News & Events | Remembering Chicago

News & Events

And so it goes with the great wheel of time, Chicagoans witnessed many occasions marking the beginning and end of things throughout the 1970s and ’80s. At the dawn of the decade, the last of the livestock were slaughtered and the “Hog Butcher to the World” closed its gates. High school female athletes were finally allowed to compete alongside their male counterparts on the state level. Scores of curious Chicagoans were among the first Americans to glimpse treasures from King Tutankhamun’s ancient Egyptian tomb. And in 1979, a record-breaking snowfall blanketed the city for days on end and a few months later the Pope arrived in Chicago to record-breaking crowds for the first time in history.

Papal Visit

'79 Blizzard

Chicago Goes Cellular

First Taste of Chicago

Chicagoans got serious about their summer picnic in the park with the inaugural Taste of Chicago in 1980. Everyone looked on in amazement when a kind of superhero of the day, Spider Dan, scaled the city’s two tallest buildings. Mobile technology first found its way into our everyday lives in 1983. And Chicago tried to right the wrongs of America’s past by holding a parade to honor veterans who had returned from Vietnam 11 years earlier.

IHSA Allows girls to compete

Spider Dan Climbs Chicago

Union Stockyards Close

Tutankhaman's Treasures

Vietnam Veterans' Parade

Photo credits:
Papal visit - Credit: Sun-Times Media file photo
Vietnam Veterans parade - Credit: Sun-Times Media file photo
Stockyards closing - Credit: John Mazurek
Tutmania at the Field Museum - Credit: © The Field Museum, Photographer Ron Testa
First Taste - Credit: Chicago History Museum
IHSA girls compete - Credit: Deborah White Dabulskis
Spider dan - Credit: Sun-Times Media file photo
Chicago Blizzard - Credit: Sun-Times Media file photo