April 2 The U.S. Supreme Court declares unconstitutional a 1918 Washington, D.C. law establishing a minimum wage for women. – 1923. German Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, “the Desert Fox,” resumes his advance into Cyrenaica, modern-day Libya, to signal the beginning of what nine days later will become the recapture of
March 19 At the beginning of the Great Depression, Nevada’s mines were in decline, and its economy was in shambles. In an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times, the Nevada state legislature votes to legalize gambling. – 1931. Underdog Texas Western College defeats Kentucky, 72-65, in
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, I’m going to finish my 2-part series about Blessed Sacrament Parish in North Aurora this week, with a story about Sister Rose Marie Weber. I stated in my previous article, Sr. Rose was born in Aurora, along with five brothers and three sisters. I knew
March 12 In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, U.S. president Harry S Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Some historians often have cited Truman’s address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week I will continue with St. Mary’s Parish, and an Aurora affiliation at Blessed Sacrament Parish in North Aurora. Monsignor Edward S. Wright served as the assistant pastor at St. Mary’s Parish, from May of 1954 to August of 1959. I didn’t realize until
March 5 A mob of American colonists gather at the Customs House in Boston and begin taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops. The colonists threw snowballs and other objects at the British and
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week I’m writing about St. Mary’s Parish, on the northwest corner of Downer Place and Root Street in Aurora. In the winter of 1848, Mr. I. E. Labrie, an influential citizen, went to Bourbonnais, to explain to the Parish Priest there, the needs of
February 26 On this day, two national parks were established in the United States 10 years apart: The Grand Canyon in 1919 and the Grand Tetons in 1929. – 1919 and 1929. A coal slag heap doubling as a dam in West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley collapses, and floods the
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week I’m going to finish up with the history of the buildings at Sacred Heart Parish. When I was in grade school, there was a white house on State Street, just south of the original church, that was on the southeast corner of Fulton
February 19 The first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. – 1847. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 to initiate a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans.
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week, during Black History month, I am writing about Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK). He advanced civil rights for Black individuals in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination,
Long before Troy became a forgotten name on old maps, it was a busy industrial suburb of the growing Village of Oswego, shaped by water, business, and railroads. Its story began in the 1830s, when early entrepreneurs followed settlers into the Oswego area and built one of the earliest dams
Aurora Area Retired Teachers Association members and guests learned about an Underground Railroad conductor, spy and nurse during a presentation Tuesday, Feb. 3, in Batavia. Celebrating Black History Month, Civil War reenactor Pamela Welcome of Aurora spotlighted Harriet Tubman’s life through stories and songs. An independent professional roleplayer and storyteller,
February 12 Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. Milosevic served as his own attorney for much of the prolonged trial, which ended without a verdict when the so-called “Butcher of the Balkans”
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week, I am continuing with Sacred Heart Parish in Aurora, and my teenage years. At age 17, and an East Aurora High School graduate, I began working a full-time job in Aurora. I was a parishioner at Sacred Heart and became involved with the
Oswego’s Little White School Museum will host a special presentation, “The History of Fermilab,” starting at noon at the museum Saturday, Feb. 7. The museum is at 72 Polk Street, just two blocks from Oswego’s historic downtown business district. Batavia’s Fermilab is the United States’ premier high-energy particle physics laboratory.
February 5 President Bill Clinton signs the Family and Medical Leave Act. The law requires most employers of 50 or more workers to grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a family for medical emergency. – 1993. In what turns out to be a bad business decision, Circuit
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week, I’ll continue with Aurora’s churches and influential persons, with Sacred Heart Parish on Fulton Street, on the East Side. Sacred Heart of Jesus was the very first Catholic Church in Aurora, dedicated in 1848. The Parish began with German, Irish, and French immigrant
The St. Charles History Museum has announced that the Joseph P. Bartlett Farm in Campton Township has been officially accepted as the first verified Underground Railroad safehouse in Kane County. This designation is part of a broader effort to identify and nominate additional historic Underground Railroad sites across Northern Illinois.
January 29 Kansas is admitted to the Union as the 19th free state of the 34. – 1861. The U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson, and Walter Johnson. – 1936. January 30 During a funeral
