Illinois History Minutes

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day, and on this day in 1843, the small but fast-growing city of Chicago held its first Saint Patrick’s Day parade, with a brass band and an Irish-American volunteer militia.
 
That’s music by the Smashing Pumpkins, co-founded by Irish-American rock musician Billy Corgan, born in Chicago on this day in 1967. Smashing Pumpkins enjoyed a string of hits in the 1990s. 

On this day in 1929, civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois argued for cultural equality for African-Americans, in a public debate with white Supremacist Lothrop Stoddard in Chicago. Stoddard argued that southern whites genuinely wanted separate accommodations for Blacks to be equal to that of whites, drawing laughter from the largely Black audience.
I’m Jim Meadows. Illinois Public Media.

It’s March 16th, and on this day in 1942, a tornado outbreak caused damage and death in five states. Two of the most violent tornadoes struck central Illinois. One killed seven people in Peoria and Marshall Counties, including three in the town of Lacon. Another killed 12 people in rural areas of Piatt, Champaign and Vermilion Counties. The University of Illinois’ Daily Illini reported that the tornado missed hitting Urbana by just a few hundred yards.

Retired baseball all-star player Curtis Granderson, “the Grandyman” was born in the Chicago suburb of Blue Island on this day in 1981. Granderson played for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and New York Mets. He’s president of the Players Alliance, which represents Black major league baseball players, both current and retired.
 

It’s March 15th, the Ides of March ---and one of the 20th century’s best-known Ides of March got its start in Illinois.

The Ides of March, a band from Berwyn, had their biggest hit with “Vehicle”, written by frontman Jim Peterik. The song was reportedly the fastest-selling single in the history of Warner Brothers Records.

On the other end of the musical spectrum is this string quartet by Ben Johnston, born on this day in 1926. While teaching at the University of Illinois, Johnston composed for a musical scale going beyond the intervals available on conventional instruments ---although he often adjusted those instruments so they could play them.

It’s March 11th, the birthday of actor Terence Howard, born in Chicago in 1959. His movie credits include “The Best Man”, “Crash” and “Hustle and Flow”. But he’s probably best known as record company patriarch Luscious Lyon, in the TV series “Empire”.

“A Raisin in the Sun” opened on Broadway on this day in 1959. Chicago native Lorraine Hansberry’s play tells the story of a Black Chicago family facing discrimination in their search for a house of their own. Sidney Poitier starred on stage and in the movie version as the struggling father.

It’s March 11th, the birthday of actor Terence Howard, born in Chicago in 1959. His movie credits include “The Best Man”, “Crash” and “Hustle and Flow”. But he’s probably best known as record company patriarch Luscious Lyon, in the TV series “Empire”.

“A Raisin in the Sun” opened on Broadway on this day in 1959. Chicago native Lorraine Hansberry’s play tells the story of a Black Chicago family facing discrimination in their search for a house of their own. Sidney Poitier starred on stage and in the movie version as the struggling father.

It’s March Tenth, the birthday of Edward Baker Lincoln, second son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Eddie Lincoln was born in 1846, and died of tuberculosis, a month before his fourth birthday. He was the first of three Lincoln children to die before reaching adulthood. His remains rest near his father’s at the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.

That’s music by pioneering jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who was born this day in 1903 in Davenport, on the Iowa side of the Quad Cities. At age 18, his parents sent him to a boarding school in the Chicago suburbs, where he would often travel into Chicago to hear --- and sometimes sit in with --- jazz bands at nightclubs and speakeasies. 

It’s March 9th, the day that judge and senator David Davis was born in Maryland in 1815. Settling in Bloomington after law school, Davis became a friend of Abraham Lincoln. Davis helped Lincoln secure the Republican nomination for president in 1860, and Lincoln later appointed Davis to the U-S Supreme Court.

Illinois lawmakers approved a direct primary law on this date in 1910, ensuring that Illinois’s major party candidates would be chosen by voters in primary elections, not at conventions or caucuses. 

Chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer was born in Chicago on this day in 1943. Fischer won the 1972 world chess championship at age 29, beating the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky, and interrupting the Soviets’ string of 24 consecutive world chess titles. 
 

March 8th is the day in 1924 that Addie L Wyatt was born. A Chicagoan from the age of six, she was the first African-American woman elected to a high-level post in a major labor union, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters. And as a pastor, Wyatt worked on civil rights campaigns with Dr. Martin Luther King Junior.

The Fulton County village of Avon was incorporated on this day in 1867. In earlier days, Avon thrived as a railroad stop between Chicago and Quincy. It was also the birthplace of radio announcer Ken Carpenter, whose voice was heard on several national programs during radio’s golden age. In particular, Ken Carpenter was singer Bing Crosby’s announcer for 27 years. 

And on this day in 1975, WILL-TV joined a growing list of public television stations airing the surreal British comedy series, Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The BBC series had ended production the year before, but its members would continue with a series of movies, including “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, released in April 1975.

It’s March 7th. And Basketball player Andy Phillip, Handy Andy, was born on this day in 1922 in Granite City.  The All-America forward led the Fighting Illini’s top-ranked Whiz Kids lineup of 1942-43. Philip began his NBA career with the Chicago Stags, and in the 50s, played in the league’s first five all-star games.

March 7th is also the day in 1981 that Star Wars came to WILL in a radio adaptation from NPR.

It’s March 4th, the day in 1837 when Chicago was incorporated as a city. Chicago had been founded some 50 years earlier by Haitian native Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, as a trading settlement. The city’s population peaked in 1950 with three-point-six million people. 

On March 4th, 1865, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as US president for a second term. He would be assassinated 41 days later. 

And March 4th is the birthday of Casimir Pulaski, known as the father of the US Cavalry. The native of Poland came to America in the 1770s to help lead the Continental Army during the American Revolution.  Monday is Casimir Pulaski Day in Illinois, an official state holiday. More than 7 percent of the state’s population is Polish.