50 Fun Facts About Illinois

In which year did Illinois become a U.S. state?

It came in as the 21st state, and its northern border was pushed up to include the future site of Chicago partly with a canal route in mind.

Which phrase is Illinois's official state slogan?

The slogan was made official in 1955 and has appeared on Illinois license plates ever since.

Illinois's official motto pairs 'National Union' with which phrase?

The motto dates to 1818, and the order of the two phrases on the state seal was quietly a Civil War-era political fight.

The name Illinois comes from a Miami-Illinois verb meaning what?

The old 'tribe of superior men' gloss was popular for decades before linguists traced the word to irenwe·wa.

Which village, Illinois's first state capital, now sits west of the Mississippi with a Missouri ZIP code?

An 1881 flood shifted the Mississippi into a new channel east of the town, and the 2020 census counted only a couple dozen residents.

Springfield became the capital in 1839, replacing which town that had held the job for two decades?

The town was also the western end of the National Road, the first federal highway from the East Coast.

Which legislator led the Sangamon County delegation that got the capital moved to Springfield in 1837?

The tall Sangamon delegation was nicknamed the 'Long Nine' because their combined height was said to top 54 feet.

In 1876 two Chicago criminals were caught trying to do what at Lincoln's tomb in Springfield?

The plot led caretakers to hide the coffin under debris and later bury it inside the tomb; a bronze bust outside now has a shiny nose from visitors rubbing it for luck.

The 1908 Springfield race riot directly led to the founding of which organization?

The violence in Lincoln's hometown shocked northern reformers, who issued a call that produced the new organization the following year.

Which open-faced sandwich of toast, meat, French fries and cheese sauce originated in Springfield?

A smaller version is called a ponyshoe, and Springfield also claims the corn dog under the name Cozy Dog.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is said to have started in a barn belonging to which family?

The cow story was a newspaper invention, and the City Council formally exonerated Catherine O'Leary in 1997.

Roughly how many people were killed by the Great Chicago Fire?

The same October week saw the far deadlier Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, which killed well over a thousand people but got far less press.

Under what name did Chicago's 110-story Willis skyscraper open in 1973?

It was the world's tallest building for nearly 25 years, and the retractable glass boxes on its 103rd-floor Skydeck are called The Ledge.

In which year was the flow of the Chicago River fully reversed away from Lake Michigan?

The point was to stop sewage flowing into the lake that supplied the city's drinking water; it now drains toward the Mississippi.

For which holiday is the Chicago River dyed green each year?

The tradition began after plumbers noticed the fluorescein dye they used to trace leaks turned the water bright green.

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago marked the 400th anniversary of what?

The fair drew 27.5 million visitors and its white plaster facades earned it the nickname the White City.

Which ride made its debut at the 1893 Chicago fair?

Its 36 cars each held 40 people, and the wheel was later dynamited for scrap in 1906 after a stint at the St. Louis fair.

Who designed Chicago's Home Insurance Building, often called the world's first skyscraper?

It rose ten stories in 1885 on a steel skeleton and was demolished in 1931 to make way for the Field Building.

Deep-dish pizza was invented in 1943 at which Chicago restaurant?

The style puts the chunky tomato sauce on top of the cheese, and 'stuffed' pizza with a second dough layer came along in the 1970s.

The name Chicago comes from a Miami-Illinois word for what?

The plant, a wild relative of onion and garlic, grew thickly along the riverbanks; the 'Windy City' nickname came much later.

The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in 1942 took place under the stands of what?

Enrico Fermi's Chicago Pile-1 was, in his words, a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers; a Henry Moore sculpture marks the spot.

Fermilab near Batavia is famous for physics and for a herd of which animal roaming its grounds?

Its Tevatron collider announced the discovery of the top quark in 1995 and ran until 2011.

Which is the official state bird of Illinois?

Chosen in 1929, it is shared with six other states, making it the most popular state bird in the country.

Thanks to an elementary school project, which food became Illinois's official state snack in 2004?

Fitting for a state that is one of the country's top corn producers and later named sweet corn its state vegetable.

What is Illinois's state fossil, from the Mazon Creek beds, nicknamed after its 1955 discoverer?

Scientists still argue whether the soft-bodied creature was a vertebrate, and its picture rides around on Illinois U-Haul trucks.

Which Illinois town claims that 99 percent of the world's canned pumpkin is produced there?

It is home to a Libby's cannery and throws a four-day Pumpkin Festival every September.

What is the name of Cahokia's ten-story central platform, the largest man-made earthwork north of Mexico?

The ten-story platform got its name from Trappist monks who farmed on it in the early 1800s; UNESCO listed the site in 1982.

Black Hawk, whose 1832 war was fought in Illinois and Wisconsin, was a leader of which nation?

A 23-year-old militia volunteer named Lincoln was elected captain of his company during the war but never saw combat.

Ronald Reagan was born in 1911 in an apartment in which small Illinois town?

The family later settled in Dixon, where his first job was lifeguarding on the Rock River at Lowell Park.

Before his presidency, Barack Obama served as an Illinois state senator beginning in which year?

He had earlier worked as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

The name of Nauvoo, the Mississippi city built by Joseph Smith's followers, comes from which language?

By 1844 its population had swollen to about 12,000, rivaling Chicago, before most residents left for the Salt Lake Valley.

In 1849, followers of French philosopher Étienne Cabet moved to Nauvoo to build what kind of community?

The Icarians peaked at about 500 members before disbanding in 1856, leaving behind a French-flavored wine tradition in town.

How many Civil War generals did Galena claim as residents?

Grant had arrived only in 1860 to clerk in his family's leather shop and left as commander of all Union armies.

To which Mississippi River city did John Deere move his steel plow business in 1848?

Deere was a Vermont blacksmith who found that polished steel scoured the sticky prairie soil where cast iron clogged.

The Twinkie, invented in 1930 in Schiller Park, originally had which flavor of cream filling?

Baker James Dewar borrowed idle shortcake machines for the job and named the cake after a billboard for Twinkle Toe Shoes.

Route 66 began in Chicago and, after 2,448 miles, ended in which California city?

Established in 1926 and nicknamed the Mother Road by Steinbeck, it was decommissioned in 1985.

The Cubs' 2016 World Series win ended a championship drought of how many years?

The team is one of only two charter National League franchises still around from 1876; the other is the Atlanta Braves.

The curse supposedly placed on the Cubs by tavern owner William Sianis in 1945 involved which animal?

Sianis and his pet were reportedly turned away from Game 4 of the 1945 World Series because of the smell.

In which year did Wrigley Field finally host its first night game under lights?

The Cubs had played 5,687 consecutive day games there, and the first lit game was rained out after a few innings.

How many White Sox players did Landis ban for life after the 1919 World Series scandal?

All of them had been acquitted in court; 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson stayed on the ineligible list until MLB lifted the ban posthumously in 2025.

The Chicago Bears began in 1920 as a company team for a starch maker in which Illinois city?

The Staleys moved to Chicago in 1921 under George Halas; the Bears now hold the NFL record for most Hall of Famers.

How many games did the Bulls win in their record-setting 1995–96 regular season?

The mark stood for twenty years until Golden State won 73, and it came in the first of the Bulls' second three-peat.

The Blackhawks take their name from a nickname for what?

Founder Frederic McLaughlin had served in the 86th Infantry Division, itself named for a 19th-century Native American leader.

What is Illinois's highest natural point, on private farmland and rising just 1,235 feet, called?

It sits in the Driftless Area of the state's northwest corner, which the glaciers that flattened the rest of Illinois never reached.

The Illinois River, about 273 miles long, joins the Mississippi near which town?

It is formed near Joliet where the Kankakee meets the Des Plaines, and invasive Asian carp have crowded out much of its game fish.

The University of Illinois's NCSA created Mosaic in 1993. What was it?

The same campus's Morrow Plots are the oldest continually used experimental farm fields in the U.S., so old that the library next door was built underground to keep from shading them.

O'Hare Airport is named for Edward 'Butch' O'Hare, who was the U.S. Navy's first what in World War II?

He was also a Medal of Honor recipient; his father, a lawyer for Al Capone, had turned informant against the gangster.

Metropolis, Illinois has a 15-foot bronze statue of which hero outside its courthouse?

The local newspaper is The Metropolis Planet, and fans gather every June for a celebration that has run since 1979.

A 170-foot water tower trademarked 'The World's Largest Catsup Bottle' stands in which Illinois city?

Built in 1949 for the Brooks catsup plant, it made the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald's in April 1955 in which Chicago suburb?

It was the chain's ninth restaurant overall; Kroc later bought out the McDonald brothers and also owned the San Diego Padres.