Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 7, 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: 59 degrees (1925)
- Low temperature: Minus 10 degrees (1875)
- Precipitation: 1.34 inches (1881)
- Snowfall: 8.6 inches (1933)
1865: Gov. Richard J. Oglesby signed a bill repealing Illinois’ 1853 “Black Law” that prohibited Black people from coming into the state.
1937: Su-Lin, the first panda brought to the U.S. to live in captivity, arrived at Brookfield Zoo.
The animal died of pneumonia the following year. It is now part of the Field Museum’s taxidermy collection.
1968: Nine people, including four firefighters, were killed when a series of late-afternoon explosions ripped through the general offices of Mickelberry Food Products Co. on the South Side. The fire started when a gasoline tanker truck making a delivery in the alley behind the plant started leaking. The gas flowed through a doorway and into the basement, where the building’s boiler was located.
1969: Led Zeppelin’s Chicago debut at Kinetic Playground came less than two months after its first American gig and three weeks after its first U.S. show as a sole headliner that, of all places, happened in Iowa City, Iowa, when the band stepped up after Count Basie canceled his date at the students’ union.
The two February performances at Kinetic Playground marked the first of eight the band played in 1969 alone at the venue that stood at 4812 N. Clark St. Sandwiched in the middle of a lineup that featured headliner Vanilla Fudge and opener Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin drew positive reviews from the Tribune in its “The Sound” column, branded “music and radio: for young listeners.”
1987: Michael Jordan soared to his first of back-to-back slam dunk-contest victories at the NBA All-Star Weekend in Seattle.
1994: Jordan signed a minor-league deal with the Chicago White Sox four months after he retired from professional basketball.
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