X-Nico

100 unusual facts about Illinois


1921 APFA season

The Staleys, who moved from Decatur, Illinois, to Chicago before the season, were named the APFA Champions over the Buffalo All-Americans.

2005–06 St. Louis Blues season

Peoria Rivermen (AHL) - Peoria, Illinois Posted 46-26-0-8 Record, lost in 2nd round of playoffs

Acosada

However it was not until 1 June 1966 that the film premiered in the USA in Champaign, Illinois.

Archeophone Records

Archeophone Records, LLC, based in Champaign, Illinois, specializes in preserving recordings of the acoustic era of the recording industry by remastering phonograph cylinders and gramophone records from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and releasing them on compact disc.

Archer Avenue

Outside Chicago, Archer Avenue/Road passes through the villages of Summit, Justice, Willow Springs, and the southern edge of Lemont before terminating on the north side of Lockport.

Ayers, Illinois

Ayers, Carroll County, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Carroll County, Illinois

Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold

The build was first seen at a location test at Brunswick Zone Naperville in Naperville, Illinois.

Best Country Today

Beginning as one of the original Satellite Music Network formats over 20 years ago, its studios and offices were located in Mokena, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.

Bloomfield, Illinois

Bloomfield, Scott County, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Scott County, Illinois

Bremen, Illinois

Bremen, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Jo Daviess County

Buda Engine Co.

Buda Engine was founded in 1881 by George Chalender in Buda, Illinois to make equipment for railways.

Buffalo Grove ambush

The Buffalo Grove ambush occurred near Buffalo Grove, Illinois, a small, unincorporated settlement in present-day Ogle County.

BYD Company

US operations are limited to sales and marketing and can be found in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and San Francisco, California.

Casey Claw

It was originally developed by Mark Casey in 1993, a former marching member and drum sergeant of the The Cavaliers of Rosemont, Illinois.

Cecil Bothwell

Bothwell was born 1950 in Oak Park, Illinois, lived in several states and held several jobs in the area of Asheville, North Carolina.

Central Street

Central Street (Evanston, IL), a major east-west road and shopping district in Evanston, Illinois

Chaim Kreiswirth

In 1947, he moved to the United States and from 1947 to 1953 served as Rosh Yeshiva at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois.

Chicago Storm

The team moved its home games to the newly built Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, a northwest suburb of Chicago, for the 2006-07 season.

Chicago United Breeze

The team plays its home games in the stadium on the campus of Harry D. Jacobs High School in the city of Algonquin, Illinois, 45 miles north-west of downtown Chicago.

Chicagoland Television

The channel began operations on January 1, 1993, originally broadcasting out of studios located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook.

Clint Frank

Clinton E. Frank died at the Evanston Hospital in Evanston, Illinois after a brief illness.

Cy Touff

Cyril James Touff (March 4, 1927, Chicago – January 24, 2003, Evanston, Illinois) was a jazz bass trumpeter.

Dale Barnstable

Dale Barnstable (born 1925) is an American retired basketball player from Antioch, Illinois who was banned from the NBA for life in 1951 for point shaving.

Danville New Tech High

Danville New Tech High School is a school located in Danville, Illinois.

Domasi

The Shallow Well Project funded by the First Presbyterian Church of Urbana in Urbana, Illinois, United States is providing safe drinking water for the villages around Domasi.

E. Woolsey Peck

In 1867, he moved to Sycamore, Illinois then to Rockford, Illinois and then back to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.He was elected chairman of the Military Reconstruction Convention of 1867.

Edward Breathitte Sellers

Born and reared in slavery, somehow prior to his matriculating at Wheaton College, he moved to Illinois and listed Shawneetown, Illinois as his home.

Edwin R. Ridgely

Born near Lancaster, Illinois, Ridgely attended district school in the winter months.

Elgin–O'Hare West Bypass

Building the highway would affect the villages of Elk Grove Village, Wood Dale, Itasca and Bensenville.

Ellyn

Glen Ellyn, Illinois, affluent village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States

Flat as a Pancake

Head East recorded the album at Golden Voice Studios in South Pekin, Illinois.

For the Lonely Lest the Wiser

For the Lonely Lest the Wiser is the first EP but second release from Wauconda, Illinois rock outfit Dr Manhattan.

Francena H. Arnold

Francena Harriet Long was born Sept. 9, 1888, on a farm near Literberry, Illinois, to James Harvey Long and Hannah Cox Long.

Francis Clay

Born and raised in Rock Island, Illinois, he started playing jazz, professionally at the age of 15, played drums behind many of the biggest names of 20th century popular American music.

Fred Paul Hedges

Originally from Ewing, Illinois, Freddie Paul Hedges was a long-time friend of Grand Ole Opry star Billy Grammer who hired Hedges to help establish Grammer's newly formed guitar company.

Frederick J. Kapala

He was an assistant state's attorney of Winnebago County, Illinois from 1976 to 1977, and was in private practice in Rockford, Illinois from 1977 to 1982.

George Corneal

From 1911 to 1914, Corneal was the basketball coach at Rock Island High School in Rock Island, Illinois.

Glenbard North High School

Michael Quigley is a United States Congressman, representing the 5th Congressional District of Illinois; a seat he won in a special election to replace Rahm Emanuel.

Halsted Street

The road continues intermittently and ends, marked as Halstead Street, at 287th street north of Beecher, Illinois.

Heinen's Fine Foods

On August 22, 2012, after two years of market and distribution logistics research, the company opened its first store outside the Greater Cleveland area in The Shops at Flint Creek in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

Horton Smith

When he resigned as head professional of Oak Park Country Club in River Grove, Illinois, in 1936, his brother Ren replaced him at the club.

Howie Crittenden

He was head basketball coach at Metropolis High School in Metropolis, Illinois and Calloway County High School in Murray, Kentucky.

Illinois Route 116

Illinois 116 was a popular agricultural and commercial truck route from Burlington, Iowa (on the Mississippi River) to Peoria, Illinois (on the Illinois River) during World War II and through the late 1960s.

Illinois Route 163

At Booker T. Washington Cemetery, the route heads northwest into Centreville Township, where it meets Illinois 157.

Illinois Route 179

From here, the highway ran west through farmland to Dana.

Illinois Route 4

Illinois Route 4 is a long state road that runs south from the Interstate 55 business loop around the state capital of Springfield, south to Illinois Route 13 just north of Murphysboro.

Independent Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Companies

Sherer's Independent Cavalry Company was organized at Aurora, Illinois as Company B, 36th Illinois Infantry, but detached from the regiment and served primarily as headquarters guard.

J. Frank Duryea

On November 28, 1895, Frank Duryea won the first motor-car race in the United States, a 54-mile loop along the lakeshore from Chicago to Evanston and back again.

Joe Rutgens

Joseph Casimiere Rutgens (born January 26, 1939 in Cedar Point, Illinois) is a former American football defensive tackle in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins.

Johan Engholm

Several descendants of Johan Engholm emigrated to the US (mainly Illinois) in the beginning of the 20th century.

John Baricevic

Justice Baricevic presides over the Twentieth Judicial Circuit (Fifth Appellate District) in Illinois for the counties of Monroe, Perry, Randolph, St. Clair, and Washington.

John Fritchey

Fritchey was one of many candidates who ran for former US Representative Rahm Emanuel's seat in Illinois's 5th congressional district special election, 2009.

John Shastid House

A few of Pike County's other sites include the address restricted Naples Mound 8 and New Philadelphia Town Site as well as the Massie Variety Store in New Canton and the Lyman Scott House in Summer Hill.

Jonathan Blitstein

Jonathan Blitstein (born 1982 Lincolnshire, Illinois) is an American playwright, and indie filmmaker.

Justin Tranter

Justin Tranter and his three older brothers were raised by his parents in Lake Zurich, Illinois.

Kate Booth

At her husband's wish, Katie and the children travelled with him to the cult leader John Alexander Dowie's Zion City, a township about 40 miles north of Chicago.

KGCW

KGCW can also be seen on KLJB's second digital subchannel (UHF channel 49.2 or virtual channel 18.2 via PSIP) from a transmitter in the Orion village of Western Township, Illinois.

Kid Capri

Kid Capri also made an appearance as Rakim's DJ during the Rock The Bells 2008 show on July 19, 2008 in Tinley Park, Illinois.

Kinderhook plates

The Kinderhook plates were a set of six small, bell-shaped pieces of brass with strange engravings which were claimed to have been discovered in 1843 in an Indian mound near Kinderhook, Illinois.

Kumler

Kumler, Illinois, ghost town in West Township, McLean County, Illinois, USA

Ledyard Tucker

Ledyard R Tucker (19 September 1910 Glenwood Springs, Colorado – 16 August 2004 Savoy, Illinois) was an American mathematician who specialized in statistics and psychometrics.

Lou Black

Born in Rock Island, Illinois, he began playing banjo during early childhood and became professional in 1917.

Mary's River Covered Bridge

The bridge was built in 1854 as part of a plank toll road connecting Chester to Bremen; the bridge allowed agricultural products to be transported to Chester, a significant port on the Mississippi River.

Megan Kane

Kane attended Lutheran High School in Springfield, Illinois.

Midwest League

In 1976 the Midwest League contracted from ten teams to eight when teams in Danville and Dubuque were eliminated.

Mike Errico

Errico also showcases his skill as a guitarist in an intricate arrangement of the Tom Waits classic, "Johnsburg, Illinois." "The song has such an aching quality to it, and I just needed to arrange it, so I'd always have it with me," Errico says.

Miles Henry Davis

In the late 1940s, Davis purchased a 160-acre estate in Millstadt, Illinois.

Moon Mullins

Frank Henry Willard was born on September 21, 1893 in Anna, Illinois, the son of a physician, who early on determined to become a cartoonist.

Mount Lowe Railway

The railway was sold at auction to a Mr. Valentine Peyton of Danville, Illinois, who personally came to California to run the operation.

Muskego, Wisconsin

When Marriott's Great America (now Six Flags Great America) opened in 1976, it lured people away from Muskego, and into Gurnee, Illinois.

Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

The Nathan M. Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, or Newmark Lab, located at 205 N. Mathews Avenue in Urbana, Illinois on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, houses the university's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Oscar Albuquerque

He is currently the president of Pro Soccer International, an ownership group which holds the rights to American Indoor Soccer League teams in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois.

Osco Drug

Also in 1968, Osco's headquarters relocated from Melrose Park, Illinois to Franklin Park, Illinois.

Penny Bernard Schaber

Schaber was raised in Mundelein, Illinois and remained in Illinois to complete her Associate and Bachelor’s of Science degree from Southern Illinois University.

Peru, Nebraska

The first attempt to settle the community occurred in 1853 when some residents of Peru, Illinois.

Popcorn

At least six localities (all in the Midwestern United States) claim to be the "Popcorn Capital of the World": Ridgway, Illinois; Valparaiso, Indiana; Van Buren, Indiana; Schaller, Iowa; Marion, Ohio; and North Loup, Nebraska.

Rock Creek, Illinois

Rock Creek, Hardin County, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Hardin County, Illinois

Roger Sedarat

He was born in Normal, Illinois to an Iranian father and American mother, and grew up in San Antonio, Texas.

Ron Wells

Ron Wells, (born October 2, 1961, in Rantoul, Illinois) is a former American football player.

Rosemary Mulligan

In the fall of 2009 Mulligan announced her intention to run for Republican Committeeman of Maine Township Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois against incumbent Mark Thompson.

Rushville-Industry High School

Rushville-Industry High School, or RIHS, is a public four-year high school located at 730 North Congress Street in Rushville, Illinois, a small city in Schuyler County, Illinois, in the Midwestern United States.

Schreder HP-15

In the April 2011 the sole HP-15 prototype, registered N5488, still existed and was privately registered in Peoria, Illinois.

Shirley Allen

Shirley Allen, of Roby, Illinois, is a former nurse whose family's 1997 attempt to have her involuntarily committed led to a 39-day standoff (described by some as a "siege") with Illinois State Police and other law-enforcement agencies.

Simon Newton Dexter

He was also largely interested in manufactures elsewhere in the State of New York and in Elgin, Illinois.

Southern California Logistics Airport

The unit is part of the 244th Aviation Brigade of Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

Sverre Lassen-Urdahl

Sverre Lassen-Urdahl (1913–2005) was a Norwegian alpine skier, born in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States.

Teco pottery

Nearing the end of his life, William D. Gates constructed a residence just north of Crystal Lake, Illinois named "Trail's End" symbolizing his decreasing involvement in the company.

The Great Santini

Believing that the film's title - giving the perception that it was about circus stunts - would be the problem, it was tested as Sons and Heroes in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as Reaching Out in Rockford, Illinois, and The Ace in Peoria, Illinois.

Treaty of Prairie du Chien

By this treaty, the tribes ceded to the United States an area in present-day northwestern Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin, as well as the areas currently occupied by the cities of Wilmette and Evanston.

U.S. Route 67 in Illinois

The Roseville Bypass was one of the last bypasses for this section and was completed in 2002.

Ulysses F. Doubleday

He was interred in the Bloomington Township Old City Cemetery, Bloomington, Illinois.

Uncle Tupelo discography

The discography of Uncle Tupelo, an alternative country band from Belleville, Illinois, consists of four studio albums, two compilation albums, three demo tapes, and five singles.

Union Pacific Northwest Line

The line runs from the Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago to endpoints in McHenry, Illinois and Harvard, Illinois, with the McHenry branch served only during weekday rush periods.

W29CI-D

W29CI-D is a low-power religious television station in Salem, Illinois, broadcasting locally on channel 29 as an affiliate of 3ABN.

Wauconda

Wauconda, Illinois, a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States

WDDD

WDDD (AM), a defunct radio station (810 AM) formerly licensed to Johnston City, Illinois, United States

WHBF

Where Historic Black Hawk Fought, a reference to Chief Black Hawk whose tribe occupied the land that is now Rock Island, Illinois, United States, and the namesake for the WHBF broadcasting stations in Rock Island

William Burton Roy

William Burton "Bill" Roy (born on 4 December 1958 in Versailles, Illinois) is a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and former U.S. Olympian in skeet shooting.

William McKendree

In 1830, he lent his support to the Lebanon Seminary, Lebanon, Illinois.

Winnetka, Los Angeles

Later Weeks renamed the colony Winnetka, after a farm he owned in Winnetka, Illinois.


Alexander Girard

Girard was commissioned to create a mural for the John Deere Company, in the entrance to their administration building designed by Saarinen near Moline, Illinois.

Bessemer Park

Bessemer Park is a public park in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Created in 1904, it was named for Henry Bessemer, the inventor of the eponymous steelmaking process.

Charles Woodward

Charles Edgar Woodward - (1876 – 1942), United States federal judge, and formerly Attorney-General of Illinois

Christen Craig

While attending Southern Illinois University, Craig worked as an anchor, reporter and executive producer for River Region Evening Edition on WSIU-TV, the university-owned news station.

Craig Virgin

Additionally, Virgin remains the record-holder in Illinois Boys Cross Country, running a 13:50.6 in 1972, which has only been approached by within five seconds by Chris Derrick in 2007 (13:51.8) and Lukas Verzbicas in 2010 (13:53.8)

Dan Douglas

He is a former president of the Washington County Farm Bureau and a board member of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership though the Illinois River does not reach Arkansas.

Douglas Otto

Otto then was the superintendent of schools for the North Scott School Community District in Eldridge, Iowa and the Rockridge Community Unit School District in Taylor Ridge, Illinois.

Frank Bonilla

Bonilla spent his first years of high school attending a Franciscan high school in Illinois, where he showed academic and leadership skills.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840-1929) was an American Unitarian minister who served congregations in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and California and who wrote many significant hymns.

Frederick Lundin

In 1908 Lundin was elected as a Republican Congressman to the 61st United States Congress from Illinois' 7th congressional district, a Chicago seat.

Grant Park Symphony Orchestra

The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra or simply the Grant Park Orchestra is a publicly sponsored symphony orchestra that provides free performances in the Grant Park Music Festival during the summer months in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois.

Gregory Perino

His fascination with the past and his innate ability to locate and meticulously excavate prehistoric cemeteries and burial mounds soon led him into a career as a self-taught professional archaeologist, first with the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma; then with the Foundation for Illinois Archeology in Kampsville, Illinois; and finally with the Museum of the Red River in Idabel, Oklahoma.

Illinois Route 119

Illinois 119 begins at a junction with US 136 and Illinois 1 in rural South Ross Township east of Henning.

Illinois Route 150

SBI Route 150 originally ran from the U.S. 51/60/62 bridges south of Cairo north to Hamel (located northeast of Saint Louis, Missouri) on what is now Illinois Route 3, the portion of Illinois 150 from Chester to Steeleville, and Illinois Route 4.

Illinois State Fair

The Illinois State Fair was featured on the NBC-TV show The Great American Road Trip in July 2009.

James Harrod

A contemporary of better known explorers like Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, Benjamin Logan, and Simon Kenton, Harrod led many expeditions into the regions that now form Kentucky and Illinois.

Janet Lewis

Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she was a member of a literary circle that included Glenway Wescott, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and her future husband Yvor Winters.

Jehan Gordon-Booth

She defeated Joan Krupa, but Krupa was appointed to the seat to fill the remaining nine days of Schock's term when Schock became U.S. Representative for Illinois' 18th congressional district.

Jewelers Building

35 East Wacker - in Chicago, Illinois, built in 1925-1927, designed by Joachim G. Giaver and Frederick P. Dinkelberg

Jill Gulseth

In April 2005 Gulseth represented Illinois in the Miss USA 2005 pageant held in Baltimore, Maryland, wearing clothing she had made herself, and placed third runner-up to Chelsea Cooley of North Carolina.

Labor and Employment Relations Association

It originally consisted of about 100 researchers (economists; management, human resources, and labor relations researchers; attorneys, historians and sociologists) from 30 universities, including California-Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Illinois, Massachusetts (several campuses), MIT, Michigan, Michigan State, Northeastern, Rutgers, Stanford and UCLA, as well as universities in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Lakeview College of Nursing

An affiliation with the Illinois Teacher's College in Charleston (now Eastern Illinois University) provided additional on-campus instruction.

Little Ten Conference

Founded in 1919, it was originally comprised the following small high schools in northern Illinois: Earlville, Hinckley, Leland, Paw Paw, Plano, Rollo, Sandwich, Shabbona, Somonauk, and Waterman.

Lybster

However, during the American Revolution, following some victories in the Ohio and Illinois territories, Patrick Sinclair felt it was necessary to move Fort Michilimackinac from its exposed location on the northernmost point of the lower peninsula of Michigan to Mackinac Island.

Malcolm X College

Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, is a two-year college located on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, USA, at 1900 W. Van Buren St. It was founded as Crane Junior College in 1911 and was the first of the City Colleges.

Mary Bartelme

Mary Margaret Bartelme (July 24, 1866 – July 25, 1954) was the first woman appointed Cook County Public Guardian in Illinois, and the first women elected judge in a court of high jurisdiction in that state.

May 26–31, 2013 tornado outbreak

The tornado continued causing damage in residential areas before crossing the Missouri River into St. Louis County and Earth City, Bridgeton, and the northern side of Maryland Heights as it moved along Interstate 70 near its intersection with Interstate 270.

ORDVAC

J. P. Nash of the University of Illinois was a developer of both the ORDVAC and of the university's own identical copy, the ILLIAC, which was later renamed the ILLIAC I. Donald B. Gillies assisted in the checkout of ORDVAC at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Robert Kennicott

Kennicott was born in New Orleans and grew up in "West Northfield" (now Glenview), Illinois, a town in the prairie north of the then nascent city of Chicago.

Samuel Mason

By 1797, he moved the base of his river piracy further downriver to Cave-in-Rock on the Illinois shore.

Sister Kinderhook

The album revolves around a fantastical theme that explores subject matter such as the New Netherland settlements, Colonial Federalism, feral children, the Anti-Rent Wars of 1844, Early American portraiture, and the prehistoric Mound Builder giants of Illinois and Ohio.

Stacey Cole

She recorded individual season highs of kills (28 v. Wester Illinois), attacks (3 games; 46 v. IUPUI, 4 games; 66 v. Western Illinois, 5 games; 60 v. UMKC), Digs (14 v. Oral Roberts), Aces (4 games, 6 v. Western Illinois; 5 games, 6 v. UMKC).

Stanley Steemer

The company sponsors the NASCAR "30-lap Stanley Steemer NASCAR Late Model" race held at Rockford Speedway in Rockford, Illinois.

State Farm Downtown Building

The building is listed as a contributing property to the National Register of Historic Places listed Bloomington Central Business District, a historic district encompassing much of downtown Bloomington, Illinois.

Sylvester Millard House

Illinois Governor Shelby Moore Cullom appointed Millard a trustee of the Illinois Industrial University, where he served for twelve years including a six-year stint as President of the Board.

Teco pottery

The American Terra Cotta Tile and Ceramic Company was founded in 1881; originally as Spring Valley Tile Works; in Terra Cotta, Illinois, between Crystal Lake, Illinois and McHenry, Illinois near Chicago by William Day Gates.

Transportation in Greater St. Louis

At Missouri Route 367, US 67 turns north, crosses the Missouri River on the Clark Bridge into Illinois, through Madison and Jersey counties, then leaving the region.

Tri-state area

Three other prominent areas that have been labeled tri-state areas are the Cincinnati tri-state area, including Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana; the Pittsburgh tri-state area, covering parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia; and the Chicago tri-state area, also known as Chicagoland, which includes Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Tylman

Stanley D. Tylman (1893–1982), professor of dentistry (1920–1962), University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry

Violence Policy Center

The primary foundation donor to the VPC is the Joyce Foundation, which also supports other gun violence prevention organizations including the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence and the American College of Preventive Medicine.

Wauconda

Wauconda Township, Lake County, Illinois, a township in Lake County, Illinois, United States

WBLN

WYZZ-TV, a television station (channel 43) licensed to Bloomington, Illinois, United States, which used the call sign WBLN from 1982 to September 1985

WDDD

WDDD-FM, a radio station (107.3 FM) licensed to Johnston City, Illinois, United States

WDLM

WDLM-FM, a radio station (89.3 FM) licensed to East Moline, Illinois, United States