1983: Chicago Bears founder/coach/player George Halas died at age 88.
“He was an immortal man who made the National Football League,” said former Bears quarterback Sid Luckman, who was with Halas until just before his death at 8:25 p.m. “I just didn’t have the heart to be there when he died.”
Passengers board CTA’s new Orange Line train on Oct. 31, 1993 at Ashland Avenue station. The line goes from Chicago’s Midway International Airport to downtown. (Carl Wagner/Chicago Tribune)
1993: The Chicago Transit Authority opened a new “L” line from the Loop to Chicago’s Midway International Airport — the first completely new “L” line since the Dan Ryan Line (today’s South Side Red Line) opened in 1969, and the first time the “L” was extended into a part of the city previously not served since 1984, when today’s Blue Line was extended to O’Hare International Airport.
All 68 people aboard American Eagle Flight 4184 were killed when the O’Hare airport-bound ATR-72 aircraft crashed on Oct. 31, 1994, in an Indiana farm field. (Chicago Tribune)
1994: An American Eagle ATR-72 crashed in an Indiana field 60 miles southeast of Chicago while in a holding pattern to land at O’Hare airport. All 68 people aboard died. The preliminary investigation indicated the crew lost control after ice built up on the wing behind the de-icing devices. The accident caused the temporary withdrawal of that type of aircraft from service in northern climates, until the wing icing problem could be solved.
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ Derrick Rose pumps his fist and wipes away tears before a television interview after he scored 50 points, a career high, against the Utah Jazz in a game on Oct. 31, 2018, in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves won 128-125. (Jim Mone/AP)
2018: Chicago native Derrick Rose scored a career-high 50 points in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 128-125 win over the Utah Jazz in Minneapolis. Rose became the fourth player that season to score at least 50, joining Blake Griffin, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
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