About Chicago
Anton Joseph Cermak
35th Mayor of Chicago
Notable Men of Illinois & Their State. Chicago Daily Journal, 1912.
Party
- Democrat
Elected
- February 24, 1931 (primary)
- Defeated John B. De Voney
- April 7, 1931 (general)
- Defeated William Hale Thompson (Republican)
Inauguration
- April 9, 1931: Inaugural Address
Term of Office
- 1931–1933
Birth
- May 9, 1873
- Kladno, Czechoslovakia
Personal
- 1874: Spent first birthday at Ellis Island
- Worked as a miner until he was fired in 1891
- 1894: Married Mary Horejs; together they had three daughters
- Went into business for himself, first selling wood, then in trucking; also worked in banking
- 1902: Elected to Illinois Legislature, re-elected three times
- 1909: Elected to Chicago City Council
- 1912: Elected bailiff of Municipal court
- 1922: Elected president of Cook County Board, re-elected twice
- 1933: Upon being shot February 15 in Miami, told President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, “I’m glad it was me instead of you.”
- 1933: Cermak’s assassin, Giuseppe Zangara, was executed in the electric chair March 20 in Miami
Death
- March 6, 1933 (shot February 15, 1933 in Miami)
- Miami
Gravesite
- Bohemian National Cemetery, Chicago
Sources
- Chicago Daily Tribune, November 24, 1928, p. 16.
- Chicago Daily Tribune, March 6, 1933, p. 1+.
- Chicago Daily Tribune, March 7, 1933, p. 4.
- Chicago Daily Tribune, March 21, 1933, p. 5.
- Grossman, James R., Ann Durkin Keating and Janice L. Reiff, editors. Encyclopedia of Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 2004.