Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Jan. 22, 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: 59 degrees (1909)
- Low temperature: Minus 17 degrees (1936)
- Precipitation: 1.39 inches (1887)
- Snowfall: 6.2 inches (2005)
1849: Illinois General Hospital of the Lakes — later known as Mercy Hospital — was established at Rush Street and the Chicago River, making it the first hospital in Chicago.
The building formerly housed Lake House, an opulent hotel.
1957: The nude bodies of sisters Barbara and Patricia Grimes were found along a rural road near Burr Ridge. The girls slipped away from their home in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood a month earlier to see an Elvis Presley movie at a nearby theater, but never returned.
Investigators didn’t find enough evidence to explain their deaths. The official cause of death was exposure to winter cold, and despite an exhaustive investigation and widespread media attention, the case remains one of the Chicago area’s most notorious unsolved mysteries.
1966: It was revealed that Martin Luther King Jr. planned to live in a four-room, third-floor walk-up apartment on South Hamlin Avenue in North Lawndale. Rent was $90 per month (about $840 in today’s dollars). He moved in a few days later.
Today the site is home to the Dr. King Legacy Apartments, which were constructed in 2011.
1998: “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty — almost 20 years after his first pipe bomb exploded — choosing to spend life in prison rather than be portrayed at trial as mentally ill.
5 things you might not know about Chicago native Ted Kaczynski — the ‘Unabomber’
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