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Dateline
- 1673 French explorers Marquette and Joliet discover portage at Chicago linking the Great Lakes region with the Mississippi River valley.
- 1779 Afro-French-Canadian trapper Jean Baptiste Point du Sable establishes a trading post on the north bank of the Chicago River. A settlement follows 2 years later.
- 1794 Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne defeats the British in the Battle of Fallen Timbers; England finally cedes disputed Illinois Territory to the young American Republic by treaty a year later.
- 1803 Garrison of Fort Dearborn is established in Chicago.
- 1812 Incited by the British in the War of 1812, Potawatomi Indians destroy Fort Dearborn and slay its residents.
- 1818 Illinois is admitted to the Union as the 21st state.
- 1833 Town of Chicago is officially incorporated, with about 300 residents.
- 1837 Chicago is incorporated as a city, with about 4,000 residents.
- 1847 Chicago Tribune begins publishing.
- 1848 The 96-mile Illinois and Michigan Canal opens, linking the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River.
- 1850 Chicago's population is roughly 30,000.
- 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominates Abraham Lincoln for the presidency.
- 1865 After Lincoln's assassination, his body lies in state at the Chicago Courthouse. More than 125,000 mourners pay their respects. Chicago stockyards are founded.
- 1870 City's population numbers almost 300,000, making it perhaps the fastest-growing metropolis in history.
- 1871 Great Chicago Fire burns large sections of the city; rebuilding begins while the ashes are still warm.
- 1882 The 10-story Montauk Building, the world's first skyscraper, is erected.
- 1885 William Le Baron Jenney's nine-story Home Insurance Building, the world's first steel-frame skyscraper, is built.
- 1886 Bomb explodes during a political rally near Haymarket Square, causing a riot in which eight policemen and four civilians are killed and almost 100 are wounded. Eight labor leaders and socialist-anarchists are later convicted in one of the country's most controversial trials. Four are eventually hanged.
- 1892 The city's first elevated train goes into operation.
- 1893 Completely recovered from the Great Fire, Chicago stages its first World's Fair, the World's Columbian Exposition. The world's first Ferris wheel is a big draw.
- 1894 Led by Eugene V. Debs, members of the American Railway Union hold a massive strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company; President Grover Cleveland calls in federal troops after 2 months, ending the strike.
- 1900 The flow of the Chicago River is reversed to end the dumping of sewage into Lake Michigan.
- 1905 Wobblies, or Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), founded in Chicago. Robert S. Abbott founds the Chicago Defender, which becomes the nation's premier African-American newspaper.
- 1908 The Chicago Cubs win their second World Series. They haven't won one since!
- 1917 The Chicago White Sox win the World Series. They haven't won one since!
- 1919 "Black Sox" bribery scandal perpetrated by eight White Sox players stuns baseball.
- 1920-33 During Prohibition, Chicago becomes a "wide-open town"; rival mobs battle violently throughout the city for control of distribution and sale of illegal alcohol.
- 1924 University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks. They are defended by famed attorney Clarence Darrow and are found guilty, but spared the death penalty, in the "Trial of the Century."
- 1929 On St. Valentine's Day, Al Capone's gang murders seven members of rival George "Bugs" Moran's crew in a Clark Street garage.
- 1931 Al Capone finally goes to jail, not for bootlegging or murder but for tax evasion.
- 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is nominated for the presidency by the Democratic National Convention, held at Chicago Stadium (since demolished).
- 1933 Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, on a political trip to Miami, is shot and killed during an attempt on president-elect FDR's life.
- 1933-34 Chicago plays host to its second World's Fair, "A Century of Progress." The biggest attraction is fan dancer Sally Rand, who wears only two large ostrich feathers.
- 1934 Police gun down bank robber and "Public Enemy Number One" John Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater.
- 1942 Scientists, led by Enrico Fermi, create the world's first nuclear chain reaction under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago.
- 1945 The Chicago Cubs make their most recent appearance in the World Series -- and lose to Detroit.
- 1953 Chicago native Hugh Hefner starts publishing Playboy (the original Playboy Mansion was in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood).
- 1955 Richard J. Daley begins term as mayor; he is widely regarded as the "last of the big-city bosses."
- 1959 Chicago White Sox make their most recent World Series appearance and lose to Los Angeles.
- 1966 Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., moves to Chicago to lead a fair housing campaign.
- 1968 After King's assassination, much of the West Side burns during heavy rioting. Anti-Vietnam War protests in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention end in police riot and a "shoot to kill" order by Mayor Richard J. Daley.
- 1969 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are killed in a police raid on the West Side headquarters of the radical Black Panther party.
- 1974 The 1,454-foot Sears Tower, the tallest building in the world, is completed.
- 1976 Mayor Daley dies in office.
- 1979 Jane Byrne becomes the first woman elected mayor of Chicago.
- 1983 Harold Washington becomes the first African-American mayor of Chicago.
- 1986 The Chicago Bears win their only Super Bowl.
- 1987 Mayor Washington dies in office.
- 1989 Richard M. Daley, the son of the long-serving mayor, is elected mayor.
- 1994 Chicago is host to portions of soccer's World Cup, including the opening ceremonies.
- 1996 The city patches up its turbulent political history by serving as the site of the Democratic National Convention, its first national political gathering in 3 decades.
- 1999 Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player ever, retires (for the second time) after leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships in the previous 8 years.
- 2000 The Goodman Theatre opens its new $46-million theater complex in the Loop, completing the revitalization of a downtown theater district.
- 2001 Chicago's second airport, Midway, opens a new $800-million terminal, attracting new airlines and giving travelers more options for Chicago flights.
- 2004 Millennium Park, Chicago's largest public-works project in decades, opens at the north end of Grant Park.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
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