Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on March 15, 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: 81 degrees (2012)
- Low temperature: 6 degrees (1890)
- Precipitation: 1.43 inches (1943)
- Snowfall: 3.4 inches (1912)
1937: Pioneering blood bank opened at Cook County Hospital.
Hungarian doctor Bernard Fantus, educated at the University of Illinois and employed at the hospital, set out to establish a “Blood Preservation Laboratory” at the hospital, only to change it before opening to the less squeamish and, history tells us, more advantageously named “Cook County Hospital Blood Bank.”
1985: The temporary international Terminal 4 debuted at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Carved out of the ground floor of the airport’s parking garage, this space was a temporary replacement for the dingy, crowded, original domestic terminal built 34 years prior, which was not handicap-accessible and had an inadequate baggage facility and a troublesome security layout. With no direct access to aircraft, passengers were bused from the terminal and accessed planes via portable stairways.
1987: Legendary advice columnist Ann Landers moved to the Tribune.
The first column — “There are two sides to living as twins” — referenced her relationship with her twin sister, Abigail Van Buren, who wrote the Dear Abby advice column.
2012: Ex.-Gov. Rod Blagojevich reported to prison in Colorado.
After signing autographs and posing for photos at O’Hare, Blagojevich landed in Denver and then hopped into a black SUV with two of his attorneys to report to the prison — with a camera-toting helicopter tracking his movement and the image streamed live on TV websites.
How many presidential pardons or sentence commutations have been granted to people from Illinois?
At the time, Donald Trump commented on Twitter: “It’s outrageous that Blagojevich goes to jail for 14 years when killers and sex offenders are out walking the (cont) …”
President Trump, now convicted of felonies himself, pardoned the former Illinois governor on Feb. 10, 2025 — almost five years after he commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence to about eight years served.
White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche walks back into the clubhouse with his son Drake, 13, after spring training photo day on Feb. 28, 2015. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
2016: First baseman Adam LaRoche retired after the Chicago White Sox asked him to limit his son Drake’s time in the team’s clubhouse.
“The White Sox organization is full of people with strong values and solid character. My decision to walk away was simply the result of a fundamental disagreement between myself and Ken Williams,” LaRoche said in a statement.
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