Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Aug. 28, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
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High temperature: 97 degrees (1955)
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Low temperature: 42 degrees (1986)
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Precipitation: 1.45 inches (1932)
1929: The Graf Zeppelin flew over Chicago, including Soldier Field, for 18 minutes as it made its way to Lakehurst, New Jersey, ending its 20,000-mile trip around the world in 21 days.
1955: Eight days after 14-year-old Emmett Till took the City of New Orleans train from Chicago to stay with his great-uncle Moses Wright and great-aunt Elizabeth Wright in Money, Mississippi, the Black teen was taken from the Wrights’ home by several white men. It was the last time his family saw Till alive.
The abduction made the front page of the next morning’s Tribune under the headline “Fear Chicago Boy Kidnaped.”
Vintage Chicago Tribune: The death of Emmett Till and his legacy, as reported by the Tribune
Till’s body was discovered by a fisherman nine days later and recovered from the Tallahatchie River near Pecan Point, about 12 miles north of Money.
“Till had been shot in the head and severely beaten,” the Tribune reported. “The body was weighed down with a gin pulley, a cast iron wheel used to operate a cotton gin. The wheel, approximately a foot and a half in diameter, weighed 150 to 200 pounds. It was attached to the boy’s body with barbed wire wrapped around his waist.”
1990: An EF5 tornado touched down outside Oswego about 3:15 p.m., striking Plainfield, and roared toward Joliet. Thirty minutes later, it was over. In all, 29 people were killed and at least 300 more injured, and 1,500 buildings were damaged or destroyed, according to the National Weather Service.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Tornadoes!!!
Weather experts say technological advancements, as well as improvements in communication that came in direct response to the 1990 Plainfield tragedy, make it unlikely that a tornado of this magnitude could ever occur again with so little warning.
2008: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president and became the first Black presidential nominee from a major political party.
Obama — who spoke 45 years to the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech in Washington, D.C. — was elected the first Black president of the United States on Nov. 4, 2008. He was reelected on Nov. 6, 2012.
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