USS Chicago, a 9300-ton Northampton class heavy cruiser, was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard. Commissioned in April 1931, she made a shakedown cruise to Hawaii, Tahiti and American Samoa soon thereafter and was reclassified from a light cruiser (CL) to a heavy cruiser (CA) in July. In August 1931, Chicago steamed to the U.S. Atlantic coast, where she became flagship of Commander Cruisers, Scouting Force. During the rest of the decade and into the early 1940s, she regularly participated in the exercises and Fleet Problems of the United States Fleet. On 31 May 1934 she was present during the naval review held for President Franklin D. Roosevelt off New York City. Later in the year the cruiser changed her base to San Pedro, California, her home until September 1940, when she was transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

When the Pacific War erupted on 7 December 1941, Chicago was operating at sea. She participated in patrol and search missions during the first weeks of the conflict, and in early February was sent to the south Pacific to protect Allied positions and shipping there against the Japanese Navy's great offensive. She participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, mainly as a component of a surface force intended to intercept Japanese invasion forces bound for Port Moresby, New Guinea. While performing that mission on 7 May, Chicago was lightly damaged in an enemy air attack.

Remaining in the south Pacific area, Chicago participated in the August invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, in the southern Solomon Islands. On the night of 8-9 August, she was patrolling between Guadalcanal and Savo Island with HMAS Canberra and two destroyers when they were attacked by a force of Japanese cruisers. Chicago was torpedoed in the extreme bow in this brief action and withdrew from the area the following day with the rest of the invasion force. Repaired on the U.S. west coast, she returned to the combat zone in January 1943. While en route to Guadalcanal with a task force of cruisers and destroyers on 29 January, she was twice torpedoed by Japanese aircraft during the Battle Of Rennell Island. While being towed clear of the danger zone, USS Chicago was sunk in another torpedo attack in the evening of 30 January 1943.