HISTORY OF CHICAGO AND ILLINOIS
10000-8000 BC Paleo Indians roam the Area
8000-500 BC Archaic Indians inhabit forests, hunt deer and small game use stone tools
500 BC-900 AD Woodlands Indians develop maize build villages and burial mounds
900-1500 AD Misissippian culture improve agricultural methods
1673 Marquette and Joliet
1680 LaSalle builds fort near St. Louis
1769 Illinois Indian tribes are trapped at Starved Rock
1778 George Rogers Clark conquers west
1787 Illinois part of the Northwest Territory
1779 Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable French/African trading post
1803 For. Dearborn established
1809 US Congress makes Illinois a territory
1812 Fort Dearborne Massacre
1818 Illinois Admitted as 21st State
1823 I and M Canal begun
1832 Black Hawk War
1833 Chicago Harbor is dredged
1833 Chicago becomes a town
1837 Chicago becomes a city (population 4,000)
1838 Springfield becomes state capital.
National Road is completed to Vandalia
1839 Mormons driven from Nauvoo
1847 McCormick manufacturing wheat reapers
1848 Illinois and Michigan Canal completed
1851 Illinois Central Railroad Begins
1856 10 Railroads hubbed in Chicago
1838 Springfield becomes state capital.
National Road is completed to Vandalia
1839 Mormons driven from Nauvoo
1847 McCormick manufacturing wheat reapers
1848 Illinois and Michigan Canal completed
1851 Illinois Central Railroad Begins
1856 10 Railroads hubbed in Chicago
1871 Chicago Fire kills 300, leaves 100,000 homeless, burns an area 4 miles x 1 mile
1865 Chicago Union Stockyards opened
1867 Illinois Industrial University (U of I)
1886 Haymarket Square bombing and riot
1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago
1886 Haymarket Square bombing and riot
1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago
1897 elevated "El" under construction
1900 Sanitary and Ship Canal reverses flow of Chicago River
1904 The Jungle by Upton Sincair
1909 Burnham and Bennett’s Plan of Chicago
1933 Century of Progress World's Fair
1939 Chicago adopts plans for system of “super highways”
1943 Chicago's first Subway constructed
1995 CHA begins redevelopment plans, including demolition of highrises
1966 Illinois for the first time leads the nation in the export of agricultural and manufactured products.
Chicago Population Changes
1833 3,000
1871 300,000
1900 1,700,000
1957 3,700,000
2012 2,700,000