March 4, 1987
150 Years City of Chicago
One hundred and fifty years ago, on March 4, 1837, Chicago was incorporated as a city. It had 4,170 inhabitants. Before that, Chicago had been founded as a village in 1833. As a railroad hub, center of commerce and industry in the Midwest, the City of Chicago advanced rapidly. Together with its suburbs, Chicago has a population of over seven million. It is presently, after New York and Los Angeles, the third largest city in the United States. In about 1893, Chicago came to be called the “Windy City.” In winter and early spring, an ice-cold wind from Lake Michigan blows through the streets of Chicago.
[For information on Fort Dearborn, the original settlement, and for the meaning of the name “Chicago,” see entry above of September 3, 1961.]
March 8, 1987
News from Moscow
From Moscow came the news that Gorbachev had agreed to dismantle the intermediate-range missiles in Europe without further insisting on giving up the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Negotiations on the matter have already begun in Geneva. If it should be possible to free Europe of this immediate nuclear threat, while guaranteeing its security, one could draw a deep breath.
[Entry following a day trip to Chicago.]
South Bend, March 16, 1987
The Magna Charta in Chicago
The exhibition “Magna Carta in America” was opened today on the square in front of the City Hall of Chicago. A copy of the Magna Carta or Charta of 1215, together with a number of other showpieces, are shown to the public in a big, especially equipped bus. The original of the Magna Carta, the oldest document of civil rights, is in safekeeping at the Lincoln Cathedral in northeastern England. This traveling exhibition has been organized on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of signing the U.S. Constitution. Despite the winterish temperatures and the frosty wind that was blowing in from Lake Michigan, people were standing in line to see this exhibition. The great interest in this show and the efforts taken to see it demonstrated how closely connected Americans are to the democratic English tradition.
[On signing the U.S. Constitution 200 years ago in 1787, see entry below of September 17, 1987.]