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.
Front page flashback: Nov. 1, 1983
1983: Chicago Bears owner George Halas died of cancer in his North Sheridan Road apartment. He never revealed his diagnosis to his only daughter, Virginia Halas McCaskey, who was with him when he died. He is interred in a family mausoleum at St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles. She succeeded him in ownership of the team.
McCaskey told the Tribune in 1983 she and her father talked frequently about the future of the team during the last month of his life, but that there was a “gap” in their conversations that left some questions unanswered.
“More than most people, he considered himself immortal,” McCaskey said.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: 10 key moments in George Halas’ life on the 40th anniversary of his death
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)
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.
1911: The cornerstone was laid for Medinah Temple “at the mystic hour of midnight.” It opened the following year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 International Airport. All 68 people aboard died. The preliminary investigation indicated the crew lost control after ice built up on the wing behind the deicing 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.
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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