Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 3, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 102 degrees (1949)
- Low temperature: 50 degrees (1980)
- Precipitation: 1.57 inches (1871)
- Snowfall: None
1933: An estimated 125,000 people attended “The Romance of a People” Jewish pageant. It was one of many cultural or religious events Soldier Field hosted during its early years.
1999: Northwestern University men’s basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong died after being shot while walking with his two young children in Skokie. The lone gunman, white supremacist Benjamin Smith, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a short police chase in southern Illinois. Smith was wanted in a spree of apparent hate crimes across Illinois and Indiana.
2015: The Grateful Dead returned to Soldier Field for the first time since Jerry Garcia’s death.
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