02-09-17 Tornadoes Hit Illinois 50 Years ago, Belvidere and Oak Lawn

02-09-17 Tornadoes Hit Illinois 50 Years ago, Belvidere and Oak Lawn

Column Commenray Podcast by Ray Hanania

1967 was a tragic year in Illinois

Published in the SW Newspaper Group Feb. 9, 2017 

By Ray Hanania

This year is the Golden Anniversary of one of the most tragic years in the lives of many Baby Boomers who still remember that far back to 1967.

It was kind of a wake-up call for many of us as we climbed out of mental nuclear bomb shelters made of wooden elementary school desks and realized that Sputnik was just a steel ball with antennas.

1967 started out with many momentous anniversaries, like the one that just passed January 26-27, when 23 inches of snow slammed Chicagoland and buried us forever in memories. A second major snow storm hit Chicago 12 years later in 1979, changing Chicago politics forever, although I am surprised that today, many young people don’t know of Jane Byrne, an icon of women’s achievement as Chicago’s first woman mayor.

The blizzard blurred, at least for Chicagoans, the other big news of Jan. 27 that shook the country. During a pre-launch test of Apollo 1 at Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral) in Florida, the interior command module of NASA’s Apollo spacecraft exploded in fire killing astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Grissom was the first of the Mercury Seven astronauts to die. ...

Click to read more ...