( Fort Dearborn )
In 1673 French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet passed through what is now Chicago.
They found a low, swampy area that the region’s Native Americans, mainly Sac (Sauk), Mesquakie, and Potawatomi, called “Checagou,” referring to the wild onion that grew in marshlands along Lake Michigan.
About a century later, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Haitian trader, established the first permanent dwelling near the mouth of the Chicago River.
In 1803 the U.S. Army built Fort Dearborn along the river to protect the strategic waterway linkage.
At the beginning of the War of 1812, the fort was evacuated, and nearly all the soldiers and settlers were killed by Native Americans; the fort was destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1816, but settlement remained sparse until the Native Americans were removed in the mid-1830s.
By 1837, spurred by harbor improvements and the start of construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Chicago’s population had reached 4,000, and the community was incorporated as a city. Growth was rapid and was soon bolstered by the completion of the canal, in 1848, and the coming of the railroads, in the early 1850s.
The consolidated Union Stock Yards opened in 1865; cattle, hogs, and sheep were shipped by rail to Chicago for slaughter and packing.
Attracted by economic opportunities, immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia settled in Chicago.
The city was first predominantly a port and trading center for raw materials from the Midwest and finished goods from the East, but it soon developed as a national railroad junction and an important manufacturing center.
Waves of immigrants, including Poles, Jews from many countries, Serbs, Russians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Italians, and Greeks, arrived in the city.
Social reformers Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House (1889) to address immigrants’ needs and to lobby for reform.
The generally low-paying jobs and substandard living conditions of immigrants in Chicago were exposed in the 1906 novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
The years of World War I (1914-1918) marked the beginning of the great migration north of Southern blacks seeking better opportunities.
From October 8 to 10, 1871, a great fire killed at least 250 people, left 90,000 homeless, and destroyed about 10 sq km (about 4 sq mi) of central Chicago (nearly one-third of the total area).
According to legend, the fire started when a cow kicked over a lantern in a backyard shed after an extreme dry spell had left the city particularly susceptible to fire.
The city was quickly rebuilt and continued its rapid growth. The fire’s chief consequence was to reorient the retail business district away from the Chicago River toward a new axis along State Street.
During the second half of the 19th century, the city’s large industrial-worker population campaigned actively for an eight-hour work day, better working conditions, and better wages.
Workers clashed with police on several occasions, including the Haymarket Square Riot of May 4, 1886. Two civilians and seven policemen were killed, and approximately 150 people were wounded.
In nearby Pullman on June 27, 1894, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company, a manufacturer of railroad sleeping cars, went on strike to protest unfair wage practices and unfavorable living and working conditions in the company town.
The American Railway Union responded with a sympathy strike. Workers and their families were attacked by railroad deputies, federal troops, and city police. At least 30 people were killed and 100 wounded before the strike was broken on July 17.
By 1890, mainly because of the city’s annexation of numerous suburbs, Chicago’s population had surpassed 1 million.
Three years later the city hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the European arrival in America.
Daniel Burnham, the chief architect of the exposition, later developed a plan to guide Chicago’s physical expansion through the 20th century.
His Plan of Chicago, published in 1909, proposed a network of parks along Lake Michigan and throughout the city, a system of avenues connecting the center city with its suburbs and the suburbs with one another, and various other features. Much of the plan was implemented in subsequent decades.
Alternate periods of corruption and reform characterized the city’s political history in the early 20th century.
In the summer of 1919 race riots erupted throughout the United States, the worst occurring in Chicago on July 27.
When a black youth swimming in Lake Michigan drifted into an area reserved for whites, he was stoned and drowned.
Police refused to arrest the white man whom black observers considered responsible, and angry crowds gathered on the beach. Violence erupted and continued throughout the city for several days, resulting in 38 dead, 537 injured, and 1,000 black families left homeless.
The riots shocked the nation and prompted many to launch efforts toward racial equality through volunteer organizations and reform legislation.
During the Prohibition era (1919-1933) Chicago became notorious for its bootleggers and gangsters, such as Al Capone and “Bugs” Moran, and for the ruthless gang warfare in which they engaged.
The latter was epitomized by the infamous Saint Valentine’s Day massacre of 1929, in which Capone won control of Chicago’s underworld when unidentified individuals, some dressed as police officers, killed six of Moran’s gangsters and associates.
The population of Chicago continued to grow until it reached a peak of more than 3.6 million in 1950.
Since World War II ended in 1945, Chicago has experienced an increase in its black and Hispanic populations, which have moved into formerly white residential areas as whites moved to the rapidly growing suburbs.
Since the early 1950s, numerous projects, such as extensive slum clearance and rehabilitation and the construction of a network of expressways, have been undertaken to alleviate urban decay and ensure the future prosperity of the central area.
The latest improvement is the Deep Tunnel project, an underground network of tunnels, reservoirs, and pollution-control systems designed to hold excess storm water and sewage.
Deep Tunnel, begun in 1976, is one of the largest municipal public-works projects in the history of the United States. When the project is fully completed, it will comprise 180 km (110 mi) of tunnels.
Chicago has a tradition of provocative, sometimes controversial political leadership. Mayor William Hale Thompson led a deeply corrupt administration during the 1920s.
Richard J. Daley, the archetypal city “boss,” served as mayor from 1955 to 1976.
A Democrat, Daley wielded a great deal of power in this largely Democratic city. He governed by the spoils system (rewarding political allies with jobs), and he delivered many local votes for Democratic presidential candidates.
In 1968 protesters staged a demonstration against the Vietnam War in Chicago during the Democratic presidential convention. Daley ordered aggressive police action to quash the protest. The ensuing violence by police led to several days of rioting.
Following Daley’s death in 1976, ward politics decentralized under successive mayors, including the city’s first woman mayor, Jane Byrne (1979-1983), and its first black mayor, Harold Washington (1983-1987).
Washington built a progressive, interracial coalition, but the coalition did not survive the mayor’s untimely death in 1987. In 1989 Richard M. Daley, the son of Richard J. Daley, became mayor of Chicago; he was reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003.
In April 1992 an engineering accident at a bridge reconstruction project sent river water rushing into the city’s abandoned underground freight tunnels; the resulting flood caused extensive damage to the downtown district.
The flood disrupted markets at the Chicago Board of Trade for a week and closed the subway for 25 days.
In the 2000 national census, the city of Chicago showed a population increase for the first time in 50 years. This gain was due to a variety of factors. The city experienced an influx of immigrants, especially Hispanics and Asians.
In addition, the city government tried to attract and retain residents by undertaking urban renewal projects and improving public schools.
The city was also able to provide economic incentives to businesses because of the economic boom of the 1990s.
They found a low, swampy area that the region’s Native Americans, mainly Sac (Sauk), Mesquakie, and Potawatomi, called “Checagou,” referring to the wild onion that grew in marshlands along Lake Michigan.
About a century later, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Haitian trader, established the first permanent dwelling near the mouth of the Chicago River.
In 1803 the U.S. Army built Fort Dearborn along the river to protect the strategic waterway linkage.
At the beginning of the War of 1812, the fort was evacuated, and nearly all the soldiers and settlers were killed by Native Americans; the fort was destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1816, but settlement remained sparse until the Native Americans were removed in the mid-1830s.
By 1837, spurred by harbor improvements and the start of construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Chicago’s population had reached 4,000, and the community was incorporated as a city. Growth was rapid and was soon bolstered by the completion of the canal, in 1848, and the coming of the railroads, in the early 1850s.
The consolidated Union Stock Yards opened in 1865; cattle, hogs, and sheep were shipped by rail to Chicago for slaughter and packing.
Attracted by economic opportunities, immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia settled in Chicago.
The city was first predominantly a port and trading center for raw materials from the Midwest and finished goods from the East, but it soon developed as a national railroad junction and an important manufacturing center.
Waves of immigrants, including Poles, Jews from many countries, Serbs, Russians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Italians, and Greeks, arrived in the city.
Social reformers Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House (1889) to address immigrants’ needs and to lobby for reform.
The generally low-paying jobs and substandard living conditions of immigrants in Chicago were exposed in the 1906 novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
The years of World War I (1914-1918) marked the beginning of the great migration north of Southern blacks seeking better opportunities.
From October 8 to 10, 1871, a great fire killed at least 250 people, left 90,000 homeless, and destroyed about 10 sq km (about 4 sq mi) of central Chicago (nearly one-third of the total area).
According to legend, the fire started when a cow kicked over a lantern in a backyard shed after an extreme dry spell had left the city particularly susceptible to fire.
The city was quickly rebuilt and continued its rapid growth. The fire’s chief consequence was to reorient the retail business district away from the Chicago River toward a new axis along State Street.
During the second half of the 19th century, the city’s large industrial-worker population campaigned actively for an eight-hour work day, better working conditions, and better wages.
Workers clashed with police on several occasions, including the Haymarket Square Riot of May 4, 1886. Two civilians and seven policemen were killed, and approximately 150 people were wounded.
In nearby Pullman on June 27, 1894, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company, a manufacturer of railroad sleeping cars, went on strike to protest unfair wage practices and unfavorable living and working conditions in the company town.
The American Railway Union responded with a sympathy strike. Workers and their families were attacked by railroad deputies, federal troops, and city police. At least 30 people were killed and 100 wounded before the strike was broken on July 17.
By 1890, mainly because of the city’s annexation of numerous suburbs, Chicago’s population had surpassed 1 million.
Three years later the city hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the European arrival in America.
Daniel Burnham, the chief architect of the exposition, later developed a plan to guide Chicago’s physical expansion through the 20th century.
His Plan of Chicago, published in 1909, proposed a network of parks along Lake Michigan and throughout the city, a system of avenues connecting the center city with its suburbs and the suburbs with one another, and various other features. Much of the plan was implemented in subsequent decades.
Alternate periods of corruption and reform characterized the city’s political history in the early 20th century.
In the summer of 1919 race riots erupted throughout the United States, the worst occurring in Chicago on July 27.
When a black youth swimming in Lake Michigan drifted into an area reserved for whites, he was stoned and drowned.
Police refused to arrest the white man whom black observers considered responsible, and angry crowds gathered on the beach. Violence erupted and continued throughout the city for several days, resulting in 38 dead, 537 injured, and 1,000 black families left homeless.
The riots shocked the nation and prompted many to launch efforts toward racial equality through volunteer organizations and reform legislation.
During the Prohibition era (1919-1933) Chicago became notorious for its bootleggers and gangsters, such as Al Capone and “Bugs” Moran, and for the ruthless gang warfare in which they engaged.
The latter was epitomized by the infamous Saint Valentine’s Day massacre of 1929, in which Capone won control of Chicago’s underworld when unidentified individuals, some dressed as police officers, killed six of Moran’s gangsters and associates.
The population of Chicago continued to grow until it reached a peak of more than 3.6 million in 1950.
Since World War II ended in 1945, Chicago has experienced an increase in its black and Hispanic populations, which have moved into formerly white residential areas as whites moved to the rapidly growing suburbs.
Since the early 1950s, numerous projects, such as extensive slum clearance and rehabilitation and the construction of a network of expressways, have been undertaken to alleviate urban decay and ensure the future prosperity of the central area.
The latest improvement is the Deep Tunnel project, an underground network of tunnels, reservoirs, and pollution-control systems designed to hold excess storm water and sewage.
Deep Tunnel, begun in 1976, is one of the largest municipal public-works projects in the history of the United States. When the project is fully completed, it will comprise 180 km (110 mi) of tunnels.
Chicago has a tradition of provocative, sometimes controversial political leadership. Mayor William Hale Thompson led a deeply corrupt administration during the 1920s.
Richard J. Daley, the archetypal city “boss,” served as mayor from 1955 to 1976.
A Democrat, Daley wielded a great deal of power in this largely Democratic city. He governed by the spoils system (rewarding political allies with jobs), and he delivered many local votes for Democratic presidential candidates.
In 1968 protesters staged a demonstration against the Vietnam War in Chicago during the Democratic presidential convention. Daley ordered aggressive police action to quash the protest. The ensuing violence by police led to several days of rioting.
Following Daley’s death in 1976, ward politics decentralized under successive mayors, including the city’s first woman mayor, Jane Byrne (1979-1983), and its first black mayor, Harold Washington (1983-1987).
Washington built a progressive, interracial coalition, but the coalition did not survive the mayor’s untimely death in 1987. In 1989 Richard M. Daley, the son of Richard J. Daley, became mayor of Chicago; he was reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003.
In April 1992 an engineering accident at a bridge reconstruction project sent river water rushing into the city’s abandoned underground freight tunnels; the resulting flood caused extensive damage to the downtown district.
The flood disrupted markets at the Chicago Board of Trade for a week and closed the subway for 25 days.
In the 2000 national census, the city of Chicago showed a population increase for the first time in 50 years. This gain was due to a variety of factors. The city experienced an influx of immigrants, especially Hispanics and Asians.
In addition, the city government tried to attract and retain residents by undertaking urban renewal projects and improving public schools.
The city was also able to provide economic incentives to businesses because of the economic boom of the 1990s.
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