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Chicago

city and county seat of Cook County, and largest city in State of Illinois, United States of America

34 dated entries naming Chicago, drawn from 28 separate years between 1674 CE and 1996 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Chicago, Illinois in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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17th century

  • 1674December 4 – Father Jacques Marquette, along with Pierre Poteret and Jacque Poteret, sails southward along the shore of Lake Michigan, accompanied by nine canoes of Indians from the Potawatomi tribe, and comes ashore at what is now Chicago. The three missionaries, the first Europeans to explore the area, camp there for the winter. Marquette notes in his journal "The land bordering it is of now value, except on the prairies," and adds "There are eight to ten quite fine rivers." A historical marker is now erected on the site of the landing. Father Marquette founds a mission (which will in time grow into the city of Chicago) on the shores of Lake Michigan, in order to create a Christian ministry to convent Native Americans in the Illinois Confederation.source
  • 1674December 4 – Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illinois Confederation (which will in time grow into the city of Chicago).source

18th century

  • 1763December 23 – John Kinzie, Fur trader from Quebec City who was responsible for the "first murder in Chicago" (died June 6, 1828)source

19th century

  • 1816June – Fort Dearborn is reestablished in the place that will become Chicago, Illinois.source
  • 1833August 12 – The settlement of Chicago is established by 350 settlers at the estuary of the Chicago River in the U.S. state of Illinois.source
  • 1833August 12 – The town of Chicago is established at the estuary of the Chicago River by 350 settlers.source
  • 1848April 3 – The Chicago Board of Trade is founded by 82 Chicago merchants and business leaders.source
  • 1854June – The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern United States inhabitants from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to Saint Paul, Minnesota, by steamboat.source
  • 1869St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago is founded, and construction on the school's main building began. It is one of only five buildings that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The building was designed by the Canadian architect Toussaint Menard in the Second Empire architecture style.source
  • 1871October 8 – The Great Chicago Fire breaks out in Chicago, Illinois and burns for 2 days, killing 300 people, destroying 17,500 buildings and leaving 100,000 people homeless.source
  • 1871October 8 – Four major fires break out in the Upper Midwest in Chicago, Illinois, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan. The Great Chicago Fire is the most infamous of these, killing 300 people, destroying 17,500 buildings and leaving nearly 100,000 people homeless, although the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin kills as many as 2,500 people, making it the deadliest fire in United States history.source
  • 1890February 24 – Chicago is selected to host the World's Columbian Exposition.source
  • 1894July – A fire at the site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago destroys most of the remaining buildings.source
  • 1898June 19 – Food processing giant Nabisco is founded in Chicago by merger as the National Biscuit Company.source

20th century

  • 1901American retail pharmacy Walgreens is founded in Chicago.source
  • 1905February 23 – Rotary International is founded in Chicago in the U.S.source
  • 1905April 6 – A violent strike by the Teamsters' Union begins in Chicago.source
  • 1915July 24 – The steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.source
  • 1916November 19 – Ruth Law sets a new distance record for cross-country flight by flying 590 miles (950 km) non-stop from Chicago to New York State. She flies on to New York City the next day.source
  • 1918June 22 – Suspects in the Chicago Restaurant Poisonings are arrested, and more than 100 waiters are taken into custody for poisoning restaurant customers with a lethal powder called Mickey Finn.source
  • 1924October 9 – Municipal Grant Park Stadium, in Chicago, Illinois (later known as Soldier Field) is officially dedicated.source
  • 1929February 14 – St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters, rivals of Al Capone, are murdered in Chicago.source
  • 1935July 24 – The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures in Chicago to a record-high 109 °Fsource
  • 1944September 13 – Peter Cetera, lead singer and guitarist of American rock group Chicagosource
  • 1944December 26 – The original stage version of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams premieres in Chicago.source
  • 1946November 12 – In Chicago, a branch of the Exchange National Bank (later part of the LaSalle Bank) opens the first 10 drive-up teller windows.source
  • 1949March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Denver and Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long-distance train to feature Vistadome cars as regular equipment.source
  • 1966July 13 – In Chicago, United States, Richard Speck breaks into a nurses' dormitory and murders eight of the nine student nurses who live there.source
  • 1967January 26 – The largest-ever blizzard to hit the US city of Chicago begins.source
  • 1968August 22–30 – 1968 Democratic National Convention protests: Police clash with anti-Vietnam War protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. president and Edmund Muskie for vice president. The riots and subsequent trials are an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.source
  • 1969October 9–12 – Days of Rage: In Chicago, the Illinois National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the "Chicago Eight" Trial.source
  • 1978September 23 – California Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock is shot to death at age 27 while visiting friends in Gary, Indiana during an Angels' road trip in Chicago, Illinois.source
  • 1996August 16 – Brookfield Zoo, Chicago. After a 3-year-old boy falls into the 20 ft deep gorilla enclosure, Binti Jua, a female lowland gorilla sits with the injured boy until his rescue.source
  • 1996August 29 – U.S. president Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are re-nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.source

Named in the same entries