Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 13, 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: 89 degrees (2022)
Low temperature: 34 degrees (1996)
Precipitation: 1.49 inches (2010)
Snowfall: Trace (1953)
Boxing legend Jack Johnson and his wife, Lucille, in an undated photo. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1913: An all-white jury in Chicago convicted Black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson of traveling with his white girlfriend, Lucille Cameron, in violation of the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes.
The case would later be held up as a deplorable example of institutional racism in early 20th century America. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison in June 1913, but fled to Canada with Cameron, whom he married while free on bond. He remained a fugitive for seven years, traveling from Europe to Mexico, where he fought bulls and ran a bar called the Main Event.
How many presidential pardons or sentence commutations have been granted to people from Illinois?
Johnson returned to the United States in 1920 and turned himself in. He served about a year in federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, and was released in July 1921 — arriving back in Chicago a few days later to 35,000 people cheering him on. Johnson died on June 10, 1946, in an auto crash in North Carolina, after storming out of a diner where he’d been asked to sit in a rear section reserved for Blacks. He is buried in Graceland Cemetery.
Johnson was posthumously pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2018.
1994: Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson chose Toni Kukoč — instead of Scottie Pippen — to take the final shot in Game 3 of the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks.
Feeling like a moment was stripped away, Pippen “took a seat.” He refused to leave the bench with 1.8 seconds left and the game tied at 102. The Bulls played the final moments without him, and Kukoč famously made a tough contested shot, cementing a win and creating a career-defining moment for Pippen.
Sears timeline: Rise, fall and restructuring of a Chicago icon over 130 years
2002: Sears acquired Lands’ End for $2 billion. Under the deal, Lands’ End clothing would begin appearing in Sears stores as early as fall 2002. Sears had struggled for years to bring nationally known brands to its apparel mix.
The Lands’ End brand, which started in Chicago in 1963 as a sailboat equipment catalog, was spun off in 2014.
Monty the piping plover walks along the shoreline on April 21, 2022, after returning to Montrose Harbor. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
2022: Monty, one half of a pair of beloved piping plovers that spent several summers along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Chicago, died at Montrose Beach, officials said. A necropsy performed at Lincoln Park Zoo showed he died of a respiratory infection.
Piping plovers in Chicago: How the ‘love story’ between Monty and Rose unfolded at Montrose Beach
His remains were provided to the Field Museum’s avian department for future studies that contribute to the recovery of the Great Lakes piping plovers, the zoo said.
Monty’s son, Imani, and his partner Searocket recently returned to Montrose Beach for their second nesting season.
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