WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

It was hard-ball politics, Chicago style.On this October 24th in 1899, the City of Chicago took over the independent Town of Austin - and Austin didn't like it one bit.The people of Austin had wanted to keep their community of 4,000 separate from the big, bad city.

The war has been getting out of hand. So Don Corleone calls for a summit meeting. All the gang chiefs sit down together and hammer out a truce.It's a famous scene from "The Godfather."

Once upon a time, Chicago was not the home of the President of the United States. And so, whenever a president arrived in the city, it was major news. On this October 19th in 1962, the presidential visit turned out to be a footnote in world history.Mayor Richard J.

In October 1943 Chicagoans took time off from World War II to enjoy a grand weekend celebration. After 40 years of talk, the city was opening its first subway.Construction had taken five years.

The 1985 Chicago Bears were on a roll. On October 13 they'd invaded San Francisco and returned home with a decisive victory over the 49ers. By beating the defending Super Bowl champs that Sunday afternoon, the Bears had run their record to 6-0.Now it was just past midnight, early Monday morning.

The ad was prominently placed, in the upper-right corner of the front page of the Chicago Tribune of October 12, 1868. "REMOVAL AND OPENING" its headline read.

"I want to read a Chicago book that's fun!"Chicago history has been captured in hundreds of books. Some of them are scholarly and distinguished and dull, but still worth reading. Forget about those.