Good morning, Chicago.
When 9/11 happened, it was hard to imagine anything could eclipse its impact. Yet here we are, living through year three of a global pandemic, monumental shifts in law at the nation’s highest court and televised hearings of an insurrection at the Capitol. Every time we think we’re covering the story of the century, life hands us another.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at the Chicago Tribune’s first 175 years. While this special anniversary edition of Daywatch ends today, sign up for our Vintage Tribune newsletter, delivered weekly to your inbox, for more stories of Chicago’s past, and check out our newly-published Chicago history timeline here.
While it’s been fun to look back at how the Tribune covered the city through the years, we hope you’ll keep looking forward with us too. Not a subscriber yet? Make sure to sign up here. Because we’ve got a lot more stories to share with you.
— Jocelyn Allison, Marianne Mather and Kori Rumore
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From 9/11 to a global pandemic: Chronicling Chicago in the new millennium
The horror came early in the morning on Sept. 11, 2001, when just a few people had arrived to work at Tribune Tower, writes Rick Kogan. What happened next is a vivid memory for most of us. But that defining event of the 21st century would later be rivaled by another — a global pandemic still unfolding.
‘Our nation saw evil’: Chicago reeled as fellow Americans came under attack
A pall of smoke, dust and sadness settled over lower Manhattan at nightfall Sept. 11, 2001, as rescue workers, police and firefighters pressed their desperate search for survivors of the worst terrorist attack in United States history, a coordinated airborne assault that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and left a portion of the Pentagon in smoking ruins.
Look back at the Tribune’s Sept. 11 coverage
Mary Schmich: Terrorist attack turns two worlds upside down
John Kass: Time to bury dead, take care of living
Photo gallery: Sept. 11 terror attacks
After recovering from post-9/11 fear of heights, Willis Tower faces another challenge
Barclays Bank, a venerable British investment house, once said cities build their tallest structures on the eve of their decline, writes Ron Grossman. As downtown Chicago struggles to recover from the ongoing global pandemic, how accurately does that algorithm measure the building still known to many as Sears Tower and the city it looks down upon?
Trump Tower a symbol of post-attack survival
Vista Tower shows post-9/11 fear of heights is history
Two years, 33,000 dead: Tracing the pandemic’s toll across Illinois
The death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois topped 33,000 at the two-year mark and is still climbing. With each new variant and scientific breakthrough, risk calculations have changed. Now, for the younger and boosted, risks of dying from COVID-19 may be less than the risk of dying in a traffic crash, while for those older and unvaccinated, the risks may be exponentially higher.
Timeline: Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chicago
Photo gallery: Faces on the frontlines of Chicago’s COVID-19 battle
Photo gallery: Coronavirus in Chicago: Adapting to a new normal
As nation elected its first Black president, Chicago saw new political power
Voters turned out in extraordinary numbers in the 2008 presidential election, sensing a historic moment and stung by economic crisis. Barack Obama supporters, many of them holding flags, watched returns roll in on giant television screens in Grant Park and roared every time another state was called for their candidate. When networks called the election at 10 p.m., tears streamed down their faces.
Editorial: Tribune’s 2008 presidential endorsement
Buy: Obama elected 2008 Chicago Tribune cover press plate
Looking back on the 2008 financial crisis: 7 Chicago stories
Outrage over Laquan McDonald killing heightened pressure on Chicago’s mayor
During the most tumultuous 11-day span of his tenure as Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel went from backing his police chief, defending the city’s investigation of police shootings and resisting a federal civil rights investigation of his police department to abruptly backtracking on all three positions. Lori Lightfoot, the city’s first Black female mayor, would later be elected his successor in the aftermath.
Full coverage: Police killing of Laquan McDonald
George Floyd killing recalls memories of Laquan McDonald slaying
Rod Blagojevich’s rise, fall and presidential commutation: A Chicago story
The Chicago political jester who rose from life as a scrappy city kid to the state’s highest office — then was secretly taped by the FBI in a corruption probe, arrested at home before dawn, tried (twice), convicted and sentenced — and was sprung from prison more than four years early when Trump commuted his sentence.
Blagojevich timeline: From arrest to commutation to release
Photo gallery: Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich through the years
‘At last!’: Chicago Cubs win World Series championship after 108-year drought
Tears flowed across Cubs Nation after the final out, and fans responded with the world’s biggest group hug, remembering all the loved ones who could only imagine what it would be like to experience this moment of pure bliss.
