Today in Chicago History: Local family donates 55-foot spruce for city’s Christmas tree — starting new tradition

Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 4, 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: 74 degrees (2020)
• Low temperature: 11 degrees (1991)
• Precipitation: 1.83 inches (1959)
• Snowfall: 0.3 inches (1962)

1924: Albert Bailey George was elected the city’s first Black judge. The 51-year-old Northwestern University law school graduate and practicing attorney “won a place on the Municipal bench by a vote approximately 65,000 over his nearest Democratic rival,” the Tribune reported.

1929: Lyric Opera House (then Civic Opera House) opened — just six days after the stock market crashed. It was home to the Chicago Civic Opera, Chicago Grand Opera Company, Chicago City Opera Company and the Chicago Opera Company until Lyric Opera of Chicago was founded in 1954 (as Lyric Theatre). Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida” opened the venue in a sold-out performance.

1965: The Chicago International Film Festival debuted.

Silent film star Colleen Moore Hargrave enlisted a board of female directors to keep it going. She presented producer King Vidor with the festival’s D.W. Griffith Memorial Award.

2008: Barack Obama, the first African American to claim the highest office in the land, won the presidency and made his victory speech in Grant Park. He was the first president elected from Chicago and the first to rise from a career in Illinois politics since Abraham Lincoln emerged from frontier obscurity to lead the nation through the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

2009: Due to budget cuts, the city announced it would no longer display a giant Christmas tree in Daley Plaza that was comprised of hundreds of smaller trees. Instead, it switched to a single tree donated by a local family. The tradition continues today.

Flashback: Chicago’s first Christmas tree in 1913 came from a novel idea: Why not display a giant tree for everyone to celebrate?

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