Today in Chicago History: Morton Grove enacts first handgun ban in the US

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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 1, 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: 56 degrees (1968)
  • Low temperature: Minus 14 degrees (1985)
  • Precipitation: 0.87 inches (2015)
  • Snowfall: 16.2 inches (2015)
Sisters Ada Everleigh, left, and Minna Everleigh owned the infamous brothel, the Everleigh Club, in Chicago. (Chicago Tribune archive)

1900: The Everleigh sisters opened their carriage trade brothel, the opulent Everleigh Club, 2131 S. Dearborn St. It was shut down in 1911 by Mayor Carter Harrison. That’s when Ada and Minna Everleigh moved to New York.

More than 9,000 fans gathered at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago on Feb. 1, 1981 to watch first-seed Martina Navratilova defeat 18-year-old Hanna Mandlikova 6-4, 6-2 to claim the Avon Championships of Chicago. Matches were played on carpet courts (Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune)Folder Description: Navratilova, Martina Folder Extended Description: Tennis Action 1981 - 1982 Title: NAVRATILOVA, MARTINA TENNIS ACTION 1981-1982 Subject: NAVRATILOVA, MARTINA User Upload Caption: More than 9,000 fans gathered at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago on Feb. 1, 1981 to watch first-seed Martina Navratilova defeat 18-year-old Hanna Mandlikova 6-4, 6-2 to claim the Avon Championships of Chicago. Matches were played on carpet courts (Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune) Folder Description: Navratilova, Martina Folder Extended Description: Tennis Action 1981 - 1982 Title: NAVRATILOVA, MARTINA TENNIS ACTION 1981-1982 Subject: NAVRATILOVA, MARTINA
More than 9,000 fans gathered at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago on Feb. 1, 1981, to watch first-seed Martina Navratilova defeat 18-year-old Hanna Mandlikova 6-4, 6-2 to claim the Avon Championships of Chicago. Matches were played on carpet courts. (Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune)

1981: Martina Navratilova took two checks, one for $35,000 and another for $6,000, as well as two fur jackets out of Chicago as her prizes for winning the singles and doubles titles in the Avon tournament at the International Amphitheater.

Navratilova also left something in Chicago that night — advice for the Bears, who were negotiating with Walter Payton at the time for his further service with the team.

“Give Walter Payton whatever he wants,” said Navratilova, a Dallas Cowboys fan. “Give him $1 million a year. Payton is the franchise.”

"On Monday, more reporters, photographers and television cameramen went to the Morton Grove Village Hall and police station than did residents to surrender weapons," the Tribune reported when Morton Grove became the first municipality in the U.S. to enact a handgun ban that went into effect on Feb. 1, 1982. (Chicago Tribune)
“On Monday, more reporters, photographers and television cameramen went to the Morton Grove Village Hall and police station than did residents to surrender weapons,” the Tribune reported when Morton Grove became the first municipality in the U.S. to enact a handgun ban, which went into effect on Feb. 1, 1982. (Chicago Tribune)

1982: In the first of its kind in the U.S., Morton Grove began enforcement of a controversial ordinance banning the possession of handguns. Residents turned in five guns to police on the first day. The ordinance also banned possession of automatic weapons, overriding a newly effective state law that allowed it.

The measure triggered a storm of publicity and a nationwide debate over the merits of using local ordinances to control gun ownership, but was upheld in 1984 by the Illinois Supreme Court. The ordinance was repealed in July 2008.

Movie critics Gene Siskel, right, and Roger Ebert, left, speak at an event renaming Erie Street at McClurg Court in their honor on Feb. 1, 1995, in Chicago. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)
Movie critics Gene Siskel, right, and Roger Ebert, left, speak at an event renaming Erie Street at McClurg Court in their honor on Feb. 1, 1995, in Chicago. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)

1995: Two thumbs up. Mayor Richard M. Daley dedicated Erie Street between Fairbanks and McClurg courts to film critics Gene Siskel (of the Chicago Tribune) and Roger Ebert (of the Chicago Sun-Times). The honorarily named Siskel & Ebert Way commemorates the CBS/WBBM-TV studios where they taped their show.

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