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 November 18th, and attorney and journalist Megyn Kelly was born on this day in Champaign in 1970. Kelly was an attorney for several years, including in Chicago, before moving to TV as a journalist and talk show host.
It’s November 17th. And on this day in 1909, people in the northern Illinois town of Cherry were still waiting for underground coal fires to subside, so that they could bring out the victims of one of the nation’s worst mining disasters.
It’s November 16th, and on this day in 1928, students at Eureka College in central Illinois held a midnight chapel meeting. There, a freshman named Ronald “Dutch” Reagan spoke passionately in favor of a five-day strike to protest academic budget cuts. The future president later said the reaction from fellow students made him realize for the first time his power to persuade others with his speech.
It’s November 15th. And newspaper columnist Franklin Pierce Adams was born in Chicago on this day in 1881. Adams started his career writing sports and humor columns at the Chicago Journal. But he gained his greatest fame in New York City, where he appeared on radio’s ‘Information Please” and joined other noted wits at the Algonquin Round Table.
It’s November 14th. And Illinois’ first governor, Shadrach Bond, was born on this day in 1773 near Baltimore Maryland.
It’s November 11th, Veterans Day, originally known as Armistice Day, and the first day of what came to be known as the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940. Several midwestern states were hit by sharp temperature drops, heavy snow and high winds. The storm killed 146 people, including thirteen in Illinois.
It’s November 10th, and commercial river traffic in Illinois got its start on this day in 1810, when William Boone and his indentured servant Peter unloaded a shipment of coal in New Orleans, which they had brought down the Mississippi River by raft from Illinois’ first commercial coal mine.
It’s November 9th, and baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog was born on this day in New Athens, Illinois. That’s close to St. Louis, where Herzog managed the St. Louis Cardinals throughout the 1980s. He guided the Cards to three National League pennants, including a 1982 World Series championship over the Milwaukee Brewers.
It’s November 8th. And actress Ethel Clayton was born in Champaign on this day in 1882. Clayton acted on Broadway and became a star of silent movies such “The Young Mrs. Winthrop” and “A City Sparrow”. But she dropped down to minor roles with the coming of sound.
It’s November 7th, the day in 1837 that abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot and killed during an attack on the warehouse holding his printing press in the Mississippi River town of Alton. Lovejoy published his paper, the Observer, in the St. Louis area, where support for slavery was high.
