Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on March 11, 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 (1990)
- Low temperature: 3 degrees (1979)
- Precipitation: 0.92 inches (1957)
- Snowfall: 4.4 inches (1941)
1908: Billiards “wizard” Jake Schaefer defeated a young Willie Hoppe 500-423 and won $500 (more than $15,000 in today’s dollars) at Orchestra Hall.
1959: The Lorraine Hansberry drama “A Raisin in the Sun” starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee opened at New York’s Ethel Barrymore Theater — one month after it played the Blackstone in Chicago.
The story follows a Black family living in a crowded Chicago apartment, who try to move into a house they bought in the fictional Clybourne Park, an all-white neighborhood.
You know ‘A Raisin in the Sun.’ But what about the Lorraine Hansberry play that few understand?
Tribune critic Claudia Cassidy called it, “a remarkable play, acted to the Blackstone hilt of its warm heart, its proud backbone, and its quicksilver funnybone by a gifted cast.”
All three actors starred in the 1961 film, which was mostly filmed in Chicago.
1969: Edward Burke beat six other candidates to succeed his father as 14th Ward alderman.
He was sworn in three days later by Mayor Richard J. Daley at age 25, and became the second youngest alderman in city history. The only person to sit on City Council at a younger age was Col. Robert R. McCormick, future publisher of the Tribune, who was elected to the position in 1904.
Burke was the 14th Ward alderman for more than half a century. He not only claimed the record as the longest-serving City Council member in the history of Chicago, but he also became one of the most powerful until he was convicted on 13 of 14 counts in a landmark federal corruption trial in December 2023.
2020: The NBA became the first major sports league to suspend its season because of the coronavirus.
NBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago was the last bastion of the pre-pandemic world.
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