March 4 Illinois History Minute

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.