On August 20, 1956, former state auditor Orville Hodge astonished colleagues in the Republican Party and political observers across the state by pleading guilty to embezzlement. A perennial on listicles […]
Tag: 200 Years of Illinois
200 Years of Illinois: Playing the Numbers
On July 30, 1974, the state government of Illinois changed the dream life of its citizens. That day, the first state lottery tickets went on sale. Opened as a cabinet level […]
200 Years of Illinois: Darnell’s Folly
Summer is definitely the season for aerial tragedy in the Midwest. On July 26, 1911, Professor Harry Darnell took his place in that sad lore. Darnell stands tall in the […]
200 Years of Illinois: The Other Airship Disaster
Yesterday marked an unusual 97th anniversary. On July 21, 1919, an airship owned by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber cruised over Chicago, a pair of training runs that interested and […]
200 Years of Illinois: Goodbye Norma Jean
On July 17, 1972, disaster struck in Oquawka, for on that day a bolt from dark skies struck down a 6,500-lb. elephant named Norma Jean. The star of the Clark & […]
200 Years of Illinois: Follow that Bison
On July 15, 1805, William Rector undertook an important, if arduous, task. By government order, he was to survey the Buffalo Trace, also known as the Vincennes Trace, a makeshift […]
200 Years of Illinois: Triple Digits
Anyone who lived through the 1995 heat wave in Chicago remembers it, and the memories may be slightly more vivid for those who coped without air conditioning (hand up). It unfolded […]
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, […]
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, […]