I do remember vaugely hanging out in different library branches for the AC. That was the year with the catastrophic heat wave in Chicago where over 700 people died. I believe alot of the precautions we have in place now like cities opening cooling centers, and a lower bar for heat advisories came after that. There wasn't the PWS and mesonets networks of today to capture microclimates as well either. We can see now how hot it can get on cities streets where people live, not just in a controlled environment per NWS standards.