Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Sept. 11, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
3 Sept. 11 victims’ remains are newly identified, nearly 24 years later
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 95 degrees (1952)
- Low temperature: 42 degrees (1993)
- Precipitation: 2.37 inches (2000)
- Snowfall: None
1924: A caravan of vehicles transported friends Nathan “Babe” Leopold Jr. and Richard “Dickie” Loeb — who killed Robert “Bobby” Franks after they offered him a ride home from school — to Joliet where they would become convicts No. 9305 and No. 9306 in Illinois’ penal system.
The pair were greeted by a mob of reporters, photographers, guards armed with rifles and spectators just outside the penitentiary’s gates.
Leopold and Loeb confessed to the murder and were brought to trial for what became the “crime of the century.” They were sentenced to life in prison.
Loeb was slain in Stateville prison in 1936. Leopold was granted parole in 1958.
1961: “Ringmaster” Ned Locke blew his whistle and announced to thousands of kids on WGN-TV around lunchtime that “’Bozo’s Circus’ is on the air!” Though the Bozo character — played for 23 years by the late Bob Bell and by Joey D’Auria from 1984 onward — debuted in Chicago as a half-hour show in 1960, this one-hour iteration involved, music, magic, comedy and games.
The show’s name and airing time changed through the years until it was moved to Sundays in 1994 to make room for WGN’s weekday morning news. “The Bozo Super Sunday Show” was canceled in 2001.
Actor David Arquette purchased the rights to Bozo in 2021 from Larry Harmon Pictures Corp.
Ranking the Bears’ 10 most memorable ‘Monday Night Football’ appearances
1995: Season ticket holder Mike Pantazis got his 15 seconds of fame, leaping from his Soldier Field seat to catch in mid-air a Kevin Butler extra point against the Green Bay Packers as the football cleared the netting behind the end zone and descended into the tunnel in the stadium’s south end. Pantazis not only held on to the ball during the “Monday Night Football” broadcast, he escaped unhurt.
Pantazis’ acrobatic maneuver on national TV led to appearances on shows with David Letterman and Tom Snyder, plus a pro tryout.
But there wouldn’t be a repeat — the Bears moved his seat into the north end zone and away from any tunnels.
1997: The lights went out — literally — on the Kane County Cougars’ dreams in a loss to the Lansing Lugnuts in the fifth and deciding game of the Midwest League championship series. Kane County jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings, but the Lugnuts sent 11 men to the plate in a five-run fifth that turned the game around. A 92-minute delay in the ninth inning because of a power outage gave Cougars fans a chance to sneak away in the dark without having to watch the Lugnuts celebrate at Elfstrom Stadium.
2005: Kyle Orton — the first rookie quarterback to start a Bears opener since Zeke Bratkowski in 1954 — led an offense that managed just 166 yards, three first-half first downs and scored its only touchdown on a short drive set up by a special-teams turnover on the second-half kickoff.
How have Chicago Bears QBs — including Caleb Williams — done in their debut?
Three straight false-start penalties killed a potential go-ahead scoring drive midway through the fourth quarter, blamed on the noise of more than 90,000 fans in what was then the NFL’s largest-capacity stadium. The Bears lost to the Washington Redskins 9-7 at FedExField.
2009: Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Jordan took shots — mostly good-natured ones — at everyone from University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith to Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf during his speech.
An image of Jordan becoming emotional at the event was soon turned into a “Crying Jordan” meme.
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