Chicago Blizzard of 1967

At 5:02 a.m. on this date, it began to snow. Nothing remarkable about that. It was January in Chicago, and, besides, 4 inches of snow had been predicted. But it kept snowing, all through this miserable Thursday and into early Friday morning, until it finally stopped at 10:10 a.m. By the end, 23 inches covered Chicago and the suburbs, the largest single snowfall in the city's history.

Thousands were stranded in offices, in schools, in buses. About 50,000 abandoned cars and 800 Chicago Transit Authority buses littered the streets and expressways.All most people wanted to do was get home. One woman who worked downtown and lived on the city's North Side--normally a 35-minute commute--spent four hours making the trip.

In south suburban Markham, 650 students in four schools camped out in libraries and gymnasiums because school buses could not get through. "They are all enjoying themselves," Supt. J. Lewis Weingarner told the Tribune. "This is a night that will go down in many memory books."

For the picture 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-chicagodays-1967blizzard-story,0,1032940.story