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 Chicago is hit with the worst one day snowstorm in it's history on February 18th. Eleven and a half inches of snow fall in less than 24 hours, bringing the entire city to a standstill. Neither the horse-drawn carriages nor the horseless carriages can make it through the snowy streets. However, future mayor Michael Bilandic is not blamed for the city's inept response to this snowstorm...mainly because he won't be born for another fifteen years.
(Photo: From the Daily News collection at the Chicago Historical Society. View from Madison Street)
The snowstorm temporarily stops renovation work being done to the Chicago Cubs ballpark, West Side Grounds. The owner of the Cubs, Charles Murphy, has been promising renovations for several years. The city is skeptical that he will live up to his promise.
Before this season is through, Murphy will be one of the most unpopular people in Chicago. His most egregious offense will be to sell World Series tickets to a scalper, who in turn, gouges fans for four-times the face value. That is one of the reasons the 1908 World Series remains the lowest attended World Series in history.
Murphy's cheapness will eventually destroy Chicago's greatest baseball dynasty. Over the next few years, he will fire the man who built the dynasty, Frank Chance (while Chance is in the hospital recovering from brain surgery), fire his replacement, the equally legendary Johnny Evers (who goes on to win a pennant for the Braves), and run off stars like Johnny Kling and Orval Overall in salary disputes. In 1916, the rest of the National League owners conspire to force Murphy out of the league.
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The book “A Room with A View” is released to great acclaim in England (Feb 24). Eighty years later it will become a movie that bores every human male.
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