The flag of Illinois
Illinois ( IL -in-OY ) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States . It borders Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash and Ohio rivers to its south. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP) , the sixth-largest population , and the 25th-most land area . Its largest urban areas include Chicago and the Metro East of Greater St. Louis , as well as Peoria , Rockford , Champaign–Urbana , and Springfield , the state's capital.
Illinois has a highly diverse economy , with the global city of Chicago in the northeast, major industrial and agricultural hubs in the north and center, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south. Owing to its central location and favorable geography, the state is a major transportation hub : the Port of Chicago has access to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway and to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River via the Illinois Waterway . Chicago has been the nation's railroad hub since the 1860s, and its O'Hare International Airport has been among the world's busiest airports for decades. Illinois has long been considered a microcosm of the United States and a bellwether in American culture, exemplified by the phrase Will it play in Peoria? .
Present-day Illinois was inhabited by various indigenous cultures for thousands of years, including the advanced civilization centered in the Cahokia region. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi and Illinois River in the 17th century in the region they called Illinois Country , as part of the sprawling colony of New France . Following U.S. independence in 1783 , American settlers began arriving from Kentucky via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. Illinois was part of the United States' oldest territory, the Northwest Territory , and in 1818 it achieved statehood . The Erie Canal brought increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes, and the small settlement of Chicago became one of the fastest growing cities in the world, benefiting from its location as one of the few natural harbors in southwestern Lake Michigan . The invention of the self-scouring steel plow by Illinoisan John Deere turned the state's rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden . In the mid-19th century, the Illinois and Michigan Canal and a sprawling railroad network greatly facilitated trade, commerce, and settlement, making the state a transportation hub for the nation.
General meeting at Soldier Field on June 21, 1926
The 28th International Eucharistic Congress was held in Chicago from June 20–24, 1926. The event, held by the Catholic Church , was a eucharistic congress , which is a large-scale gathering of Catholics that focuses on the Eucharist and other items of Catholic faith. The event was organized by Cardinal George Mundelein , the Archbishop of Chicago , and was the first International Eucharistic Congress held in the United States and the second in North America . The event attracted a large number of people to the city, with most sources claiming at least several hundred thousand attendees. Large events were held throughout the area, at locations including Soldier Field , Holy Name Cathedral , and the Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary . Some sources claim that approximately 1 million people attended the closing day mass held at the seminary in nearby Mundelein .
The congress is considered a major event in the history of Chicago , with some historians comparing the size of the event to the city's world's fairs . It is also regarded as an important occurrence in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States , as it demonstrated the size and power of the church in the historically Protestant United States.
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Otto Graham in 1959 as football coach at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy
Otto Graham (December 6, 1921 – December 17, 2003) was a professional basketball and football player. He played quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Graham is regarded by critics as one of the dominant players of his era, having taken the Browns to league championship games every year between 1946 and 1955, winning seven of them. While most of Graham's statistical records have been surpassed in the modern era, he still holds the NFL records for career average yards gained per pass attempt and for the highest career winning percentage for an NFL starting quarterback.
Graham grew up in Waukegan, Illinois , the son of music teachers. He entered Northwestern University in 1940 on a basketball scholarship, but football soon became his main sport. After a brief stint in the military at the end of World War II, Graham played for the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League (NBL), winning the 1945–46 championship . Paul Brown , Cleveland's coach, signed Graham to play for the Browns, where he thrived. Graham's 1946 NBL and AAFC titles made him the first of only two people to have won championships in two of the four major North American sports . After he retired from playing football in 1955, Graham coached for the College All-Star Game , the Coast Guard Academy , and the Washington Redskins . He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. (Read more... )
... that although Olga Hartman believed that her basic research on marine worms had no practical value, it was applied to experimental studies of oysters?
... that Jack Washburn was called "Cinderella Boy" for winning a starring role in his first Broadway show?
Image 2 The Twenty Acre Dairy Barn, first of the experimental
University of Illinois round barns . The barn was designed by James M. White and Kell & Bernard for the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1908
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 4 Lithograph advertisement for the
CH&D Railway showing the interior of a
Pullman dining car , 1894, with a
Pullman porter serving two men at a table.
Image credit: Strobridge & Co. (lithographers), Library of Congress (digital file), Mu (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 5 A
Canada goose (Branta canadensis) swimming in
Palatine .
Photo credit: Joe Ravi (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 6 The
Old State Capitol in
Springfield . Designed by
John F. Rague in a
Greek Revival style and completed in 1840, the building housed the
Illinois General Assembly until 1876.
Photo credit: Agriculture (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 7 "Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Republican
candidate for the presidency, 1860 ," a lithograph by Leopold Grozelier, et al. According to the Library of Congress, "Thomas Hicks painted a portrait of Lincoln at
his office in Springfield specifically for this lithograph."
Image credit: Thomas Hicks (painter), Leopold Grozelier (lithographer), W. William Schaus (publisher), J.H. Bufford's Lith. (printer), Adam Cuerden (restoration) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 8 Photograph of suffragette, social worker, philosopher, and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Jane Addams in 1924 or 1926.
Image credit: Bain News Service (photograph), Adam Cuerden (restoration) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 9 Plants of the
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in
Will County .
Tallgrass prairie once covered around two-thirds of Illinois. Midewin is the only federal tallgrass prairie preserve east of the
Mississippi River .
Photo credit: User:Alanscottwalker (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 10 A illustration of the Upper Bluff Lake Dancing Figures
repoussé copper plate , an artifact of the
Mississippian culture found at the Saddle Site in
Union County, Illinois .
Image credit: H. Rowe (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 11 Symbols of many religions are carved in concrete relief on the exterior of the
Bahá'í House of Worship in
Wilmette . The temple was designed by the architect
Louis Bourgeois and constructed between 1921 and 1953.
Image credit: ctot_not_def (photographer), Tobias Vetter (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 13 An illustration of
Kincaid Mounds , a city of the
Mississippian culture , at its height. The city was located near the Ohio River on the boundary of present day
Massac and
Pope Counties.
Image credit: H. Rowe (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 14 The water tower and barracks complex at
Fort Sheridan in 1898. The principal buildings of the fort were built between 1889 and 1910 by the firm
Holabird & Roche .
Image credit: Detroit Photographic Co. ; Bathgems (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 15 Magnolia Manor in
Cairo , built by businessman Charles A. Galigher in 1869.
Photo credit: MuZemike (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 17 The
Chicago Theatre . Designed by the firm
Rapp and Rapp , it was the flagship theater for
Balaban and Katz group.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 18 A mural by Chicago artist
Louis Grell in the
Springfield Amtrak station . The mural depicts a quote by Abraham Lincoln, a map of the post-1947
Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad , and the seals of the seven states that the railroad served.
Image credit: Louis Grell (painter), RI-Bill (photographer) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 19 Hohenbuehelia mastrucata mushroom growing in
Busse Woods ,
Elk Grove Village .
Image credit: Rocky Houghtby (photographer), Leoboudv (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 20 American Gothic , a 1930 painting by
Grant Wood , has been in the collection of the
Art Institute of Chicago since shortly after its creation. The painting is one of the most familiar images in 20th-century American art and has been widely parodied in popular culture.
Image credit: Grant Wood (painter), Google Art Project (digital file), DcoetzeeBot (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 22 Lincoln Home National Historic Site in
Springfield . The house was built for the Rev. Charles Dresser in 1839.
Abraham and
Mary Todd Lincoln purchased it in 1844, later adding a second story.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 24 "The Great Presidential Puzzle": This
chromolithograph cartoon about the
1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago shows
Roscoe Conkling , leader of the
Stalwarts of the Republican Party, playing a puzzle game. All blocks in the puzzle are the heads of the potential Republican presidential candidates. The cartoon parodies the famous
15 puzzle .
Image credit: Mayer, Merkel, & Ottmann (lithographers); James Albert Wales (artist); Jujutacular (digital retouching) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 25 Photograph of
Shoeless Joe Jackson ,
Black Betsy in hand, in 1913 with the
Cleveland Naps , prior to his seasons with the
Chicago White Sox .
Image credit: Charles M. Conlon (photographer), Mears Auctions (digital file), Scewing (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 26 The
McFarland Carillon is a 185-foot bell tower with 49 bells at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign . The tower was built in 2008-09 and was designed by Fred Guyton of Peckham, Guyton, Albers & Viets.
Image credit: Daniel Schwen (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 27 The
Lincoln Tomb in
Oak Ridge Cemetery ,
Springfield , where
Abraham Lincoln is buried alongside
Mary Todd Lincoln and three of their sons. The tomb, designed by
Larkin Goldsmith Mead , was completed in 1874.
Photo credit: David Jones (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 28 The
Cairo Mississippi River Bridge near the confluence of the
Mississippi and
Ohio Rivers at
Cairo , the lowest elevation in the state. The bridge was built in 1929 by the
American Bridge Company and the
Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co. Image credit: Nick Jordan (photographer), Fredddie (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 29 The dome of the
Illinois State Capitol . Designed by architects
Cochrane and Garnsey , the dome's interior features a plaster frieze painted to resemble bronze and illustrating scenes from Illinois history. Stained glass windows, including a stained glass replica of the
State Seal , appear in the oculus. Ground was first broken for the new capitol on March 11, 1869, and it was completed twenty years later.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 30 The "Chunkey Player" is an 8.5 inch (22 cm) high by 5.5 inch (14 cm) wide
Missouri flint clay statuette depicting a player of the ancient Native American game of
chunkey . Believed to have been originally crafted at or near the
Cahokia site in Illinois, it was found in
Muskogee County, Oklahoma .
Photo credit: User:TimVickers (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 31 The
Campana Factory in
Batavia . It was built in 1936 to serve as a factory for
The Campana Company , which produced Italian Balm, the most popular hand lotion in the United States during the
Great Depression . The
Streamline Moderne and
Bauhaus design by Frank D. Chase features many innovative technologies, such as air conditioning.
Photo credit: User:MrPanyGoff (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 32 The
Mendota Hills Wind Farm in
Lee County . Built in 2003 by Navitas Energy, Mendota Hills was the first utility scale wind farm in Illinois.
Photo credit: Dori (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 33 Martyrdom of Joseph and Hiram Smith in Carthage jail, June 27th, 1844. This unusual black-and-white
lithograph has a second yellow-brown layer on top of it.
Image credit: G.W. Fasel (painter); Charles G. Crehen (lithographer); Nagel & Weingaertner, N.Y. (publishers); Library of Congress (digital file); Adam Cuerden (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 35 A mill belonging to the grain company Bunge Lauhoff in downtown
Danville . The facility was built in 1947.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 36 "Let Go–But Stand By:" Photograph of
Frances Willard from her 1895 book,
A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle. The new
safety bicycle became
associated with women's emancipation .
Image credit: Frances E. Willard (book author), Woman's Temperance Publishing Association and Fleming H. Revell Co. (publishers), HathiTrust (digitization), Dennis Bratland (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 37 The
Garden of the Gods in
Shawnee National Forest . The
unglaciated gray
sandstone of the wilderness area is more rugged than most of Illinois.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 38 This 1941 photograph shows the maze of livestock pens and walkways at the
Union Stock Yards , Chicago.
Image credit: John Vachon , Farm Security Administration (photographer), Darwinek (digital retouching) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 41 Architectural details of
Altgeld Hall at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign . Designed by UIUC professors
Nathan Ricker and James McLaren White, the building is one of
Altgeld's castles .
Image credit: Kevin Dooley (photographer), Smallbones (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 42 A
great blue heron (Ardea herodias) flying with nesting material in Illinois. There is a colony of about twenty heron nests in trees nearby.
Image credit: PhotoBobil (photographer), Snowmanradio (upload), PetarM (digital retouching) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 43 The
coat of arms of Illinois as illustrated in the 1876 book
State Arms of the Union by
Louis Prang .
Image credit: Henry Mitchell (illustrator), Louis Prang & Co. (lithographer and publisher), Godot13 (restoration) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 44 The
LaSalle Rail Bridge and
Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge over the
Illinois River . The LaSalle Bridge was built by the
Illinois Central Railroad in 1893, and the Lincoln Bridge was built in 1987 with the construction of
Interstate 39 .
Image credit: Joseph Norton and Ronald Frazier (photographers), Alanscottwalker (upload) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 45 A street view of the
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in
Oak Park . Wright built the house in 1889 and added the Studio and Connecting Corridor in 1898. The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has restored the property to its appearance in 1909, the last year the architect lived there with his family.
Photo credit: User:Banewson (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 48 A view of Lake Falls in
Matthiessen State Park in
La Salle County near
Oglesby . The park's stream begins with the Lake Falls and flows into the
Vermillion River .
Photo credit: Cspayer (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 49 Chris Young winding up for a
four-seam fastball in the
bullpen while warming up before a 2007 game. Behind Young can be seen the
Wrigley Field scoreboard and bleachers.
Image credit: TonyTheTiger (photographer) and Jjron (editing) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 50 Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex in downtown
Chicago . The complex, designed by
Bertrand Goldberg and completed in 1964, consists of two corncob-shaped 179 m, 65-story towers.
Photo credit: Diego Delso (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 51 The
Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), the world's tallest building from 1973 to 2004. The tower's innovative
bundled tube structure was designed by
Bruce Graham and
Fazlur Khan .
Photo credit: Soakologist (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 52 Vandalia State House , the former state capitol. It was built in 1836 and is maintained by the
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency .
Photo credit: Art davis (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 53 A poster for the
Century of Progress World's Fair showing exhibition buildings with boats in the foreground..
Image credit: Weimer Pursell (artist); Neely Printing Co., Chicago (silkscreen print); Jujutacular (digital retouching) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
Image 55 A
pyrite disc, also called a "miner's dollar," from a coal mine in
Sparta .
Image credit: Cccefalon (photographer and digital retouching) (from
Portal:Illinois/Selected picture )
November 17, 2021: The John Deere strike (pictured) ends after more than a month when workers approve a third contract offer.
November 14, 2021: The last department store in Illinois belonging to Hoffman Estates -based Sears closes in Woodfield Mall .
November 4, 2021: J. B. Pritzker speaks alongside Governors David Ige , Kate Brown , and Jay Inslee at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference .
October 26, 2021: Workers for Chicago-based McDonald's in ten cities go on strike to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment in the workplace.
October 18, 2021: The Chicago Police Department reports that more than a third of its officers have failed to meet a deadline for reporting whether they have received a COVID-19 vaccine .
October 17, 2021: The Chicago Sky win the 2021 WNBA Finals , defeating the Phoenix Mercury in four games to win the team's first-ever championship.
October 14, 2021: 10,000 UAW workers go on strike (pictured) in Midwestern plants of Moline -based John Deere .
October 12, 2021: The Chicago White Sox lose the American League Division Series to Houston in four games.
October 11, 2021: David Card , former professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business , is awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics .
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