Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Aug. 13, 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: 98 degrees (1944)
- Low temperature: 51 degrees (2004)
- Precipitation: 2.86 inches (1987)
- Snowfall: None
1927: “Lucky Lindy” Charles Lindbergh touched down in Chicago in his Spirit of St. Louis aircraft to promote commercial air travel several months after his historic solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
“We have entered the era of commercial aviation,” Lindbergh told a crowd of 35,000 at Soldier Field. “It is necessary to have the cooperation of you and other citizens in aviation to accomplish what must be done. You have a good airport in Chicago. I understand that you intend to construct a landing field on the lake front. If so it will probably be one of the best if not the best in the country.”
1937: Carrying banners stating, “Chicago Will Stamp Out Syphilis,” about 1,500 young volunteers from the National Youth Administration paraded through the Loop. They then dispersed throughout the city to ask residents if they would be willing to submit to free, voluntary blood tests to detect the venereal disease.
“A year ago, syphilis for you young folks and your parents, too, was mysterious, a secret shame. Its name could hardly be whispered among respectable people,” said Paul de Kruif, an author and microbiologist who addressed the marching boys and girls. “Today you have dared to march under syphilis-defying banners. It is you young fighters who have smoked one of mankind’s most secret enemies out into the open.”
1978: Aurora-raised meteorologist Tom Skilling returned to Chicago from Milwaukee to begin broadcasting the weather at WGN-TV. He took the place of another beloved forecaster — Harry Volkman — who left WGN to join WBBM-TV.
Skilling — known for his informative segments filled with maps and graphics — gave his final forecast as WGN’s chief meteorologist on Feb. 29, 2024.
“What’s especially amazing about WGN is the bond between this television station and you, our viewers,” Skilling said in his sign-off address. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, because in this line of work, if no one watches us, we don’t have a job. So thank you for 45 extraordinary and loyal years of viewership.”
1987: Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame left fielder and coach Billy Williams became the second Cubs player — after fellow Hall of Famer “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks — to have his jersey retired by the team.
1993: Officials identified a body found in Gum Swamp, about 60 miles southwest of Fayetteville, N.C., as Michael Jordan’s father, James Jordan.
Daniel Green and Larry Demery are each serving life sentences for shooting James Jordan during what prosecutors said was a botched robbery, then dumping his body off of a bridge near the North Carolina state line and riding around in his stolen red Lexus for several days.
