Illinois History Minutes

It’s March 31st, and on this day in 1980, the Rock Island line ran its last train, ending more than a century of operations. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad reached its peak in the 1950s.  But its rail network, laid out in the 19th century, could no longer compete with other midwestern railroads.

It’s March 30th, the day in 1981 that President Ronald Reagan was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt. The Illinois native was shot outside a Washington D.C. hotel by John Hinckley Junior. Initial news reports said the president had escaped injury, then that he did not seem to be seriously injured, as White House correspondent Bill Greenwood reported on ABC television.

It’s March 28th, and on this day in 1981, union workers at the Hi-Flier kite factory in Decatur gathered to learn details of the factory’s imminent closing, after years of declining profits. Harvey A. Sellers had launched the company 60 years earlier in his basement. Hi-Flier grew to be the nation’s largest kite maker, selling designs with elaborate names like American Beauty, Strat-o-Flier and Playmates of the Clouds.

Jonathan Van Ness, the grooming expert on the TV show Queer Eye, was born in Quincy on this day in 1987. The show traveled to Quincy for one episode, where Van Ness visited with the Gay-Straight Alliance at his old high school.

It’s March 25th, the anniversary of the 1947 Centralia mine disaster. Coal dust was ignited in the Centralia Number Five coal mine – the exact cause remains uncertain. 31 miners escaped the resulting explosion, but 111 were killed --- some from the explosion itself, others due to the toxic gases produced. The farewell notes written by suffocating miners were remembered in a song by Woody Guthrie.

The Centralia mine disaster and a similar one four years later in West Frankfort led to new mine safety regulations, that have helped reduce the number of deaths.
I’m Jim Meadows. Illinois Public Media.

It’s March 24th, the day explorer John Wesley Powell was born in 1834. Powell taught geology at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. But he’s most famous for his field work, including his groundbreaking 1869 expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers – including the Grand Canyon.

Photographer Edward Weston was born on this day in 1886 in Highland Park, and grew up in Chicago. His fame as a photographer would come in California, where he was known for his photos of nudes, landscapes and natural forms. 

An 1867 Illinois Supreme Court ruling said it was impossible for married women to own earnings and property, separate from their husbands. But on this day in 1869, state lawmakers approved a Married Women’s Property Act that did just that, joining a national trend. 
I’m Jim Meadows, Illinois Public Media. 

It’s March 23rd, the birthday of two top entertainers born in Illinois.
 
Chaka Khan, born in Chicago in 1953, charted her biggest commercial success with this cover of a song by Prince in 1984. It’s one of many hit records she recorded, both on her own, and with the Chicago-based funk band Rufus.

Today’s also the birthday of country singer Brett Eldredge, born in Paris Illinois in 1986. 

“I Wanna Be That Song” is one of five Eldredge singles that have topped the Billboard Country Airplay charts. 
 

Myra Bradwell tried to become Illinois’ first female practicing attorney in 1869. But the courts turned her down, citing laws barring women from signing contracts without their husbands’ consent. Bradwell’s legal battle led to Illinois lawmakers passing the first law in the country prohibiting gender-based discrimination in employment --- outside of the military. It happened on this day, March 22nd, in 1872. Bradwell finally won admission to the bar in the 1890s, a few years before her death.

On this day in 1933, Governor Henry Horner signed Illinois’ first state sales tax. The three percent tax did not include farm produce sold directly to consumers --- or gasoline, which was already taxed. Today, the Illinois sales tax rate is 6-point-25 percent, higher in many places due to additional local sales taxes.

It’s March 21st, the second day of spring. And in the spring of 1814, the Illinois territory got its first newspaper. Matthew Duncan, who had a contract to print territorial statutes, founded the newspaper as a four-page weekly. After some name and ownership changes, it became known as the Illinois Intelligencer. It was published first in the territorial capital of Kaskaskia, then the new state capital of Vandalia, before folding around the time of the Blackhawk War in 1832.

On this day in 1860, Republican lieutenant governor John Wood of Quincy became governor. Wood was the state’s first lieutenant governor to become governor office after the death of a predecessor, in this case, William Henry Bissell. Wood’s ten months as governor are considered uneventful. He never sought elected office again.  
 

It’s March 18th, the day that Jacob Bunn was born in New Jersey in 1814. Jacob and his younger brother John Whitfield Bunn moved to Springfield where they opened a wholesale grocery business, as well as many others, from insurance to pocket watches. They were close friends and political supporters of Abraham Lincoln. The Bunn-O-Matic coffee machines seen in convenience stores and office breakrooms were spun off from the Bunns’ original grocery business.

That’s singing cowboy Gene Autrey harmonizing with sidekick Smiley Burnett, who also wrote that song, and hundreds of others. Burnett, original name Lester, was born on this day in 1911 in rural Fulton County. He was nicknamed Smiley while performing on the radio in Tuscola – before moving on to Hollywood.