Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Dec. 8, 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: 64 degrees (1946)
- Low temperature: Minus 7 degrees (1882)
- Precipitation: 1.21 inches (1885)
- Snowfall: 6.9 inches (1977)
1902: The city passed an ordinance requiring all automobiles to display numbers, both on the backs and the front and side lights.
1940: The Chicago Bears shut out the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the 1940 NFL championship game.
1972: Forty-five people died when a United Airlines jet crashed into bungalows on West 70th Place while approaching Chicago’s Midway International Airport for landing. Eighteen aboard the plane survived.
The crash resulted in some bizarre theories about sabotage after it was discovered that the wife of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt was one of the victims and she was carrying $10,000 in cash in a briefcase.
The National Transportation Safety Board found no evidence of foul play and blamed the crash on errors by the pilot, who failed to retract the plane’s spoilers, or air brakes, at the critical stage of the descent, causing the plane to stall and crash 1.5 miles short of the runway.
1995: Alejandro Hernandez was released after more than 11 years in prison for the 1983 slaying of Jeanine Nicarico. His co-defendant Rolando Cruz had been released earlier.
2005: A Southwest Airlines jet landing at Midway Airport during a snowstorm slid off the runway, crashed through a wall and onto Central Avenue, hit two cars and killed 6-year-old Joshua Woods of Leroy, Indiana.
The boy and his brothers were in the back seat of the family’s new car, eating chicken strips on the way to their grandmother’s house.
2018: The Chicago Bulls lost 133-77 to the Boston Celtics, the franchise record for largest loss.
The Bulls shot 31-for-81 overall (38.3%), missed 18 of 24 3-pointers and scored 17 points in three of four quarters. The Celtics hit 22 of their 43 3-point attempts and shot 53.8 percent overall en route to their biggest victory.
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