Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area from Aug. 17-23, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Are we missing an important event? Email me.

— Kori Rumore

Aug. 17, 1970: “Soul Train” premiered in Chicago on WCIU-TV with a budget so tight it couldn’t afford color cameras or a dance floor bigger than a typical living room. But the show was an instant hit in Chicago, and it started consuming the after-school viewing time of a young, African American audience that other teen-oriented shows, including Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” largely ignored.

Aug. 18, 2018: Sister Mary Jo Sobieck threw a ceremonial first pitch for a perfect strike at Rate Field after bouncing the ball off her bicep. Then a teacher at Marian Catholic in Chicago Heights, Sobieck’s pitch was captured on a baseball card, a bobblehead and was even nominated for an ESPY Award.

The 1886 Haymarket Square riot is a piece of Chicago’s labor heritage. (Chicago Tribune historic illustration)

Aug. 19, 1886: Eight radicals who had been rounded up after the Haymarket Affair on May 4, 1886 — in which a bomb was thrown during a Chicago labor rally that resulted in the death of eight police officers and at least four civilians — were convicted by a jury and sentenced to death by hanging.

Four of the convicted were hanged. One committed suicide before he could be executed. Death sentences for two others were commuted and one was sentenced to prison. The three surviving Haymarket defendants subsequently were pardoned by Illinois Gov. John Altgeld, who concluded they were all innocent.

Though the U.S. honors workers in September — with Labor Day, which also has Chicago roots — the May 1886 events are commemorated in Chicago by a memorial on Desplaines Street, north of Randolph Street: A bronze statue of a wagon that served as a speakers’ platform during the labor meeting.

Aug. 20, 1976: Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla led a group of bishops on a tour of the United States that included Chicago. He returned in October 1979 — then known as Pope John Paul II.

Aug. 21, 1858: The first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took place at Washington Square in Ottawa, Ill.

Papers outside Illinois first published only Douglas’ speeches. As Lincoln’s fame spread, his side began to appear in print also. Although Lincoln won the popular vote, he lost in the Illinois legislature at a time when state legislators, not voters, chose senators. But the debates established Lincoln as a national figure.

Aug. 22, 1929: The Music Box Theatre opened. It was nearly named the New Blaine Theatre, in honor of Blaine Elementary School across Southport Avenue and slightly to the north. The theater was squarely in the exhibition vanguard then, designed and equipped as a boutique-sized 750-seat alternative to the massive Balaban & Katz auditoriums of the day (the Chicago Theatre was the flagship). The Music Box wasn’t a vaudeville house with movie capabilities. Rather, its shallow stage and newfangled technical facilities supported this new fad called “the talkies.”

Aug. 23, 1982: Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson signed into law legislation that banned all but daytime games.

“I believe that night-time baseball in Wrigley Field would impose an undue hardship on nearly 60,000 residents who live within a four-block area of the stadium,” he said in a statement.

The new law banned noise pollution — but specifically targeted sporting events in Chicago that generate noise levels above 45 decibels after 10 p.m. Soldier Field and Comiskey Park, however, were exempted under a “grandfather clause,” meaning that stadiums where night games were played before July 1, 1982, were not affected.

Six years later, however, City Council passed an ordinance that gave the Chicago Cubs night games.

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