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 July 14th, and Illinois conducted its first execution as a state on this day in 1819, hanging John Killduck for murder. In all, Illinois executed about 360 people before the state ended capital punishment --- first with a moratorium on executions from Governor George Ryan in 2003, and then with a state law ending the death penalty in 2011.
It’s July 13th, and on this day in 1787, Congress under the Articles of Confederation passed the Northwest Ordinance. The measure established a government for the Northwest Territory, which included the future state of Illinois. The Northwest Ordinance also outlined the process for admitting new states to the union, equal in stature to the original thirteen states
It’s July 11th, and on this day in 1955, the Daily Illini reported that a trademark had been granted by the Illinois Secretary of State’s office for the name “Dog ‘n’ Suds”. Two U of I music teachers, Donald Hamacher and Jim Griggs, opened the first Dog ‘n’ Suds in Champaign in 1953.
It’s July 8th. And on this day in 2009, Cook County sheriff’s investigators raided Burr Oak Cemetery, a predominately Black cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip. Acting on a complaint filed by the owners, they found that employees were reselling already used cemetery plots, either by digging up and dumping bodies from older graves or burying the recently deceased on top of them. Eventually, four employees were convicted in the case. A reinternment ceremony for remains that had been disturbed was held in 2016.
It’s July Seventh, and fluorite, also called fluorspar, was designated as Illinois’ official state mineral in 1965. Fluorite has both decorative and industrial uses and was a vital component in steel production during World War Two. Mines in Pope and Hardin Counties in southern Illinois once produced the majority of the nation’s fluorite. But other countries started selling the mineral more cheaply, and the last Illinois fluorite mine closed in 1995.
It’s July Sixth, and on this day in 1915, the Illinois General Assembly approved a state flag design, chosen through a contest held by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
It’s July Fifth, a good day to go out and pick some violets. Specifically, the common blue violet, also known as the dooryard violet, the wood violet and by other names. Violets can be found all over Illinois, their blue, purple, or white heart-shaped petals decorating gardens, and growing wild in lawns, woods and wetlands.
It’s July First. And on this day in 1969, Governor Richard Ogilvie signed a bill creating Illinois’ first state income tax. The tax had passed on a bipartisan vote. But when the Republican Ogilvie invited Democratic legislative leaders to the signing ceremony, they refused to come. Illinois’ original state income tax was a flat 2-point-5 percent for individuals and four percent for corporations. It’s gone up since then.
It’s June 29th , and on this day in 1889, voters in four Illinois townships and part of a fifth, agreed to join the city of Chicago.
It’s June 28th. And on this day in 1970, the Chicago Sunday Tribune devoted three paragraphs to the city’s first gay pride parade, held the day before, on the one-year anniversary of the New York Stonewall riots. The newspaper reported that some 150 people kept on marching after the planned route was done, ending up at the downtown Picasso sculpture, where they held a chain dance and chanted “Gay power to gay people”.
