A small plate o’ University of Illinois trivia to help you pass that long Friday before the holiday break: 1. A fictional genius named Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai created the HAL 9000 in […]
Category: Illinois / regional
200 Years of Illinois: Black Hawk Eternal
Lorado Taft was at the height of his powers when he created The Eternal Indian, the towering concrete statue that watches over the Rock River in Lowden State Park near Oregon. […]
200 Years of Illinois: Union Forever
In 1862, as the Civil War raged and a Confederate victory seemed quite possible, many of the tensions unleashed by the war found a stage in Pekin. There, on June 25, […]
Throwbacklist Thursday
The month of June brings countless pleasures to the Midwest. Few exceed the overwhelming presence of fresh produce at semi-affordable prices. At last, we can put aside the beyond-tired apples […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: The Land Between the Coasts
Ninety-eight years ago, the founders of the University of Illinois Press considered its mission. Academics will disagree, of course. Debates raged. Memos were strongly worded. But it all worked out in […]
200 Years of Illinois: Home of the Keeley Cure
June 10 marks the birthday of Leslie E. Keeley, founder of the Keeley Institute in Dwight. A historical curiosity today, Keeley was world famous in his own time as the […]
200 Years of Illinois: The most dangerous root
Horseradish sparks opinions as strong as its taste. Most people, truth to tell, want nothing to do with the root in its fiery, ground-up form. Their relationship to horseradish rests mainly on […]
200 Years of Illinois: Miles to East St. Louis
The world changed on May 26, 1926, for on that day Miles Davis entered the world in Alton. The Davises initially lived at 1112 Milnor Street. When Miles was two, […]
200 Years of Illinois: Final Flight
American Airlines Flight 191 crashed on May 25, 1979. All of the 271 people aboard died, as did two more on the ground. The cause: an improperly repaired engine mount […]
200 Years of Illinois: The Great Depression Is our dinner
May 20, 1935 proved that budget impasses have played a part in Illinois history for a long time. That day, the papers printed warnings that over a million state residents […]
200 Years of Illinois: Near and Deere
Fleeing debt, John Deere made his way from Vermont to Illinois with a dream: to earn big money making tools. The blacksmith settled in the charmingly-named Grand Detour, Illinois, and […]
Sweet home Chicago
May 11-13, 2016, the publishing industry will descend upon the City of Big Shoulders for the textapalooza that is BookExpo America. BEA, held at Chicago’s McCormick Place this spring, is […]