Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Jan. 9, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Front page flashback: Jan. 10, 2009
In a historic display of anger and frustration, the Illinois House voted 114-1 to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich and send him to trial in the Senate with the aim of removing the state’s 40th chief executive from public office forever.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 60 degrees (1880)
- Low temperature: Minus 20 degrees (1875)
- Precipitation: 0.93 inches (2024)
- Snowfall: 6.8 inches (1977)
1970: After a 1-13 season in 1969, the Chicago Bears tied the Pittsburgh Steelers for the worst record in the NFL. To settle who would get first pick in the next draft, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle conducted a coin toss ceremony in a posh New Orleans hotel ballroom before Super Bowl IV.
“Heads,” Bears representative Ed McCaskey said as Rozelle’s shiny 1921 silver dollar bounced on a cloth-covered table and came up tails. (George Halas was hospitalized following gallbladder removal surgery.)
“McCaskey, you’re a bum!” former Chicago sportswriter Jack Griffin hollered from the back of the room to Bears owner George Halas’ son-in-law. “You couldn’t even win a coin flip!”
The Steelers used the No. 1 pick to draft quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who led owner Art Rooney’s team to eight American Football Conference Central Division titles and four Super Bowl titles in 14 years.
The Bears traded away their first-round pick to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for three players and the first pick in the second round to the Dallas Cowboys for two players.
1990: First Nationwide Bank in Wilmette was robbed by a gunman wearing a fake beard. Months later, authorities said they believed the bandit was Jeffrey Erickson, a 33-year-old former police trainee. The robbery was believed to be one of eight Chicago-area bank heists pulled by Erickson in a 23-month crime spree that netted nearly $180,000.
In 1991, federal authorities arrested him in Schaumburg. Erickson’s wife and suspected accomplice fled and after a dramatic 11-mile car chase and shootout with police, was found fatally shot inside a van.
Erickson died in 1992 while trying to escape from the Dirksen Federal Building.
2003: Hogfish, clown tang and emperor angelfish were among 300 new residents that made their debut inside the Shedd Aquarium’s $47 million Wild Reef exhibit. Thirty sharks were added, too, before the exhibit opened to the public in April 2003.
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