| Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area from April 13-19, according to the Tribune’s archives. Are we missing an important event? Email me. —Kori Rumore Electrician Ed Zivat shines a flashlight on April 22, 1992, on the entrance to the freight tunnel where the water came through 10 days earlier. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune) April 13, 1992: The Great Chicago Loop Flood paralyzed downtown — shutting down power and prompting an evacuation that would affect financial markets and bring business to a halt for days. The disastrous flood began as a small and seemingly harmless leak that was detected at least a week earlier by city workers. The seepage was considered routine at the time it
was spotted, and plans were made to make repairs. But before the work
began, the leak grew into a flood that sent more than 250 million gallons of murky Chicago River water coursing through a turn-of-the-century underground tunnel system and up into the subgrade levels of buildings throughout downtown. The flood caused at least $1 billion in damage and business losses. About 40,000 people watched the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-2 during the team’s home opener at Wrigley Field on April 14, 1925. (Chicago Tribune) April 14, 1925: WGN-AM radio announcer Quinn Ryan was perched on the roof of the grandstand at Cubs Park to deliver the first broadcast of the regular season — and the first Cubs game ever carried on radio. The Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-2. Egyptian curators examine the unpacking of King Tut’s mask at the Field Museum on March 31, 1977. (Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune) April 15, 1977: A highly anticipated exhibit of items from King Tutankhamun's tomb opened at the Field Museum. Unlike his possessions, King Tut didn’t make the trip to Chicago — his mummy remained in the Valley of the Kings outside Luxor, Egypt. A discotheque employee and his sister were first in line at 5 a.m. For the next four months, visitors waited outside in the rain, heat and wind to enter the museum. Only a power outage on the Fourth of July kept visitors away. More than 1.3 million people — at a rate of more than 1,000 per hour — viewed the exhibit. A WGN-TV mobile unit is parked outside Wrigley Field for a Cubs game in 1949. The station began telecasts from the ballpark in 1948. (Chicago Tribune historical photo) April 16, 1948: Just days after signing on the air for the first time, WGN-Ch. 9 broadcasted its first Major League Baseball game. The Chicago White Sox beat the Cubs 4-1 at Wrigley Field. Cubs games continued to be shown on WGN until the Marquee Sports Network debuted on Feb. 22, 2020, with a glitch-marred brodcast of a Cactus League spring training game. The Ricketts family, who own the team, had talked about the Cubs launching their own TV channel since acquiring the team from Tribune Co. in 2009, if not before. Elijah Muhammad addresses a throng at the Coliseum on Feb. 26, 1965, in Chicago. (Chicago Tribune historical photo) April 17, 1934: After Nation of Islam founder Wallace Fard Muhammad disappeared, Elijah Muhammad assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam and moved its headquarters to the city's South Side. Margaret Stevers, who writes for
the Chicago Tribune under the name Sally Joy Brown, is at the Tribune display in April 1926 at the Woman’s World's Fair in Chicago. The fair featured displays showing potential jobs for women, including those at the Tribune. At the fair in 1925, the Tribune had Martha McElliott, “the only woman copy reader on a metropolitan newspaper,” show how she uses a blue pencil. Other women and their jobs that were showcased at the Tribune booth were department heads, writers, artists and typists. (Chicago Tribune historical photo) April 18, 1925: The Woman's World's Fair opened at the American Exposition Building at Erie Street and Lake Shore Drive with a live address by President Calvin Coolidge transmitted from the White House and a military parade. Over eight days it drew 200,000 visitors, earned $50,000 in addition to liquidating the cost of mounting it, and made its point loud and clear: Women’s accomplishments were considerable and would be greater still, once men got out of their way. In 1928, the annual fair was held at the Coliseum and had some 250 booths displaying women's endeavors that ranged from architecture, dentistry and engineering to banking, publishing and printing. On the lighter side, there were evening and afternoon musical programs; talks on a different subject every day on health, savings, fashion; sessions with fortune-tellers; and various demonstrations, such as how to make gifts from flour sacks. The fair acquired an international flavor, too, when nine foreign countries — Denmark, Greece, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Ukraine — sent exhibits of their crafts and products. Earvin “Magic” Johnson, second from left, holds a Los Angeles Lakers uniform at New York’s Plaza Hotel, on June 26, 1979, where he was selected by the Lakers in the first round of the National Basketball Association draft. “Magic” is joined by NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien, second from right, and by his parents. (Marty Lederhandler/AP) April 19, 1979: In a coin flip to determine who would have the No. 1 pick in the 1979 NBA draft, the Bulls called heads. It came up tails, giving the Los Angeles Lakers the right to select Earvin
"Magic" Johnson out of Michigan State. According to newspaper archives, the Bulls went so far as to poll fans about whether to call heads or tails and went with the slight consensus. While in Chicago for the 1991 Bulls-Lakers NBA Finals, Johnson told the Los Angeles Times he would have returned to Michigan State if fate had allowed the Bulls the chance to take him. Want more vintage Chicago? Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, follow Today in Chicago History, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com | 
