October 20 Illinois History Minute

It’s October 20th, and Republican Congressman James Robert Mann was born near Bloomington on this day in 1856. Mann served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 25 years, including eight years as House Minority Leader from 1911 to 1919. He introduced the legislation that became the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of food and medicine. The Mann Act is named after him. That’s the 1910 law meant to fight human trafficking and prostitution, although vague language in the act also led to criminalization of sexual acts among consenting adults.

Don Mullally was born in Detroit on this day in 1937. He was WILL’s director of broadcasting for more than 30 years starting in 1973. Mullally’s goal for WILL was programming that went beyond the lowest common denominator.