Willis Tower, originally called the Sears Tower, is a skyscraper in the Loop district of Chicago, built as the headquarters of the retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company. It was designed by the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with the architect Bruce Graham and the structural engineer Fazlur Khan, who used a bundled-tube system of nine joined square tubes to give the 108-storey building strength against wind. On completion it was the tallest building in the world, a title it held for about a quarter of a century until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur surpassed it in 1998. It was renamed Willis Tower in 2009, and its glass-floored Skydeck is a major attraction.
Before and after
- 6 March 1973Death of Pearl S. Buck
- 7 March 1973Discovery of Comet Kohoutek
- 26 March 1973Birth of Larry Page
- 6 April 1973Launch of Pioneer 11
- May 1973Construction of Willis Tower
- 8 May 1973Wounded Knee incident
- 10 May 1973Rise of Polisario Front
- 14 May 1973Launch of Skylab
- 29 May 1973Establishment of Manu National Park
More in Art, literature & culture
- 1946First edition of Cannes Film Festival
- 1949Publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four
- c. 1950sRise of pop art
- 1955Publication of Guinness World Records
- from 31 March 1997 to 11 November 2022Premiere of Teletubbies
- 2003Construction of Three Gorges Dam
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.