Tag: Chicago
Chicago Mayor Threatened to Call Out Troops as 1905 Strike Spread
Chicago stood on the edge of a wider labor conflict in the spring of 1905 as striking teamsters, determined employers, imported strikebreakers, and hundreds of…
Massive Flywheel Burst Killed Engineer at Chicago Steel Plant
In 1915, five hundred men were at work inside the Illinois Steel Plant in South Chicago when a massive flywheel came apart. The wheel, thirty…
Someone Kept Poisoning This Chicago Family With Arsenic
A Chicago family was struck again and again by arsenic poisoning in the spring of 1907, leaving police to wonder who was trying to wipe…
Chicago Heiress Took Vows of Silence Hoping to Cure Her Deaf Brother
Mary Holway had wealth, youth, and a comfortable place in Chicago society. Then, at twenty-five, she gave it all up. Before the altar of a…
Escaped Joliet Convict Captured Near Chicago
In October 1912, an escaped convict’s run for freedom came to an end not because of a betrayal or a clever trap, but because he…
Chicago Foreman Struck by Train Becomes Human Cannonball
Railroad work was dangerous in the best of weather, but winter made the job even more treacherous. Snow had to be cleared from the tracks…
10 People Seriously Injured After Chicago River Bridge Collapses
A late-night crossing over Chicago’s river turned terrifying when a section of the 12th Street Bridge suddenly gave way beneath a crowd of streetcar passengers….
“Strictly Fresh” Eggs Arrived Chirping
In the summer of 1909, a shipment of “strictly fresh” eggs arrived in Chicago with an unexpected surprise inside. After a hot ride from Missouri…
Suitcase Bomb Wrecks Chicago Federal Building Entrance
On September 4, 1918, as Chicago moved through another tense wartime afternoon, a blast tore through the Adams Street entrance of the city’s massive Federal…
She Risked Her Life to Rescue Old Glory
A crowd gathered beneath the old Chicago post office, staring upward in alarm as a young woman made her way across the icy, sloping roof….
