As WILL-AM celebrates a century of being on the air, we are sharing a minute-long snippet of Illinois history every weekday in 2022. This daily feature includes memorable people, places and events of that helped shape the prairie state.
Hosted by Illinois Public Media reporter Jim Meadows, the minute of Illinois History will air on WILL-AM/FM at 7:42 a.m. during Morning Edition and 5:32 p.m. during All Things Considered; as well as on WILL-AM in the 1 o'clock hour of Here & Now and at 8 o'clock in the evening. We've also made them available below for all of you history buffs!
It’s August 12th. And on this day in 1833, the Chicago Town Board of Trustees held its first meeting. About 300 people lived in Chicago at the time it was incorporated as a town. By the 1870s, its population had soared past 300-thousand. One reason for Chicago’s tremendous growth --- its location on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, which, thanks to the Illinois and Michigan Canal, would make it a major Midwest port city.
It’s August 11th, the day that attorney Robert Ingersoll was born in New York State in 1833. Ingersoll lived for several years in southern Illinois and Peoria, where he became one of the best-known Republicans of his day. But despite an appointment as Illinois attorney general, Ingersoll could not win an election, because of his open rejection of religion, earning him the title, the Great Agnostic.
It’s August 10th, the day, in 1887, of one of the worst train wrecks in American rail history --- the Great Chatsworth Train Wreck in Livingston County. A bridge collapsed underneath a Toledo Peoria and Western excursion train carrying more than 500 passengers bound for Niagara Falls. About 85 people were killed in the accident, and scores were injured.
This music is widely recognized as the first to be composed by a computer. The Illiac Suite for string quartet had its first performance on this day, April 9th in 1956, at the University of Illinois. It was composed on the U of I’s Illiac One computer, using a computer program created by Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson.
It’s August 8th, and the third of Illinois’ four state constitutions went into effect on this day in 1870. The document gave Illinois government its heavy reliance on property taxes, and its unusual cumulative voting system, which magnified the minority party’s voice in the Illinois House until its repeal in 1980.
It’s August 5th. And on this day in 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior attempted to lead 700 marchers through the all-white neighborhoods of Marquette Park and Gage Park in Chicago, as part of a campaign for fair housing practices. But the march was met by thousands of white counter-protesters, who attacked with bricks, bottles and cherry bombs and hit King in the head with a rock.
It’s August 4th. And Barack Obama was born on this day in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was two years out of college when he first came to Illinois in 1985.
It’s August Third, and one of the fathers of modern dentistry was born on this day in 1836 in Scott County Illinois. Greene Vardiman Black, also known as G.V. Black, began his dental career in Jacksonville after the Civil War, and later became dean of the dental school at Northwestern. Black wrote books on dental science and invented a foot-driven dental drill. His classifications for five types of cavities are still in use today, although a sixth category was added later.
It’s August 2nd, and Illinois Governor Joel Matteson was born on this day in 1809. Although a popular and respected Democrat, Matteson is remembered today for a scandal.
It’s July 29th, and on this day in 1829, negotiations wrapped up on the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien, between President Andrew Jackson’s administration and the United Nations of Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians. The treaty gave the U-S more than 3-thousand acres of land in Illinois and Wisconsin.
