This Week in Illinois History

Seventy-eight years ago, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League had its first day of league play. The women's league was founded, in part, because many Major League Baseball players were serving in World War II. Baseball executives had to find a new way to maintain revenue and keep people interested in the sport.

On May 23, 1900, the world's first portable Ferris wheel, known as "Big Eli," made its debut. Its inventor, William Sullivan, launched an amusement ride business that still thrives today.

On May 17, 1955, the Illinois General Assembly approved the official state slogan: "Land of Lincoln." Before that, Illinois was known as the Prairie State. But Illinois also had an older, unofficial slogan that dates back to the state’s earliest days: the Sucker State.

On May 15, 1903, Illinois established the nation's first eight-hour workday . . . for children. The new law also set a 48-hour weekly limit on child labor.

The story of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 actually begins 20 years earlier. After the Civil War, Chicago's labor unions had been pushing for an eight-hour workday instead of the usual 12 to 14. In response, Illinois passed an eight-hour law, but it had loopholes that allowed employers to ignore it. So on Saturday, May 1, 1867, unions called for a city-wide strike to protest the flawed law. Six thousand workers flooded into the streets, and the protest spread from there. The strike crippled the city's economy for almost a week, but the movement eventually fell apart, and the ineffectual law went unchanged.

On April 28, 1941, Illinois Congressman Arthur Mitchell argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that African Americans were entitled to railroad accommodations equal to white passengers.

On April 22, 1856, crowds cheered and bands played in Rock Island, Ill., and Davenport, Iowa, as a train chugged across the first bridge to span the Mississippi River. The bridge connected the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad in Illinois and the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad in Iowa.

Almost everyone is familiar with the tragedy of the Donner Party, but few remember that their ill-fated journey began in Springfield, Illinois.

The Twinkie, America’s model junk food, got its start in Illinois. Twinkies were invented on April 6, 1930, at the Continental Baking Company in River Forest. Manager James Dewar noticed that the equipment used to make the company's small baked strawberry shortcakes sat idle when strawberries were out of season. He came up with the idea to inject the spongy yellow cakes with a fluffy white cream filling, and the Twinkie was born.

No Foolin’: On April 1, 2007, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Resolution 255, designating every April 1 in Illinois as "Cheap Trick Day."

On March 25, 1931, Illinois, and the nation, mourned the loss of suffragist and civil rights icon Ida B. Wells. But before she became a crusader for women’s rights, Wells came to national attention as a crusader against lynchings of African Americans in the South.

March 17, 1937: Illinois Attorney General John E. Cassidy declared that all pinball machines were to be outlawed as gambling devices. He called them "pernicious and dangerous to the public welfare." Law enforcement officers around the state pledged their support, ready to seize the machines just as they would slot machines.

On March 12, 1966, just five minutes into the third period against the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawk Bobby Hull scored his 50th goal of the season. The Chicago Stadium crowd roared as their hometown hero tied a league record he already shared with two others. The Blackhawks' winger, known as "The Golden Jet" for his speed, skill and dashing blond hair, was one of the most popular players in the National Hockey League.

Before coal, before oil, even before corn, the biggest and busiest industry in Illinois was salt.

Carl Sandburg, author, journalist, folk singer, and poet of the people, appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois.

Brave. Courageous. Bold. All words used to describe legendary Western lawman Wyatt Earp. But novels, films and TV shows often overlook his reckless youth in Illinois, where he earned a reputation as a thief, swindler and pimp.

A popular Chicago Mayor and champion to the city's overlooked immigrant communities is struck down by an assassin’s bullet, a bullet that was meant for someone else.

No longer considered a planet, but always number nine in our hearts. This week in Illinois history, we celebrate the discovery of Pluto by Streator native Clyde Tombaugh.

Illinois was barely two months old when it experienced its first duel, an intoxicated altercation over a horse that destroyed the lives of two families.

When flooding and ice jams threatened these northern Illinois communities, the people fought back, with Dynamite.

The 1985 Bears lineup is one of the greatest in NFL history. This cast of colorful characters dominated the league before shuffling right over the New England Patriots at Super Bowl XX.

The late, great actress Betty White might have ended up hot in Cleveland, but she was born right here in Illinois. Learn about Oak Park's very own Golden Girl on This Week in Illinois History.

Thirsty for some fudge? This week, we revisit the story of Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda, the Chicago-based beverage that created a fad and a fizzle in the 1980s.

The DeKalb winged ear logo is recognized around the world. Its origin traces back to one of the nation’s first organized farm associations.

Cleaning up after your holiday parties? Pause to thank Illinoisan Josephine Cochrane for making your life a lot easier.

No other character personifies early 20th-century, pop-culture Americana better than Raggedy Ann, the creation of Arcola, Illinois, native Johnny Gruelle.

After a great flood nearly destroys one of Illinois’ oldest towns, the state takes a huge step. It moves the whole town to higher ground.

Chester, Illinois native E. C. Segar spent years working as a struggling cartoonist until he created one of the world's most iconic characters: Popeye the Sailor.

At the height of World War II, scientists in the U. S. raced to build a nuclear weapon before Germany. One of the first stages of this race, the harnessing of nuclear energy, took place beneath the grandstand of a football field in Chicago.

Barbed wire may seem like a simple invention, but when it was invented in the 1870s, it changed the world, made millions for its creators and put DeKalb, Illinois on the map.

Bessie Coleman had to travel to Paris, France to fulfill her dream of becoming a pilot. Though her life came to a tragic end, she inspired generations of Black women.

In early November 1838, the first railroad in Illinois went into operation. The train went on a symbolic, eight-mile run, introducing the state to the transportation that would dominate the next century.

In late 1872 a horse epidemic brought the nation to a standstill. Never before had the country’s ability to conduct business been so paralyzed.

The term “March Madness,” used in connection with basketball, originated in Illinois. This is the story of H. V. Porter, who popularized “March Madness” and created many of basketball’s rules still in use today.

He is remembered as one of the nation’s most notorious gangsters, but Al Capone’s career as head of Chicago organized crime came to a sudden and ignominious end after only six years.

What's the connection between Red Stripe Beer from Jamaica and Red Stripe Beer from Galena, Illinois? It's an Illinois history mystery.

In the 1930s, Wheaton, Illinois, native Pearl Kendrick created a vaccine that has saved millions of lives and is still standard for American children today.

How do you convince fast-moving Americans that driving slow will conserve rubber and help the war effort? You call the new speed limit “Victory Speed."

During World War II, the United States Army built sprawling hospital complexes across the country to treat wounded soldiers. One of the largest was built in Galesburg, Illinois.

When a deadly polio outbreak hit Chicago in 1937, the city shuttered its schools. But kids didn’t get a free pass. They took part in a remote learning experiment with the best technology available: the radio.

In 1846, an Illinois militia laid siege to Nauvoo, one of the state’s largest cities. Their goal? Drive out the last members of the Mormon Church.

Illinois has a state fossil, the Tully Monster, a strange sea creature that swam over Illinois 300 million years ago.

In the early 1900s, the city of West Chicago celebrated its history as the site of a historic Lincoln-Douglas debate. The only problem? The debate never happened.

Sooooouuuuuuullllllllll Train! Before it became one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history, before it propelled up-and-coming Black artists to worldwide fame, "Soul Train" debuted as a small, local dance show in Chicago.

Nazi spy or hapless traveler? Chicago’s Herbert Hans Haupt and his conspirators set off a national sensation when they were rounded up as part of a Nazi spy ring.

While he's not a household name like Edison or Bell, Highland Park's Elisha Gray cranked out some of the 19th Century's most creative inventions, including the first electronic synthesizer and—some argue—the first telephone.

A 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention propels Illinois State Senator Barack Obama into the national spotlight.

He was Illinois’ first governor, ushered the frontier territory into statehood, and enacted reforms considered radically progressive for the time. He also owned and sold slaves and led campaigns to expel Native Americans from the state.

On an overcast afternoon in 1927, three violent explosions shook the sky over southern Illinois. What some residents feared to be an air invasion turned out to be the state's first recorded meteor strike.