Gangster Bugs Moran Scare Vintage Original Chicago 1938 Forgery Case Mob

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (807) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176278959837 GANGSTER BUGS MORAN SCARE VINTAGE ORIGINAL CHICAGO 1938 FORGERY CASE MOB. Jun. 1, 2023, 2:54 PM ET (AP). 1900 to 1939. 2000 Early Edition — Everybody Goes to Rick's USA Portrayed by Kevin Fry [8]. Biography portal. List of unsolved murders. List of massacres in Illinois. Gun politics in the United States. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO OF BUGS MORAN MEASURING 6X8 INCHES FROM 1938 225 (80 Chicago Bureau BUGS MORAN SEIZED IN $200 000 PLOT ChICAGo -"Bugs" George Moran notorious gang chief of PROHIBITION DAYS, ATTEMPTING TO SHIELD HIS FaCE FROM PHOTOGRAPHERS AS A STATE S ATTORNEY POLICEMAN ESCORTS HiM INtO HEADQUArTERS TO qUESTiOn ABout a PlOt TO Pass $200 000 in forged checks of the American Railway ExpreSs company. It is Believed that from twenty to ThIrty MEn WErE Involved in The Plot. NATCH IRES ! BFM #26-A YOUR CREDIT T LINE MUST READ "ACME" 4-21-38 George Clarence "Bugs" Moran was an American Chicago Prohibition-era gangster. He was incarcerated three times before his 21st birthday. Seven members of his gang were gunned down and killed in a warehouse in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of February 14, 1929, supposedly on the orders of his rival Al Capone. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ George Clarence "Bugs" Moran (/məˈrɑːn/; Adelard Leo Cunin; August 21, 1893 – February 25, 1957) was an American Chicago Prohibition-era gangster. He was incarcerated three times before his 21st birthday. Seven members of his gang were gunned down and killed in a warehouse in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of February 14, 1929, supposedly on the orders of his rival Al Capone. Early life and career Moran was born Adelard Cunin to a French immigrant father, Jules Adelard Cunin, and a mother of Canadian descent, Marie Diana Gobeil, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He attended Cretin High School, a private Catholic school in Saint Paul, but he also joined a local juvenile gang and left school at age 18. He was later caught robbing a store and was sent to the state juvenile correctional facility, and was put in jail three times before he turned 21. He then fled to Chicago where he was caught trying to rob a warehouse, taking part in a horse-stealing ring, taking part in robbery involving the death of a police officer,[1] and robbing a freight car, for which he received a variety of prison and jail sentences. Prohibition Prohibition was established in 1920 with the enactment of the 18th Amendment, which banned the distribution of alcoholic beverages, resulting in bootlegging. Among the involved gangs were Dean O'Banion and his mostly Irish group, including Bugs Moran, who became known as the North Side Gang and Al Capone as the leader of the Italian mob on the South Side. These two rivals fought violently, resulting in what is known as "The Bootleg Battle of the Marne".[2] Battling Al Capone The bootlegging operation of Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran continued to pose a significant challenge to Capone's South Side Gang. Moran and Capone then led a turf war with each other that cost them both. Moran's hatred of Capone was apparent even to the public. Moran was disgusted that Capone engaged in prostitution. He would not increase profits himself by engaging in prostitution rings because of his Catholic religion. Johnny Torrio's gang killed Dean O'Banion, and in an attempt to avenge him, Bugs Moran and Earl "Hymie" Weiss made an attempt on Torrio's life. Later they went on to make a failed attempt on Al Capone's life at his headquarters, the Hawthorne Inn in Cicero, Illinois. More than one thousand shots were fired at the inn and at a nearby restaurant in their attempts to kill Capone.[3] In retaliation, Weiss was killed by Capone's gang, and Moran became the new boss of the North Side Gang. According to historian of Twin Cities organized crime Paul Maccabee, Bugs Moran had a close friendship with St. Paul-based Irish mob boss Danny Hogan. Following Hogan's murder by car bomb on December 4, 1928, Bugs Moran personally stood guard outside the Hogan family residence at West Seventh Street in St. Paul, "apparently to protect the Hogan family from further underworld attacks."[4] Responding to Weiss's death, Moran tried to kill a member of Capone's gang, resulting in an attack, allegedly from Capone, known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.[3] The St. Valentine's Day Massacre Main article: St. Valentine's Day Massacre On February 14, 1929, seven members of Moran's gang died in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Moran was offered a truckload of whiskey at a bargain price, which he had ordered to be delivered at 10:30 a.m. to the garage of the S.M.C. Cartage Company on North Clark Street, where he kept his bootlegging trucks.[2] Two gunmen -- dressed as Chicago police officers and two others in plain clothes -- lined up Moran's people against the wall in the warehouse and shot them. Bugs Moran, the main target of the "assassination" was not present, having arrived late and saw the approaching Police car he turned around going to a nearby café instead. Another North Sider, Al Weinshank, was misidentified as Moran by one of the lookouts who signaled for the attack to begin.[citation needed] Police response was delayed when witnesses saw the two "police officers" exit the scene. There were six corpses and another man near death when police arrived on the scene. The man, Frank Gusenberg, following the gangster's code of silence, refused to identify the killers before dying. When Moran learned of the carnage, he broke the gangster code, accusing Capone of the murders. No one was convicted, Capone denying involvement in the massacre, though twice being summoned to court, which he avoided by claimed illness.[5] There is some evidence implicating Chicago police officers in the killings. Prior to the massacre, some officers were stealing bootleg liquor from the gang's trucks and were allegedly disciplined by the chief of police, but no substantiation is available. It has been established that Al Capone was in Florida on the day of the massacre.[6] After Prohibition Moran managed to keep control of his territory and what remained of his gang through the early 1930s, but the North Side gang never fully recovered its power or former place in Chicago's underworld as the chief rival to Capone's Italian mob. Moran eventually left the area, quitting the gang entirely—though not the criminal lifestyle. He reverted to his earlier gangster ways of petty crime such as mail fraud and robbery. On April 30, 1939, Moran was convicted of conspiracy to cash $62,000 worth of American Express checks. He was freed on appeal when he posted a bond; he fled but was captured and not released until December 21, 1944.[3] He was almost penniless by the 1940s, only 17 years after being one of the richest gangsters in Chicago. On July 6, 1946, he was arrested for his involvement in the robbery of a Dayton, Ohio tavern on June 28, 1945, and he received a sentence of 20 years after being found guilty.[7] He was paroled in 1956, but was immediately arrested for his role in the 1945 robbery of a bank in Ansonia, Ohio.[8][9] He was found guilty in 1957 and sentenced to 10 more years in prison. Death in prison Moran died of lung cancer a few months into his 10-year sentence at Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas on February 25, 1957, at the age of 63.[10] Personal life Moran married Lucille Logan Bilezikdian, with whom he had a son, John George Moran, who left him because of his criminal lifestyle.[citation needed] In 1922, he married Evelyn Herrell. (No known photographs of Evelyn exist.) In popular culture Date Title Country Notes IMDB 1958 Playhouse 90 Seven Against the Wall USA Portrayed by Dennis Patrick [1] 1959 Al Capone USA Portrayed by Murvyn Vye [2] 1959 The Untouchables — The George "Bugs" Moran Story, Arsenal, The Eddie O'Gara Story, and Doublecross USA Portrayed by Lloyd Nolan, Robert J. Wilke, and Harry Morgan [3] 1967 The St. Valentine's Day Massacre USA Portrayed by Ralph Meeker [4] 1975 Capone USA Portrayed by Robert Phillips [5] 1987 The Verne Miller Story USA Portrayed by Sean Moran [6] 1993 The Untouchables — Pilot (Parts 1 and 2), Chinatown USA Portrayed by Jack Thibeau [7] 2000 Early Edition — Everybody Goes to Rick's USA Portrayed by Kevin Fry [8] 2017 Gangster Land USA Portrayed by Peter Facinelli [9] References  ODMP Bulfin 1917, odmp.org. Accessed January 12, 2023.  FEB 14 1929: The St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. History Today 59, no. 2 (February 2009), p. 10.  Salem, Press, p. 388  Paul Maccabee (1993), John Dillinger Slept Here, Minnesota Historical Society Press, pp. 17-18.  Boyle, William. "Valentine's Day Massacre." Salem Press Encyclopedia (January 2015).  Reppetto, Thomas (2004). The "Get Capone" Drive: Print the Legend. New York: H. Holt.  "U. S. AGENTS NAB 'BUGS' MORAN IN $10,000 HOLDUP (July 7, 1946)".  Keefe, Rose (2005). The Man Who Got Away: The Bugs Moran Story: A Biography. Cumberland House Publishing. p. 176. ISBN 1581824432.  Keilman, John "'Old man' Moran dies in obscurity", Dayton Daily News. Retrieved December 5, 2019.  n.d. "Moran, George." Britannica Online Britannica Online Boyle, William. Valentine's Day Massacre. Salem Press EncyclopediaResearch Starters. George Moran, byname Bugs Moran, (born 1893, Minnesota, U.S.—died February 25, 1957, U.S. Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas), Chicago gangster and bootlegger of the Prohibition era. He was a childhood friend and, later, right-hand man of Dion O’Bannion. Moran and Earl (“Hymie”) Weiss inherited O’Bannion’s gang in Chicago when the chief was killed in 1924. Moran became sole leader after Weiss was killed in late 1926. For the next three years Moran’s gang and Al Capone’s were locked in bloody warfare, climaxed in 1929 by the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, in which several members of Moran’s mob were slaughtered in a garage. (Moran narrowly avoided being killed. As he neared the building, he saw a police car arrive; unbeknownst to him, the men inside were actually associates of Capone. Thinking it was a raid, Moran immediately left.) His power reduced, he drifted into petty crimes, ending his days in prison for bank robberies (Ohio Penitentiary, 1946–56; Leavenworth federal penitentiary, 1957). He died of lung cancer. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. organized crime Table of Contents Introduction Fast Facts organized crime summary Related Content Read Next Behind the Scenes: 9 Infamous Mobsters of the Real Boardwalk Empire Quizzes American Mobsters Quiz Quiz: Al Capone, Public Enemy Number One Media Images More More Articles On This Topic Additional Reading Contributors Article History Home Politics, Law & Government Law, Crime & Punishment organized crime      Written and fact-checked by  Last Updated: Jun 2, 2023 • Article History Paul Castellano Paul Castellano See all media Key People: Whitey Bulger Nucky Johnson John Gotti Lucky Luciano Al Capone Related Topics: drug cartel gang racketeering syndicate underboss Recent News Jun. 2, 2023, 4:08 AM ET (AP) UN anti-drug agency warns there is no let-up in methamphetamine trade from Asia's Golden Triangle The United Nations anti-drug agency is warning that the huge trade in illegal drugs such as methamphetamine from Southeast Asia's ‘Golden Triangle’ shows no signs of slowing down organized crime, complex of highly centralized enterprises set up for the purpose of engaging in illegal activities. Such organizations engage in offenses such as cargo theft, fraud, robbery, kidnapping for ransom, and the demanding of “protection” payments. The principal source of income for these criminal syndicates is the supply of goods and services that are illegal but for which there is continued public demand, such as drugs, prostitution, loan-sharking (i.e., usury), and gambling. Although Europe and Asia have historically had their international rings of smugglers, jewel thieves, and drug traffickers and Sicily (see Mafia and Sicilian Mafia) and Japan (see yakuza) have centuries-old criminal organizations, organized criminal activities particularly flourished in the 20th century in the United States, where at times organized crime was compared to a cartel of legitimate business firms. Prohibition - Whisky is poured down a sewer during Prohibition in the 1920s in the United States. Britannica Quiz Quiz: Al Capone, Public Enemy Number One The tremendous growth in crime in the United States during Prohibition (1920–33) led to the formation of a national organization. After repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment put an end to bootlegging—the practice of illegally manufacturing, selling, or transporting liquor—criminal overlords turned to other activities and became even more highly organized. The usual setup was a hierarchical one, with different “families,” or syndicates, in charge of operations in many of the major cities. At the head of each family was a boss who had the power of life and death over its members. Wherever organized crime existed, it sought protection from interference by the police and the courts. Accordingly, large sums of money have been expended by syndicate bosses in an attempt to gain political influence on both local and national levels of government. Furthermore, profits from various illegal enterprises have been invested in legitimate businesses. In addition to the illegal activities—principally gambling and narcotics trafficking—that have been the syndicates’ chief source of income, they may also engage in nominally legitimate enterprises, such as loan companies (in underworld parlance, “the juice racket”) that charge usurious rates of interest and collect from delinquent debtors through threats and violence. They may also engage in labour racketeering, in which control is gained over a union’s leadership so that the union’s dues and other financial resources can be used for illegal enterprises. Real-estate firms, dry-cleaning establishments, waste-disposal firms, and vending-machine operations—all legally constituted businesses—when operated by the syndicate may include in their activities the elimination of competition through coercion, intimidation, and murder. The hijacking of trucks carrying valuable, easily disposable merchandise has been another favoured activity of organized crime. The ability of organized crime to flourish in the United States has traditionally rested upon several factors. One factor has been the threats, intimidation, and bodily violence (including murder) that a syndicate brings to bear to prevent victims or witnesses (including its own members) from informing on or testifying against its activities. Jury tampering and the bribing of judges have been other tactics used to prevent successful government prosecutions. Bribery and payoffs, sometimes on a systematic and far-reaching scale, are useful tools for ensuring that municipal police forces tolerate organized crime’s activities. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The fact that many Americans believe that most of the rackets and other types of illegal gambling (which provide the economic base for some of the uglier forms of organized crime) are not innately immoral or socially destructive—and therefore deserve a certain grudging tolerance on the part of law-enforcement agencies—has contributed to the prosperity of syndicate operations. Criminal organizations in the United States are best viewed as shifting coalitions, normally local or regional in scope. Criminal syndicates have also prospered outside the United States. For example, in Australia extensive narcotics, cargo theft, and labour racketeering rings have been discovered; in Japan there are gangs specializing in vice and extortion; in Asia organized groups, such as the Chinese Triads, engage in drug trafficking; and in Britain there are syndicates engaging in cargo theft at airports, vice, protection, and pornography. There also are many relatively short-term groups drawn together for specific projects, such as fraud and armed robbery, from a pool of long-term professional criminals. Apart from the drug trade, the principal form of organized crime in many developing countries is the black market, which involves criminal acts such as smuggling and corruption in the granting of licenses to import goods and to export foreign exchange. Armed robbery has been particularly common because of the widespread availability of arms supplied to nationalist movements by those seeking political destabilization of their own or other countries. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, organized-crime rings flourished in Russia. By the beginning of the 21st century, official Russian crime statistics had identified more than 5,000 organized-crime groups responsible for international money laundering, tax evasion, and the murders of businessmen, journalists, and politicians. One report even argued that Russia was on the “verge of becoming a criminal syndicalist state, dominated by a lethal mix of gangsters, corrupt officials, and dubious businessmen.” The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Alicja Zelazko. bootlegging Table of Contents Introduction & Top Questions Fast Facts Facts & Related Content Top Questions What is bootlegging? Media Images More More Articles On This Topic Contributors Article History Home Politics, Law & Government Law, Crime & Punishment bootlegging American history     Written and fact-checked by  Last Updated: Article History Prohibition Prohibition See all media Key People: Lucky Luciano Bugsy Siegel Johnny Torrio Salvatore Maranzano Arnold Rothstein Related Topics: United States crime prohibition speakeasy Top Questions What is bootlegging? Why did the bootlegging era come to an end? How did bootlegging get its name? bootlegging, in U.S. history, illegal traffic in liquor in violation of legislative restrictions on its manufacture, sale, or transportation. The word apparently came into general use in the Midwest in the 1880s to denote the practice of concealing flasks of illicit liquor in boot tops when going to trade with Native Americans. The term entered into the wider American vocabulary when the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution effected the national prohibition of alcohol from 1920 until its repeal in 1933. Prohibition ended the legal sale of liquor and thereby created demand for an illicit supply. The earliest bootleggers began smuggling foreign-made commercial liquor into the United States from across the Canadian and Mexican borders and along the seacoasts from ships under foreign registry. Their favourite sources of supply were the Bahamas, Cuba, and the French islands of Sainte-Pierre and Miquelon, off the southern coast of Newfoundland. A favourite rendezvous of the rum-running ships was a point opposite Atlantic City, New Jersey, just outside the 3-mile (5-km) limit beyond which the U.S. government lacked jurisdiction. The bootleggers anchored in this area and discharged their loads into high-powered craft that were built to outrace U.S. Coast Guard cutters. Prohibition More From Britannica Prohibition: Bootlegging and gangsterism This type of smuggling became more risky and expensive when the U.S. Coast Guard began halting and searching ships at greater distances from the coast and using fast motor launches of its own. Bootleggers had other major sources of supply, however. Among these were millions of bottles of “medicinal” whiskey that were sold across drugstore counters on real or forged prescriptions. In addition, various American industries were permitted to use denatured alcohol, which had been mixed with obnoxious chemicals to render it unfit for drinking. Millions of gallons of this were illegally diverted, “washed” of noxious chemicals, mixed with tap water and perhaps a dash of real liquor for flavour, and sold to speakeasies or individual customers. Finally, bootleggers took to bottling their own concoctions of spurious liquor, and by the late 1920s stills making liquor from corn had become major suppliers. Faultily distilled batches of this “rotgut” could be dangerously impure and cause blindness, paralysis, and even death. Bootlegging helped lead to the establishment of American organized crime, which persisted long after the repeal of Prohibition. The distribution of liquor was necessarily more complex than other types of criminal activity, and organized gangs eventually arose that could control an entire local chain of bootlegging operations, from concealed distilleries and breweries through storage and transport channels to speakeasies, restaurants, nightclubs, and other retail outlets. These gangs tried to secure and enlarge territories in which they had a monopoly of distribution. The rise of the bootlegging led to a succession of gang wars and murders. A notorious incident was the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929: the Al Capone gang shot to death seven members of the rival George “Bugs” Moran gang. Gradually the gangs in different cities began to cooperate with one another, and they extended their methods of organizing beyond bootlegging to the narcotics traffic, gambling rackets, prostitution, labour racketeering, loan-sharking, and extortion. The national American crime syndicate, the Mafia, arose out of the coordinated activities of Italian bootleggers and other gangsters in New York City in the late 1920s and early ’30s. In 1933 Prohibition was abandoned. The bootlegger did not become extinct, however. In the early 21st century, alcohol was still prohibited in a number of U.S. counties and municipalities, and bootlegging continued to thrive as an illegal business. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt. Chicago Table of Contents Introduction Character of the city Landscape People Economy Administration and society Cultural life History Fast Facts Chicago summary Related Content Read Next Who Founded Chicago? 100th Anniversary of Chicago’s Flag 7 Iconic Buildings in Chicago Quizzes Anywhere USA World Cities Chicago Media Videos Images More More Articles On This Topic Additional Reading Contributors Article History Home Geography & Travel Cities & Towns Cities & Towns C-G Chicago Illinois, United States      Written by  ,  See All Fact-checked by  Last Updated: Jun 4, 2023 • Article History Recent News Jun. 4, 2023, 10:27 AM ET (AP) 7 shot, 1 fatally, in Chicago when gunfire erupts amid remembrance for man killed in car crash A 25-year-old woman was fatally shot and six other people were wounded early Sunday when gunfire erupted in Chicago during a remembrance for a man who died in a car crash, police said Jun. 1, 2023, 2:54 PM ET (AP) Heather Mack, convicted in mother’s murder in Bali, plans to plead guilty in US, attorney says A Chicago woman facing federal conspiracy charges in the 2014 killing of her mother during a luxury vacation in Bali plans to plead guilty, her attorney said Thursday Experience the Chicago city scenes Experience the Chicago city scenesSee all videos for this article Chicago skyline Chicago skyline Chicago, city, seat of Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. With a population hovering near three million, Chicago is the state’s largest and the country’s third most populous city. In addition, the greater Chicagoland area—which encompasses northeastern Illinois and extends into southeastern Wisconsin and northwestern Indiana—is the country’s third largest metropolitan area and the dominant metropolis of the Midwest. Downtown Chicago Downtown Chicago The original site for Chicago was unremarkable: a small settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River near the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Indeed, a common notion for the origin of the city’s name is an Algonquian word for a wild leek (or onion) plant that grew locally. However, Chicago’s location at the southwestern end of the vast Great Lakes system could not have been more ideal as the country expanded westward in the 19th century, and perhaps this is reflected in another interpretation of the Native American term as meaning “strong” or “great.” Regardless of which derivation is correct, it was soon recognized that the Chicago River formed a critical link in the great waterway that arose mid-century between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. With the rise of railways soon thereafter, the young city became the country’s railway hub, which helped diversify the city’s rapidly growing industrial base. Chicago continued as America’s crossroads with the explosive growth of air travel after World War II, which eased the city’s transition into a postindustrial economy. Chicago sprawls along the lakeshore and extends inland to meet its suburbs in a ragged line. At its greatest extent, the city is some 25 miles (40 km) from north to south and 15 miles (25 km) from east to west. Area 228 square miles (591 square km). Pop. (2010) 2,695,598; Chicago-Joliet-Naperville Metro Division, 7,883,147; Chicago-Joliet-Naperville Metro Area, 9,461,105; (2020) 2,746,388; Chicago-Naperville-Evanston Metro Division, 7,267,535; Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro Area, 9,618,502. Character of the city Gold Coast Gold Coast A drive across Chicago’s lively immigrant neighbourhoods is a trip around the world: the cultures of virtually every country can be found in food stores, restaurants, clothing shops, music and video dealers, places of worship, and street-corner conversations. Chicago’s dizzying growth in the 19th century led to a reputation not only for disorder and political corruption but also for creativity in the arts, architecture, and business. The resulting economic opportunities also contributed to the diversity of the city’s population. Chicago skyline at sunset, Illinois Britannica Quiz Chicago World's Columbian Exposition World's Columbian Exposition Chicago never fulfilled its dream of becoming the largest American city, but between 1890 and 1982 it was second only to New York City. That fact has contributed much to the city’s reputed personality. In the 19th century it had the image of being aggressive and self-promoting, stealing population and businesses from the East. Chicago’s “Windy City” nickname, in fact, came not from lake breezes but from its braggadocio—exhibited most dramatically in the 1890s, when it pushed aside New York and St. Louis, Missouri, in the competition to become the site of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Poet Carl Sandburg hailed it as the “city of the big shoulders,” cunning and cruel, yet creative and strangely attractive. It was the “toddlin’ town” of the 1920s tune, and Frank Sinatra famously proclaimed it “my kind of town.” New York writer A.J. Liebling belittled its provinciality in a stinging series of magazine articles, collected in the 1952 book Chicago: The Second City. Chicagoans eventually forgot the book, but the adopted epithet stuck. Under the regime of the late mayor Richard J. Daley, efficient municipal services made it the “city that works.” Chicagoans still like to refer to it as the “city of neighbourhoods,” even though that description can carry connotations of segregation by race, ethnicity, and social class. Hear about the history of the Hull House in Chicago and see how data of demographic materials are collected and documented Hear about the history of the Hull House in Chicago and see how data of demographic materials are collected and documentedSee all videos for this article Chicago-style pizza Chicago-style pizza Few cities evoke as many contrasting pairs of images as Chicago. During the 19th century it was regarded as exceptional for the speed of its growth and the diversity of its population, yet its interior location supposedly made it a much more “typically American” city than New York. One-third of Chicago lay in ashes in the wake of the Great Fire of 1871, but it was rebuilt in record speed during the onset of an economic depression. It was the city of the humble immigrant and the new millionaire, the home of brazen criminals such as Al Capone and of great humanitarians such as settlement-house pioneer Jane Addams and child-welfare crusader Lucy Flower. There were raucous saloons under the watchful eye of temperance leader Frances Willard. Fetid wooden slums and horrific public housing high-rises have coexisted cheek by jowl with a uniquely innovative architectural tradition and the beautiful Gold Coast lakefront neighbourhood just north of the river. Chicago traditionally has been a shot-and-a-beer town whose best-known culinary inventions include a deep-dish pizza and a hot dog elaborately loaded with garnishes. At the same time, it has long enjoyed a reputation for cutting-edge innovation in the arts, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has maintained a high level of international renown. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Chicago has been a stranger’s town throughout its history. Its position as a hub for rail and air travel has always meant that at any one time a large portion of the people in the city are out-of-towners. Over the years its location has fostered a lively convention trade—a fact that has led hundreds of organizations and corporations to call it home. As the metropolis of the country’s midsection, from the southern Great Plains to Canada and as far west as the Rocky Mountains, Chicago ranks among the country’s top tourist destinations. On any given day, the parking lots of its museums are filled with cars from dozens of surrounding states, while its varied retailers and wholesalers have long been an interstate and international magnet for shoppers. Landscape of Chicago City site river and buildings in downtown Chicago river and buildings in downtown Chicago Chicago lies mainly on a relatively flat glacial plain—on what was once the bottom of Lake Chicago (the precursor of Lake Michigan)—averaging between 579 and 600 feet (176 and 183 metres) above sea level. Much of the site remained swampy, only a few feet above the lake level, before the central part of the city was filled in during the 19th century. Chicago is divided roughly into thirds by the North and South branches of the Chicago River, which join together about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the lake. The original meandering river mouth was straightened soon after the town’s founding, while a mile-long bend on the South Branch was eliminated to accommodate maritime traffic. A second important body of water, Lake Calumet, is located in the industrial southeastern part of the city; it is connected to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal by the Calumet Sag (Cal-Sag) Channel and to Lake Michigan by the Calumet River. Downtown Chicago occupies the area between the lakeshore and the northern end of the South Branch and extends south from the river for a mile or so. Within this is the Loop, named in the 1880s for the square of blocks originally enclosed by streetcar tracks and now generally defined by the elevated tracks of the rapid-transit system. The Loop and the adjacent North Michigan Avenue corridor stretching north along the lakefront form the commercial and financial heart of the city. Climate Chicagoans have a pair of old adages about the local climate. The first—“If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour and it will change”—may have something to do with the fact that temperature and precipitation, borne by prairie winds from Iowa or Minnesota, routinely collide with conditions generated by Lake Michigan to produce abrupt weather alterations. The second—“There are two seasons in Chicago: Christmas and the Fourth of July”—refers to the sometimes stark extremes in the weather. About 50 °F (28 °C) separate the January average of 28 °F (−2 °C) and the July average of 75 °F (24 °C). The average annual precipitation is 35 inches (900 mm). Chicagoans can enjoy lying on the beach in summer and skating in the parks in winter. The expansive Chicago region, however, is large enough to see simultaneous double-digit differences in temperature. Although city pavements are known to absorb and radiate enough heat to affect local meteorological patterns, the lake often provides a moderating influence, slightly warming the areas near it in winter, cooling them in summer, and generating occasional lake-effect showers and snowfalls. City layout Chicago skyline Chicago skyline Chicago presents a different face in each direction. One of the city’s most attractive features is its miles of well-used parks and other public facilities along the lakeshore. Other parts of the city can be dismal. Sporadic industrial buildings, many of them abandoned, line railroad routes and river branches that radiate out from the centre. The industrial landscape of the southeast portion of the city dominates the vista from the east. The western and northern approaches to Chicago present a vast expanse of tree-lined residential neighbourhoods, leading to a dramatic skyline of towering office, hotel, and apartment buildings that are concentrated downtown and along the lake. Chicago skyscrapers Chicago skyscrapers Merchandise Mart Merchandise Mart lobby of the Rookery lobby of the Rookery Thousands of tourists come each year just to view the architecture. The reconstruction of the city after the Great Fire of 1871 initiated a pattern of building innovation that expanded in the late 1880s with a wave of new office structures that were dubbed skyscrapers, a term reputedly coined in Chicago but which New York also claims. The steel frames of skyscrapers removed height limitations previously imposed by solid load-bearing masonry walls and allowed the use of large expanses of glass, terra-cotta facing, and other types of curtain walls. A generation of 1920s-era Art Deco office towers may be found principally in the LaSalle Street financial district, while the influence of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the German-born Chicago architect of great worldwide influence, can be seen in the 1950s–80s generation of International-style buildings. Scores of major structures have been constructed since the early 1970s. The 110-story, 1,450-foot (442-metre) Willis (formerly Sears) Tower (1974) remains one of the tallest in the world. Also ranking among the country’s tallest buildings are the 100-story John Hancock Center (1969), the 98-story Trump International Hotel and Tower (2009), the 83-story Aon Center (originally Amoco Building; 1974), the 61-story AT&T Corporate Center (1989), and the 65-story 311 South Wacker Building (1990). Dozens of newer postmodern designs continue to remake the skyline. As Chicago grew rapidly in the 1880s, places that were once rural quickly became part of the city. In 1869, public health advocates, who called for Chicago to purify its air with a “green crown” of trees, joined with real estate interests to badger the state government into creating a ring of major parks linked together by broad boulevards. Growth led to a patchwork of neighbourhood green spaces. In 1934 the city consolidated 22 smaller park administrations to create the Chicago Park District, which operates more than 500 parks covering some 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares). Beyond the city, county forest preserve districts and the federal government have set aside thousands of acres of natural woodlands and have re-created prairies. A major outdoor gallery for the people, the city’s parks and public plazas feature dozens of monuments and sculptures. Nineteenth-century works in bronze honour such figures as Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant; immigrants have commemorated heroes and cultural figures including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Hans Christian Andersen. The philanthropist Kate Sturges Buckingham donated one of the world’s largest fountains—Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain (dedicated 1927), which graces Grant Park just east of downtown. Beginning in the 1960s, Chicago acquired contemporary sculptures by Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Richard Hunt, and others. The most famous is the Pablo Picasso sculpture in Daley Center Plaza, fabricated of steel designed to weather and once described by an unappreciative alderman as “six stories of rusting boiler-plate.” Like all cities, Chicago is still deeply affected by the physical artifacts of its history. The street pattern is basically an extension of the first city plan of 1830. It is a grid layout, eight blocks to a mile, with major commercial streets around the perimeters of each square mile (2.5 square km). Not all streets conform, some having evolved from meandering Native American trails radiating outward from the river mouth and others having paths determined by the presence of the river and the lake. Chicago can perhaps be thought of as a fragmented city, with the river branches, major streets, railroad embankments, and (more recently) expressways dividing it into a diversity of neighbourhoods and housing types. There are lakefront high-rises, including Lake Point Tower—once among the tallest apartment buildings in the country and now only one of many such structures in its increasingly fashionable district east of Michigan Avenue—in sharp contrast to thousands of smaller stone-front or brick flats farther inland. Constantly improving public transportation and seemingly unlimited supplies of affordable land have long made single-family housing in the city relatively attainable for many. Outlying neighbourhoods still consist of tens of thousands of bungalows, built narrow and deep to fit city lots. Many of these homes were built in massive subdivisions where developers replicated the same basic house dozens of times. Chicago sprawls in all directions from the curving lakefront. The vast public-transportation and expressway networks have allowed the metropolitan area, popularly called Chicagoland, to stretch from Kenosha, Wisconsin, around the south end of the lake through northwestern Indiana to the Michigan state line. Early suburban development gave the appearance of a wagon wheel. On the outer rim is a broad arc of older industrial cities—Waukegan, Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, Aurora, Joliet, and Chicago Heights—that were once independent of Chicago; these cities formed part of a ring that informally defined the outer boundary of the metropolitan area until the latter part of the 20th century. Immediately surrounding the city are such communities as Evanston, Oak Park, Cicero, and Blue Island, all of which resisted annexation by their larger neighbour. Connecting the hub and rim are a number of other older residential suburbs that developed as part of spokelike strings of towns extending outward from the city along several commuter rail lines. The wheel pattern gradually broke down after World War II, when automobile commuting on a growing network of expressways allowed new subdivisions to displace the farms that lay between the spokes of the older rail-commuting suburbs. After 1960 the presence of O’Hare International Airport spurred businesses and light industry to concentrate in the northwest suburbs. New high-technology research facilities and offices developed after 1970 along the “Silicon Prairie” corridor stretching west of the city. As a result, the formerly quiet village of Naperville has been transformed into a sprawling “technoburb” with one of the largest populations in the state. Conversely, some of the older suburbs have replicated the inner-city pattern of aging structures, obsolete industrial buildings, and social problems, while the outward shift of jobs has accelerated the dispersal of residential development far beyond the ring of old industrial towns. People of Chicago The most important fact about Chicago’s population is its historic and rich diversity. Early Chicago was inhabited by the Sauk (or Sac), Fox, and Potawatomi peoples, and the first permanent nonnative resident, Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable (or DuSable), was of French-African heritage by way of the West Indies. French Canadian traders mixed with settlers from New England and the Middle Atlantic states. Irish, German, and Scandinavian immigrants began to pour in during the 1840s. In 1850 more than half of the population was foreign-born. During the latter half of the 19th century, arrivals from Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Lithuania, Bohemia, China, and smaller countries entered the city through diverse portal neighbourhoods that were located just northwest and southwest of downtown. As they moved outward, they created communities that were virtually self-contained enclaves of commercial, social, and cultural activity. Elaborate churches and synagogues, many of which still survive, were often the centre of their lives. Race became a divisive issue after the turn of the 20th century. Job opportunities during World War I and restrictions on foreign immigration after 1924 lured tens of thousands of African Americans from the South. These new arrivals poured into a community on the city’s South Side that had existed since the mid-19th century. Soon dubbed Bronzeville, it became a centre of vibrant African American culture, amusement, and entrepreneurship. Mounting racial tensions, exacerbated by overcrowded and segregated housing on the South Side and the return of former soldiers, exploded in July 1919 into one of the country’s worst race riots, which claimed 38 lives. Meanwhile, Mexican Americans, who had responded to the same wartime opportunities and who were exempt from the 1924 legislation, came by the thousands, attracted by jobs in railroading, steel, and meatpacking. The Great Depression of the 1930s effectively halted the city’s growth, but World War II again attracted thousands of African Americans to work in defense plants and initiated a new wave of migration that grew rapidly during the 1950s. Refugees from Lithuania, Poland, and other eastern European countries also arrived after the war, as did newcomers from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. At the same time, a thriving Japanese American community sprang from the relocation of workers from wartime internment camps to Chicago. Since the latter part of the 20th century, the city’s population growth has been fueled by migrants from both around the country and around the world. By the early 21st century, African Americans made up roughly one-third of the population, and whites constituted some two-fifths. Mexican Americans, whose numbers have mushroomed faster than those of any other group, have settled in a corridor extending southwestward from the Pilsen and Little Village neighbourhoods near downtown to suburban Cicero. They have been joined by others from every country in Central and South America. African immigrants have come from all regions of that continent. Hispanics now make up a growing one-fourth of the city’s population. The relaxation of immigration restrictions in the mid-1960s brought a substantial wave into the South Asian community, making Devon Avenue on the far North Side its arrival portal and main shopping street. There sari stores coexist with Jewish delis, Russian bookstores, and Palestinian markets. Meanwhile, Korean Americans also have prospered in small businesses scattered across the city. In 1975, arrivals following the Vietnam War created an instant neighbourhood centred near the lake on Argyle Street, where Cambodians, Thai, Hmong, and other Southeast Asians leaving their homelands have found opportunity. Change has been a constant factor in the ethnic and neighbourhood makeup of the city, forcing many groups to struggle to maintain their communities. Urban renewal for expressways and public housing was the major destabilizing factor during the 1950s and ’60s, notably for African Americans and Puerto Ricans. The loss of industrial jobs also devastated neighbourhoods, while chain stores drew money out of local circulation. Federal home loans—which restricted where and how funds could be spent—along with increased capacity on commuter rail lines and new expressway construction encouraged the post-World War II generations to build new homes in the suburbs, leaving behind aging parents in declining city neighbourhoods. In many areas the thousands of bungalows that had been built in a relatively short period of time all started to deteriorate. Without new housing stock to replace decaying structures, the downward cycle toward abandonment began in many areas of the South and West sides. The departing families were replaced by newly arrived minorities, whose poverty and race were disadvantages in an increasingly segregated city. Color map of United States. Color USA map. Color USA map. Color dot USA map. Hompepage blog 2009, history and society, geography and travel, explore discovery Britannica Quiz Anywhere USA The destruction of the old housing stock produced a loss of population, which led to the closing of such community anchors as churches, schools, and hospitals. Politicians and planners tried to contain the African American communities by constructing expressways around those areas and concentrating the residents of minority neighbourhoods in rows of monolithic public-housing high-rise apartment buildings. The Robert Taylor Homes near the lakefront on the South Side was the largest such project ever built in the country. The most recent destabilizing factor in some areas of the city has been gentrification. Conveniently located old houses and apartment buildings have lured enough financing to transform once-abandoned districts into communities of upscale housing units. Since the last decades of the 20th century, thousands of new residents have moved into the light-manufacturing belt surrounding the Loop. Where immigrant workers once carried their lunch pails to work in factories, these young urban professionals clutch briefcases and talk on their cell phones as they walk to work in downtown office towers. Similar developments are transforming the housing and manufacturing districts along several rapid-transit (popularly, “L,” for “elevated”) lines and in parts of the traditionally African American communities along the south shore of the lake. Boutiques and coffeehouses have displaced small grocers and other marginal merchants. While the process has saved neighbourhoods in one sense and brought back large numbers of affluent residents to the city, it has also tended to increase property values and tax assessments to the point where longtime residents of more-modest means are displaced. Indeed, many of the 1960s-era public-housing projects (including Robert Taylor) have now been razed, although some provisions have been made for housing the former tenants. A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster.[1] Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series and video games. Usage Yakuza, or Japanese mafia, are not allowed to show their tattoos in public except during the Sanja Matsuri festival. In modern usage, the term "gang" is generally used for a criminal organization and the term "gangster" invariably describes a criminal.[2] Much has been written on the subject of gangs, although there is no clear consensus about what constitutes a gang or what situations lead to gang formation and evolution. There is agreement that the members of a gang have a sense of common identity and belonging and this is typically reinforced through shared activities and through visual identifications such as special clothing, tattoos or rings.[3] Some preconceptions may be false. For example, the common view that illegal drug distribution in the United States is largely controlled by gangs has been questioned.[4] A gang may be a relatively small group of people who cooperate in criminal acts, as with the Jesse James gang, which ended with the leader's death in 1882. However, a gang may also be a larger group with a formal organization that survives the death of its leader. For example, each of the Five Families founded in the early 20th century, outlasted its founders and have survived into the 21st century. Large and well structured gangs such as the Mafia, drug cartels, Triads or even outlaw motorcycle gangs can undertake complex transactions that would be far beyond the capability of one individual, and can provide services such as dispute arbitration and contract enforcement that parallel those of a legitimate government.[5] The term "organized crime" is associated with gangs and gangsters, but is not synonymous. A small street gang that engages in sporadic low-level crime would not be seen as "organized". An organization that coordinates gangs in different countries involved in the international trade in drugs or prostitutes may not be considered a "gang".[6] Regional variants Europe Sketch of the 1901 maxi trial of suspected mafiosi in Palermo. From the newspaper L'Ora, May 1901. There are several organized crime groups in Italy. Notably, the Sicilian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share common organizational structure and code of conduct. The origins lie in the upheaval of Sicily's transition out of feudalism in 1812 and its later annexation by mainland Italy in 1860. Under feudalism, the nobility owned most of the land and enforced law and order through their private armies. After 1812, the feudal barons steadily sold off or rented their lands to private citizens. Primogeniture was abolished, land could no longer be seized to settle debts, and one fifth of the land was to become private property of the peasants.[7] Other similarly large and powerful Italian criminal organizations, often composed of smaller gangs or “clans” generally operating under a shared criminal subculture or code, include the Camorra in Naples and Campania and the Ndrangheta in Calabria. Organized crime has existed in Russia since the days of Imperial Russia in the form of banditry and thievery. In the Soviet period Vory v Zakone emerged, a class of criminals that had to abide by certain rules in the prison system. One such rule was that cooperation with the authorities of any kind was forbidden. During World War II some prisoners made a deal with the government to join the armed forces in return for a reduced sentence, but upon their return to prison they were attacked and killed by inmates who remained loyal to the rules of the thieves.[8] In 1988 the Soviet Union legalized private enterprise but did not provide regulations to ensure the security of market economy. Crude markets emerged, the most notorious being the Rizhsky market where prostitution rings were run next to the Rizhsky Railway Station in Moscow.[9] As the Soviet Union headed for collapse many former government workers turned to crime, while others moved overseas. Former KGB agents and veterans of the Afghan and First and Second Chechen Wars, now unemployed but with experience that could prove useful in crime, joined the increasing crime wave.[9] At first, the Vory v Zakone played a key role in arbitrating the gang wars that erupted in the 1990s.[10] By the mid-1990s it was believed that "Don" Semion Mogilevich had become the "boss of all bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world, described by the British government as "one of the most dangerous men in the world".[11] More recently, criminals with stronger ties to big business and the government have displaced the Vory from some of their traditional niches, although the Vory are still strong in gambling and the retail trade.[10] The Albanian Mafia is active in Albania, the United States, and the European Union (EU) countries, participating in a diverse range of criminal enterprises including drug and arms trafficking.[12][13] The people of the mountainous country of Albania have always had strong traditions of family and clan loyalty, in some ways similar to that of southern Italy. Ethnic Albanian gangs have grown rapidly since 1992 during the prolonged period of instability in the Balkans after the collapse of Yugoslavia. This coincided with large scale migration throughout Europe and to the United States and Canada. Although based in Albania, the gangs often handle international transactions such as trafficking in economic migrants, drugs and other contraband, and weapons.[14] Other criminal organizations that emerged in the Balkans around this time are popularly called the Serbian Mafia, Bosnian Mafia, Bulgarian Mafia and so on. Asia Du Yuesheng (1888–1951), a Chinese gangster and important Kuomintang supporter who spent much of his life in Shanghai In China, Triads trace their roots to resistance or rebel groups opposed to Manchu rule during the Qing dynasty, which were given the triangle as their emblem.[15] The first record of a triad society, Heaven and Earth Gathering, dates to the Lin Shuangwen uprising on Taiwan from 1786 to 1787.[16] The triads evolved into criminal societies. When the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 in mainland China, law enforcement became stricter and tough governmental crackdown on criminal organizations forced the triads to migrate to Hong Kong, then a British colony, and other cities around the world. Triads today are highly organized, with departments responsible for functions such as accounting, recruiting, communications, training and welfare in addition to the operational arms. They engage in a variety of crimes including extortion, money laundering, smuggling, trafficking and prostitution.[17] Yakuza are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. They are notorious for their strict codes of conduct and very organized nature. As of 2009 they had an estimated 80,900 members.[18] Most modern yakuza derive from two classifications which emerged in the mid-Edo period: tekiya, those who primarily peddled illicit, stolen or shoddy goods; and bakuto, those who were involved in or participated in gambling.[19] United States and Canada In the late 1860s, many Chinese emigrated to the United States, escaping from insecurity and economic hardship at home, at first working on the west coast and later moving east. The new immigrants formed Chinese Benevolent Associations. In some cases these evolved into Tongs, or criminal organizations primarily involved in gambling. Members of Triads who migrated to the United States often joined these tongs. With a new wave of migration in the 1960s, street gangs began to flourish in major cities. The Tongs recruited these gangs to protect their extortion, gambling and narcotics operations.[20] As American society and culture developed, new immigrants were relocating to the United States. The first major gangs in 19th century New York City were the Irish gangs such as the Whyos and the Dead Rabbits.[21] These were followed by the Italian Five Points Gang and later a Jewish gang known as the Eastman Gang.[22][23] There were also "Nativist" anti-immigration gangs such as the Bowery Boys. The Italian-American Mafia arose from offshoots of the Mafia that emerged in the United States during the late 19th century, following waves of emigration from Sicily. There were similar offshoots in Canada among Italian Canadians, such as the Rizzuto crime family. Mug shot of Al Capone. Although never convicted of racketeering, Capone was a protégé and successor of Torrio, later convicted of income tax evasion by the federal government. The terms "gangster" and "mobster" are mostly used in the United States to refer to members of criminal organizations associated with Prohibition. In 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption. Many gangs sold alcohol illegally for profit, and used acute violence to stake turf and protect their interest. Often, police officers and politicians were paid off or extorted to ensure continued operation.[24] Al Capone was one of these notorious gangsters during the Depression era for the Chicago Outfit. Capone would rise to control a major portion of illicit activity such as gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging in Chicago during the early 20th century.[25] In New York City, by the end of the 1920s, two factions of organized crime had emerged to fight for control of the criminal underworld, one led by Joe Masseria and the other by Salvatore Maranzano.[26] This caused the Castellammarese War, which led to Masseria's murder in 1931. Maranzano then divided New York City into five families.[26] Maranzano, the first leader of the American Mafia, established the code of conduct for the organization, set up the "family" divisions and structure, and established procedures for resolving disputes.[26] In an unprecedented move, Maranzano set himself up as boss of all bosses and required all families to pay tribute to him. This new role was received negatively, and Maranzano was murdered within six months on the orders of Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Luciano was a former Masseria underling who had switched sides to Maranzano and orchestrated the killing of Masseria.[27] As an alternative to the previous despotic Mafia practice of naming a single Mafia boss as capo di tutti capi, or "boss of all bosses," Luciano created The Commission in 1931,[26] where the bosses of the most powerful families would have equal say and vote on important matters and solve disputes between families. This group ruled over the National Crime Syndicate and brought in an era of peace and prosperity for the American Mafia.[28] Latin America Members of Colonel Martinez's Search Bloc celebrate over Pablo Escobar's body on December 2, 1993. Most cocaine is grown and processed in South America, particularly in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and smuggled into the United States and Europe, the United States being the world's largest consumer of cocaine.[29] Colombia is the world's leading producer of cocaine, and also produces heroin that is mostly destined for the US market.[30] The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of drug suppliers and smugglers originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The gang operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and run by Ochoa Vázquez brothers with Pablo Escobar. By 1993, the Colombian government, helped by the US, had successfully dismantled the cartel by imprisoning or hunting and gunning down its members.[31] Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for several decades, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.[32] Sixty five percent of cocaine enters the United States through Mexico, and the vast majority of the rest enters through Florida. Cocaine shipments from South America transported through Mexico or Central America are generally moved over land or by air to staging sites in northern Mexico. The cocaine is then broken down into smaller loads for smuggling across the U.S.–Mexico border.[33] Arrests of key gang leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as gangs fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States.[34] Cocaine traffickers from Colombia, and recently Mexico, have also established a labyrinth of smuggling routes throughout the Caribbean, the Bahama Island chain, and South Florida. They often hire traffickers from Mexico or the Dominican Republic to transport the drug. The traffickers use a variety of smuggling techniques to transfer their drug to U.S. markets. These include airdrops of 500–700 kg in the Bahama Islands or off the coast of Puerto Rico, mid-ocean boat-to-boat transfers of 500–2,000 kg, and the commercial shipment of tonnes of cocaine through the port of Miami. Another route of cocaine traffic goes through Chile, this route is primarily used for cocaine produced in Bolivia since the nearest seaports lie in northern Chile. The arid Bolivia-Chile border is easily crossed by 4x4 vehicles that then head to the seaports of Iquique and Antofagasta.[citation needed] In popular culture Further information: Gangster film Gangs have long been the subject of movies. In fact, the first feature-length movie ever produced was The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), an Australian production that traced the life of the outlaw Ned Kelly (1855–1880).[35] The United States has profoundly influenced the genre, but other cultures have contributed distinctive and often excellent gangster movies.[citation needed] United States The actor Edward G. Robinson starred in several American gangster movies. The stereotypical image and myth of the American gangster is closely associated with organized crime during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s.[36] The classic gangster movie ranks with the Western as one of the most successful creations of the American movie industry. The "classic" form of gangster movie, rarely produced in recent years, tells of a gangster working his way up through his enterprise and daring, until his organization collapses while he is at the peak of his powers. Although the ending is presented as a moral outcome, it is usually seen as no more than an accidental failure. The gangster is typically articulate, although at times lonely and depressed, and his worldly wisdom and defiance of social norms has a strong appeal, particularly to adolescents.[37] The years 1931 and 1932 saw the genre produce three classics: Warner Bros.' Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, which made screen icons out of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, and Howard Hughes' Scarface starring Paul Muni, which offered a dark psychological analysis of a fictionalized Al Capone.[38] These films chronicle the quick rise, and equally quick downfall, of three young, violent criminals, and represent the genre in its purest form before moral pressure would force it to change and evolve. Though the gangster in each film would face a violent downfall which was designed to remind the viewers of the consequences of crime, audiences were often able to identify with the charismatic anti-hero. Those suffering from the Depression were able to relate to the gangster character who worked hard to earn his place and success in the world, only to have it all taken away from him.[39] Latin America Latin American gangster movies are known for their gritty realism. Soy un delincuente (English: I Am a Criminal) is a 1976 Venezuelan film by director Clemente de la Cerda. The film tells the story of Ramón Antonio Brizuela, a real-life individual, who since childhood has to deal with rampant violence and the drugs, sex and petty thievery of a Caracas slum. Starting with delinquency, Ramón moves on to serious gang activity and robberies. He grows into a tough, self-confident young man who is hardened to violence. His views change when his fiancée's brother is killed in a robbery. The film was a blockbuster hit in Venezuela.[40] City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. All the characters existed in reality, and the story is based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the '60s and the beginning of the '80s, with the closure of the film depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and criminal Knockout Ned.[41] The film received four Academy Award nominations in 2004.[42] East Asia The first yakuza (gangster) film made in Japan was Bakuto (Gambler, 1964). The genre soon became popular, and by the 1970s the Japanese film industry was turning out a hundred mostly low-budget yakuza films each year. The films are descendants of the samurai epics, and are closer to Westerns than to Hollywood gangster movies. The hero is typically torn between compassion for the oppressed and his sense of duty to the gang. The plots are generally highly stylized, starting with the protagonist being released from prison and ending in a gory sword fight in which he dies an honorable death.[43] Although some Hong Kong gangster movies are simply vehicles for violent action, the mainstream movies in the genre deal with Triad societies portrayed as quasi-benign organizations.[44] The movie gangster applies the Taoist principles of balance and honor to his conduct. The plots are often similar to those of Hollywood gangster movies, often ending with the fall of the subject of the movie at the hands of another gangster, but such a fall is far less important than a fall from honor.[44] The first movie made by the acclaimed director Wong Kar-wai was a gangster movie, As Tears Go By. In it the protagonist finds himself torn between his desire for a woman and his loyalty to a fellow gangster.[45] Infernal Affairs (2002) is a thriller about a police officer who infiltrates a triad and a triad member who infiltrates the police department. The film was remade by Martin Scorsese as The Departed.[46] Gangster films make up one of the most profitable segments of the South Korean film industry. Films made in the 1960s were often influenced by Japanese yakuza films, dealing with internal conflict between members of a gang or external conflict with other gangs. The gangsters' code of conduct and loyalty are important elements. Starting in the 1970s, strict censorship caused decline in the number and quality of gangster movies, and none were made in the 1980s.[47] In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a surge of imports of action movies from Hong Kong. The first of the new wave of important home grown gangster movies was Im Kwon-taek's General's Son (1990). Although this movie followed the earlier tradition, it was followed by a series of sophisticated gangster noirs set in contemporary urban locations, such as A Bittersweet Life (2005).[48] See also Gang Dacoity Organized crime Banditry Illegal drug trade Category:Illegal occupations List of crime bosses List of American mobsters of Irish descent List of Chinese criminal organizations List of Italian American mobsters List of Jewish American mobsters List of mobsters by city The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago garage on the morning of February 14, 1929. They were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants, two dressed as police officers. The murders resulted from the competition for control of organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the largely Irish North Siders, headed by George "Bugs" Moran, and their largely Italian Chicago Outfit rivals led by Al Capone.[1] The perpetrators have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan's Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of involvement; others have said that members of the Chicago Police Department who allegedly wanted revenge for the killing of a police officer's son played a part. The Massacre 2122 North Clark Street is located in Chicago metropolitan area2122 North Clark Street2122 North Clark Street Location of the shootings At 10:30 in the morning on Saint Valentine's Day, Thursday, February 14, 1929, seven men were murdered at the garage at 2122 North Clark Street,[2][3] in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side. They were shot by four men using weapons that included two Thompson submachine guns. Two of the shooters were wearing police uniforms, while the others wore suits, ties, overcoats, and hats. Witnesses saw the men in police uniforms leading the other men at gunpoint out of the garage after the shooting. The victims included five members of George "Bugs" Moran's North Side Gang. Moran's second in command and brother-in-law Albert Kachellek (alias James Clark) was killed along with Adam Heyer, the gang's bookkeeper and business manager; Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran; and gang enforcers Frank Gusenberg and Peter Gusenberg. Two associates were also shot: Reinhardt H. Schwimmer, a former optician turned gambler and gang associate; and John May, an occasional mechanic for the Moran gang. Chicago police officers arrived at the scene to find that victim Frank Gusenberg was still alive, despite having sustained 14 bullet wounds. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors stabilized him for a short time and police tried to question him. When the police asked him who did it, he reportedly replied, "I won't talk, For God's sake get me to a hospital." He died three hours later.[4] The massacre was an attempt to eliminate Bugs Moran, head of the North Side Gang. Al Capone, who was at his Florida home at the time, was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the massacre.[5] The impetus for the plan may have been the North Side Gang's hijacking of some expensive whisky being illegally smuggled by Capone's gang from Canada via the Detroit River.[6] Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen; his succession had come about because his similarly aggressive predecessors, Hymie Weiss and Vincent Drucci, had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of their original leader, Dean O'Banion.[7][8] Several factors contributed to the timing of the plan to kill Moran. Moran and Capone had been vying for control of the lucrative Chicago bootlegging trade. Moran had also been muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs, and he had taken over several saloons that were run by Capone, insisting that they were in his territory. Earlier in the year, North Sider Frank Gusenberg and his brother Peter unsuccessfully attempted to murder Jack McGurn. The North Side Gang was complicit in the murders of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo and Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo. Both had been presidents of the Unione Siciliana, the local Mafia, and close associates of Capone. The plan was to lure Moran to the SMC Cartage warehouse on North Clark Street on February 14, 1929, to kill him and perhaps two or three of his lieutenants. It is usually assumed that the North Siders were lured to the garage with the promise of a stolen, cut-rate shipment of whiskey, supplied by Detroit's Purple Gang, which was associated with Capone. The Gusenberg brothers were supposed to drive two empty trucks to Detroit that day to pick up two loads of stolen Canadian whiskey. All of the victims were dressed in their best clothes, with the exception of John May, as was customary for the North Siders and other gangsters at the time. The victims were lined up against this wall and shot. Most of the Moran gang arrived at the warehouse by approximately 10:30 a.m., but Moran was not there, having left his Parkway Hotel apartment late. He and fellow gang member Ted Newberry were approaching the rear of the warehouse from a side street when they saw a police car nearing the building. They immediately turned and retraced their steps, going to a nearby coffee shop. They encountered gang member Henry Gusenberg on the street and warned him, so he too turned back. North Side Gang member Willie Marks also spotted the police car on his way to the garage and ducked into a doorway and jotted down the license number before leaving the neighborhood. Capone's lookouts likely mistook one of Moran's men, probably Albert Weinshank, who was the same height and build, for Moran himself. The physical similarity between the two men was enhanced by their dress that morning; both happened to be wearing the same color overcoats and hats. Witnesses outside the garage saw a Cadillac sedan pull up to a stop in front of the garage. Four men emerged and walked inside, two of them dressed in police uniform. The two fake police officers carried shotguns and entered the rear portion of the garage, where they found members of Moran's gang and associates Reinhart Schwimmer and John May, who was fixing one of the trucks. The fake policemen then ordered the men to line up against the wall, then signaled to the pair in civilian clothes who had accompanied them. Two of the killers opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one with a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum. They were thorough, spraying their victims left and right, even continuing to fire after all seven had hit the floor. Two shotgun blasts afterward all but obliterated the faces of John May and James Clark, according to the coroner's report. To give the appearance that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed policemen. Inside the garage, the only survivors in the warehouse were May's dog "Highball" and Frank Gusenberg, despite 14 bullet wounds. He was still conscious, but he died three hours later, refusing to identify the killers. Victims Peter Gusenberg, a front-line enforcer for the Moran organizations Frank Gusenberg, the brother of Peter Gusenberg and also an enforcer Albert Kachellek (alias "James Clark"), Moran's second in command Adam Heyer, the bookkeeper and business manager of the Moran gang Reinhardt Schwimmer, an optometrist who had abandoned his practice to gamble on horse racing and associate with the gang Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran; his resemblance to Moran is allegedly what set the massacre in motion before Moran arrived, including the clothes that he was wearing John May, an occasional car mechanic for the Moran gang[9] Investigation The Valentine's Day Massacre set off a public outcry which posed a problem for all mob bosses.[10] Within days, Capone received a summons to testify before a Chicago grand jury on charges of federal Prohibition violations, but he said he was too unwell to attend.[11] It was common knowledge that Moran was hijacking Capone's Detroit-based liquor shipments, and police focused their attention on Detroit's predominantly Jewish Purple Gang. Landladies Mrs. Doody and Mrs. Orvidson had taken in three men as roomers ten days before the massacre, and their rooming houses were directly across the street from the North Clark Street garage. They picked out mugshots of Purple Gang members George Lewis, Eddie Fletcher, Phil Keywell, and his younger brother Harry, but they later wavered in their identification. The police questioned and cleared Fletcher, Lewis, and Harry Keywell. Nevertheless, the Keywell brothers (and by extension the Purple Gang) remained associated with the crime in the years that followed. Many also believed that the police were involved, which may have been the intention of the killers. On February 22, police were called to the scene of a garage fire on Wood Street where they found a 1927 Cadillac sedan disassembled and partially burned, and determined that the killers had used the car. They traced the engine number to a Michigan Avenue dealer who had sold the car to a James Morton of Los Angeles. The garage had been rented by a man calling himself Frank Rogers, who gave his address as 1859 West North Avenue. This was the address of the Circus Café operated by Claude Maddox, a former St. Louis gangster with ties to the Capone gang, the Purple Gang, and the St. Louis gang, Egan's Rats. Police could not turn up any information about persons named James Morton or Frank Rogers, but they had a definite lead on one of the killers. Just minutes before the killings, a truck driver named Elmer Lewis had turned a corner a block away from 2122 North Clark and sideswiped a police car. He told police that he stopped immediately but was waved away by the uniformed driver, who was missing a front tooth. Board of Education President H. Wallace Caldwell had witnessed the accident, and he gave the same description of the driver. Police were confident that they were describing Fred Burke, a former member of Egan's Rats. Burke and a close companion named James Ray were known to wear police uniforms whenever on a robbery spree. Burke was also a fugitive, under indictment for robbery and murder in Ohio. Police also suggested that Joseph Lolordo could have been one of the killers because of his brother Pasqualino's recent murder by the North Side Gang. Police then announced that they suspected Capone gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, as well as Jack McGurn and Frank Rio, a Capone bodyguard. Police eventually charged McGurn and Scalise with the massacre. Capone murdered Scalise, Anselmi, and Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta in May 1929 after he learned about their plan to kill him. The police dropped the murder charges against Jack McGurn because of a lack of evidence, and he was just charged with a violation of the Mann Act; he took his girlfriend Louise Rolfe across state lines to marry. The case stagnated until December 14, 1929, when the Berrien County, Michigan Sheriff's Department raided the St. Joseph, Michigan bungalow of "Frederick Dane", the registered owner of a vehicle driven by Fred "Killer" Burke. Burke had been drinking that night, then rear-ended another vehicle and drove off. Patrolman Charles Skelly pursued, finally forcing him off the road. Skelly hopped onto the running board of Burke's car, but he was shot three times and died of his wounds that night. The car was found wrecked and abandoned just outside St. Joseph and traced to Fred Dane. By this time, police photos confirmed that Dane was in fact Fred Burke, wanted by the Chicago police for his participation in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Police raided Burke's bungalow and found a large trunk containing a bullet-proof vest, almost $320,000 in bonds recently stolen from a Wisconsin bank, two Thompson submachine guns, pistols, two shotguns, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. St. Joseph authorities immediately notified the Chicago police, who requested both machine guns. They used the new science of forensic ballistics to identify both weapons as those used in the massacre. They also discovered that one of them had also been used to murder New York mobster Frankie Yale a year and a half earlier. Unfortunately, no further concrete evidence surfaced in the massacre case. Burke was captured over a year later on a Missouri farm. The case against him was strongest in connection to the murder of Officer Skelly, so he was tried in Michigan and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1940. Bolton revelations On January 8, 1935, FBI agents surrounded a Chicago apartment building at 3920 North Pine Grove looking for the remaining members of the Barker Gang. A brief shootout erupted, resulting in the death of bank robber Russell Gibson. Taken into custody were Doc Barker, Byron Bolton, and two women. Bolton was a Navy machine-gunner and associate of Egan's Rats, and he had been the valet of Chicago hit man Fred Goetz. Bolton was privy to many of the Barker Gang's crimes and pinpointed the Florida hideout of Ma Barker and Freddie Barker, both of whom were killed in a shootout with the FBI a week later. Bolton said he took part in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre with Goetz, Fred Burke, and several others. The FBI had no jurisdiction in a state murder case, so they kept Bolton's revelations confidential until the Chicago American newspaper reported a second-hand version of his confession. The newspaper declared that the crime had been "solved", despite being stonewalled by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, who did not want any part of the massacre case. Garbled versions of Bolton's story went out in the national media. Bolton, it was reported,[where?] said that the plan to murder Bugs Moran had been plotted in October or November 1928 at a Couderay, Wisconsin resort owned by Fred Goetz. Present at this meeting were Goetz, Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Fred Burke, Gus Winkler, Louis Campagna, Daniel Serritella, William Pacelli, and Bolton. The men stayed two or three weeks, hunting and fishing when they were not planning the murder of their enemies. Bolton said that he and Jimmy Moran were charged with watching the S.M.C. Cartage garage and phoning the signal to the killers at the Circus Café when Bugs Moran arrived at the meeting. Police had found a letter addressed to Bolton in the lookout nest (and possibly a vial of prescription medicine). Bolton guessed that the actual killers had been Burke, Winkeler, Goetz, Bob Carey, Raymond "Crane Neck" Nugent, and Claude Maddox (four shooters and two getaway drivers). Bolton gave an account of the massacre different from the one generally told by historians. He said that he saw only "plainclothes" men exit the Cadillac and go into the garage. This indicates that a second car was used by the killers. George Brichet said he saw at least two uniformed men exiting a car in the alley and entering the garage through its rear doors. A Peerless Motor Company sedan had been found near a Maywood house owned by Claude Maddox in the days after the massacre, and in one of the pockets was an address book belonging to victim Albert Weinshank. Bolton said that he had mistaken one of Moran's men to be Moran, after which he telephoned the signal to the Circus Café. The killers had expected to kill Moran and two or three of his men, but they were unexpectedly confronted with seven men; they simply decided to kill them all and get out fast. Bolton said that Capone was furious with him for his mistake and the resulting police pressure and threatened to kill him, only to be dissuaded by Fred Goetz. His claims were corroborated by Gus Winkeler's widow Georgette in an official FBI statement and in her memoirs, which were published in a four-part series in a true detective magazine during the winter of 1935–36. She revealed that her husband and his friends had formed a special crew used by Capone for high-risk jobs. The mob boss was said to have trusted them implicitly and nicknamed them the "American Boys". Bolton's statements were also backed up by William Drury, a Chicago detective who had stayed on the massacre case long after everyone else had given up. Bank robber Alvin Karpis later said to have heard secondhand from Ray Nugent about the massacre and that the "American Boys" were paid a collective salary of $2,000 a week plus bonuses. Karpis also said that Capone had told him while they were in Alcatraz together that Goetz had been the actual planner of the massacre. Despite Byron Bolton's statements, no action was taken by the FBI. All the men whom he named were dead by 1935, with the exception of Burke and Maddox. Bank robber Harvey Bailey complained in his 1973 autobiography that he and Fred Burke had been drinking beer in Calumet City, Illinois at the time of the massacre, and the resulting heat forced them to abandon their bank robbing ventures. Historians are still divided on whether or not the "American Boys" committed the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Other suspects Many mobsters have been named as part of the Valentine's Day hit team. Two prime suspects are Cosa Nostra hit men John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. In the days after the massacre, Scalise was heard to brag, "I am the most powerful man in Chicago." Unione Siciliana president Joseph Guinta had recently elevated him to the position of the Unione's vice-president. Nevertheless, Scalise, Anselmi, and Guinta were found dead on a lonely road near Hammond, Indiana on May 8, 1929. Gangland lore has it that Capone had discovered that the pair were planning to betray him. Legend states that Capone produced a baseball bat at the climax of a dinner party thrown in their honor and beat the trio to death.[12] In 1995 Chicago criminologist Arthur Bilek, who had researched the massacre through FBI files and court transcripts for 30 years, named the participants in the massacre to have been "Capone henchmen "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, who assembled the murder team that included lookouts Byron Bolton, Jimmy Moran (no relation to Bugs) and Jimmy McCryssen. Their job was to watch the garage and alert Tony Accardo and the other triggermen - Fred Burke, Gus Winkler, Freddie Goetz and Robert Carey - when Bugs Moran appeared at the site. Another team member, according to Bilek, was Claude "Screwy" Maddox, who procured the killers' transportation - a car resembling those used by police. With the stage set, Capone and McGurn established alibis: Capone going to Florida; McGurn checked into a hotel with his wife, Louise Rolfe." His claims were backed up by the former FBI agent William Roemer, who had heard claims of Tony Accardo also being involved as one of the shooters on several occasions by Murray "The Camel" Humphreys through a microphone planted in the Chicago Tailor shop in 1959. [13][14] Murder weapons Police tested the two Thompson submachine guns (serial numbers 2347 and 7580) found in Fred Burke's Michigan bungalow and determined that both had been used in the massacre. One of them had also been used in the murder of Brooklyn mob boss Frankie Yale, which confirmed the New York Police Department's long-held theory that Burke had been responsible for Yale's death. Les Farmer, a deputy sheriff in Marion, Illinois purchased gun number 2347 on November 12, 1924. Marion and the surrounding area were overrun by the warring bootleg factions of the Shelton Brothers Gang and Charlie Birger. Farmer had ties with Egan's Rats, based 100 miles away in St. Louis, and the weapon had wound up in Fred Burke's possession by 1927. It is possible that he used this same gun in Detroit's Milaflores Massacre on March 28, 1927. Chicago sporting goods owner Peter von Frantzius sold gun number 7580 to a Victor Thompson, also known as Frank V. Thompson, but it wound up with James "Bozo" Shupe, a small-time hood from Chicago's West Side who had ties to various members of Capone's outfit. Both guns are currently in the possession of the Berrien County, Michigan Sheriff's Department.[citation needed] Legacy Crime scene and bricks from the murder wall The site in 2013 National Museum of Crime and Punishment, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre brick (2868502113) The garage at 2122 N. Clark Street was demolished in 1967, and the site is now a parking lot for a nursing home.[15] The bricks of the north wall against which the victims were shot were purchased by a Canadian businessman. For many years, they were displayed in various crime-related novelty displays. Many of them were later sold individually, and the remainder are now owned by the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.[16] In popular culture The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre has been portrayed, referenced, or emulated in the following works: Biographical Al Capone, a 1959 film directed by Richard Wilson starring Rod Steiger as Capone Seven Against the Wall, a 1959 episode of Playhouse 90 directed by Franklin J. Schaffner starring Paul Lambert as Capone The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a 1967 film directed by Roger Corman starring Jason Robards as Capone Capone, a 1975 film directed by Steve Carver starring Ben Gazzara as Capone The Untouchables, a 1987 film directed by Brian De Palma that briefly mentions the massacre The Making of the Mob: Chicago, a 2016 miniseries about Al Capone that reenacts the massacre's scene Gangster Land, a 2017 film about Al Capone Fictional Scarface, a 1932 gangster film directed by Howard Hawks that is loosely based on the life of Al Capone and depicts a version of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre Some Like It Hot, a 1959 comedy directed by Billy Wilder in which Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play characters on the run after witnessing the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre Oscar, a comedy film directed by John Landis in which Sylvester Stallone's character is implied to have been at the massacre. In The Rocketeer (1991) Neville Sinclair gives gangster boss Eddie Valentine an ironic "Happy Valentine's Day" greeting as a reference to both Eddie's name and his impending execution by Nazi commandos. Mafia 3, although mentioned only in a newspaper, Sal Marcano and his brothers slaughtered their former boss and his men. This event is referred to as the "All Saints Day Massacre". Other St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House, produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; WWE as of 2002); a pay-per-view (PPV) professional wrestling event. It took place on February 14, 1999, at the Memphis Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. The title of the event alludes to the Saint Valentine's Day massacre. See also Gun politics in the United States List of events named massacres List of massacres in Illinois List of unsolved murders National Firearms Act Alphonse Gabriel Capone (/kəˈpoʊn/;[1] January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33. Capone was born in New York City in 1899 to Italian immigrants. He joined the Five Points Gang as a teenager and became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, Capone moved to Chicago and became a bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol—the forerunner of the Outfit—and was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana. A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone's rise and fall. Torrio went into retirement after North Side gunmen almost killed him, handing control to Capone. Capone expanded the bootlegging business through increasingly violent means, but his mutually profitable relationships with Mayor William Hale Thompson and the Chicago Police Department meant he seemed safe from law enforcement. Capone apparently reveled in attention, such as the cheers from spectators when he appeared at baseball games. He made donations to various charities and was viewed by many as a "modern-day Robin Hood".[2] However, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven gang rivals were murdered in broad daylight, damaged the public image of Chicago and Capone, leading influential citizens to demand government action and newspapers to dub Capone "Public Enemy No. 1". Federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and charged him with twenty-two counts of tax evasion. He was convicted of five counts in 1931. During a highly publicized case, the judge admitted as evidence Capone's admissions of his income and unpaid taxes, made during prior (and ultimately abortive) negotiations to pay the government taxes he owed. He was convicted and sentenced to eleven years in federal prison. After conviction, he replaced his defense team with experts in tax law, and his grounds for appeal were strengthened by a Supreme Court ruling, but his appeal ultimately failed. Capone showed signs of neurosyphilis early in his sentence and became increasingly debilitated before being released after almost eight years of incarceration. On January 25, 1947, he died of cardiac arrest after a stroke. Early life The young Capone with his mother Al Capone was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York, New York, on January 17, 1899.[3] His parents were Italian immigrants Gabriele Capone (1865–1920) and Teresa Capone (née Raiola; 1867–1952).[4] His father was a barber and his mother was a seamstress, both born in Angri, a small comune outside of Naples in the Province of Salerno.[5][6] Capone's family had immigrated to the United States in 1893 by ship, first going through Fiume (modern-day Rijeka, Croatia), a port city in what was then Austria-Hungary.[3][7] The family settled at 95 Navy Street, in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn. When Al was aged 11, he and his family moved to 38 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn.[3] Capone's parents had eight other children: James Vincenzo Capone, who later changed his name to Richard Hart and became a Prohibition agent in Homer, Nebraska; Raffaele James Capone, also known as Ralph Capone or "Bottles", who took charge of his brother's beverage industry; Salvatore "Frank" Capone; Ermina Capone, who died at the age of one; Ermino "John" Capone; Albert Capone; Matthew Capone and Mafalda Capone. Ralph and Frank worked with Al Capone in his criminal empire. Frank did so until his death on April 1, 1924.[8] Ralph ran Capone's bottling companies (both legal and illegal) early on and was also the front man for the Chicago Outfit until he was imprisoned for tax evasion in 1932.[9] Al Capone showed promise as a student but had trouble with the rules at his strict parochial Catholic school. His schooling ended at the age of 14 after he was expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face.[10] Capone worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including a candy store and a bowling alley.[11] From 1916 to 1918 he played semi-professional baseball.[12] Following this, Capone was influenced by gangster Johnny Torrio, whom he came to regard as a mentor.[13] Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin at age 19, on December 30, 1918. She was Irish Catholic and earlier that month had given birth to their son Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone (1918–2004). Albert lost most of his hearing in his left ear as a child. Capone was under the age of 21, and his parents had to consent in writing to the marriage.[14] By all accounts, the two had a happy marriage despite his criminal lifestyle.[15] Career New York City Capone initially became involved with small-time gangs that included the Junior Forty Thieves and the Bowery Boys. He then joined the Brooklyn Rippers, and then the powerful Five Points Gang based in Lower Manhattan. During this time he was employed and mentored by fellow racketeer Frankie Yale, a bartender in a Coney Island dance hall and saloon called the Harvard Inn. Capone inadvertently insulted a woman while working the door, and he was slashed with a knife three times on the left side of his face by her brother, Frank Galluccio; the wounds led to the nickname "Scarface", which Capone loathed.[16][17][18] The date when this occurred has been reported with inconsistencies.[19][20][21] When Capone was photographed, he hid the scarred left side of his face, saying that the injuries were war wounds.[17][22] He was called "Snorky" by his closest friends, a term for a sharp dresser.[23] Move to Chicago In 1919, Capone left New York City for Chicago at the invitation of Torrio, who was imported by crime boss James "Big Jim" Colosimo as an enforcer. Capone began in Chicago as a bouncer in a brothel, where is thought the most likely way for him to have contracted syphilis. Capone was aware of being infected at an early stage and timely use of Salvarsan probably could have cured the infection, but he apparently never sought treatment.[24] In 1923, Capone purchased a small house at 7244 South Prairie Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood in Chicago's South Side for US$5,500.[25] According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, hijacker Joe Howard was killed on May 7, 1923, after he tried to interfere with the Capone-Torrio bootlegging business.[26] In the early years of the decade, Capone's name began appearing in newspaper sports pages where he was described as a boxing promoter.[27] Torrio took over Colosimo's criminal empire after the latter's murder on May 11, 1920, in which Capone was suspected of being involved.[10][28][29] Torrio headed an essentially Italian organized crime group that was the biggest in Chicago, with Capone as his right-hand man. Torrio was wary of being drawn into gang wars and tried to negotiate agreements over territory between rival crime groups. The smaller North Side Gang, led by Dean O'Banion, came under pressure from the Genna brothers who were allied with Torrio. O'Banion found that Torrio was unhelpful with the Gennas' encroachment, despite his pretensions to be a settler of disputes.[30] In a fateful step, Torrio arranged the murder of O'Banion at his flower shop on November 10, 1924. This placed Hymie Weiss at the head of the gang, backed by Vincent Drucci and Bugs Moran. Weiss had been a close friend of O'Banion, and the North Siders made it a priority to get revenge on his killers.[31][32] During Prohibition, Capone was involved with Canadian bootleggers who helped him smuggle liquor into the U.S. When Capone was asked if he knew Rocco Perri, billed as Canada's "King of the Bootleggers", he replied: "Why, I don't even know which street Canada is on."[33] Other sources, however, claim that Capone had certainly visited Canada,[34] where he maintained some hideaways,[35] but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police states that there is no "evidence that he ever set foot on Canadian soil."[36] Boss Unemployed men outside a soup kitchen opened by Capone in Chicago during the Depression, February 1931 An ambush in January 1925 left Capone shaken but unhurt. Twelve days later, Torrio was returning from a shopping trip when he was shot several times. After recovering, he effectively resigned and handed control to Capone, aged 26, who became the new boss of an organization that took in illegal breweries and a transportation network that reached to Canada, with political and law-enforcement protection. In turn, he was able to use more violence to increase revenue. Any establishment that refused to purchase liquor from Capone often got blown up, and as many as 100 people were killed in such bombings during the 1920s. Rivals saw Capone as responsible for the proliferation of brothels in the city.[32][37][38][39] Capone often enlisted the help of local members of the black community into his operations; jazz musicians Milt Hinton and Lionel Hampton had uncles who worked for Capone on Chicago's South Side. A fan of jazz as well, Capone once asked clarinetist Johnny Dodds to play a number that Dodds did not know; Capone split a $100 bill in half and told Dodds that he would get the other half when he learned it. Capone also sent two bodyguards to accompany jazz pianist Earl Hines on a road trip.[40] Capone indulged in custom suits, cigars, gourmet food and drink, and female companionship. He was particularly known for his flamboyant and costly jewelry. His favorite responses to questions about his activities were: "I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want"; and, "All I do is satisfy a public demand." Capone had become a national celebrity and talking point.[16] The entrance of Capone's mansion in Palm Island, Florida, located at 93 Palm Avenue. Capone bought the estate in 1928 as a winter retreat and lived there until his death in 1947. Capone based himself in Cicero, Illinois, after using bribery and widespread intimidation to take over town council elections, making it difficult for the North Siders to target him.[41] Capone's driver was found tortured and murdered, and there was an attempt on Weiss' life in the Chicago Loop. On September 20, 1926, the North Siders used a ploy outside Capone's headquarters at the Hawthorne Inn aimed at drawing him to the windows. Gunmen in several cars then opened fire with Thompson submachine guns and shotguns at the windows of the first-floor restaurant. Capone was unhurt and called for a truce, but the negotiations fell through. Three weeks later, on October 11, Weiss was killed outside the North Siders' headquarters at O'Banion's former flower shop. The owner of Hawthorne's restaurant was a friend of Capone's, and he was kidnapped and killed by Moran and Drucci in January 1927.[42][43] Capone became increasingly security-minded and desirous of getting away from Chicago.[43][44] As a precaution, he and his entourage would often show up suddenly at one of Chicago's train depots and buy up an entire Pullman sleeper car on a night train to Cleveland, Omaha, Kansas City, Little Rock or Hot Springs, Arkansas, where they would spend a week in luxury hotel suites under assumed names. In 1928, Capone paid $40,000 to Clarence Busch of the Anheuser-Busch brewing family for a 10,000 square foot (930 m2) home at 93 Palm Avenue on Palm Island, Florida, between Miami and Miami Beach.[45] Feud with Aiello In November 1925, Capone's consigliere, Antonio Lombardo, was named head of the Unione Siciliana, a Sicilian-American benevolent society that had been corrupted by gangsters. An infuriated Joe Aiello, who had wanted the position himself, believed Capone was responsible for Lombardo's ascension and resented the non-Sicilian's attempts to manipulate affairs within the Unione.[46] Aiello severed all personal and business ties with Lombardo and entered into a feud with Capone.[46][47] Aiello allied himself with several other Capone enemies, including Jack Zuta, who ran vice and gambling houses together.[48][49] Aiello plotted to eliminate both Lombardo and Capone, and starting in the spring of 1927 made several attempts to assassinate Capone.[47] On one occasion, Aiello offered money to the chef of Joseph "Diamond Joe" Esposito's Bella Napoli Café, Capone's favorite restaurant, to put prussic acid in Capone's and Lombardo's soup; reports indicated he offered between $10,000 and $35,000.[46][50] Instead, the chef exposed the plot to Capone,[47][51] who responded by dispatching men to destroy Aiello's bakery on West Division Street with machine-gun fire.[47] More than 200 bullets were fired into the bakery on May 28, 1927, wounding Joe's brother Antonio.[46] During the summer and autumn of 1927, a number of hitmen Aiello hired to kill Capone were themselves slain. Among them were Anthony Russo and Vincent Spicuzza, each of whom had been offered $25,000 by Aiello to kill Capone and Lombardo.[47] Aiello eventually offered a $50,000 bounty to anyone who eliminated Capone.[50][47] At least ten gunmen tried to collect on the bounty but ended up dead.[46] Capone's ally Ralph Sheldon attempted to kill both Capone and Lombardo for Aiello's reward, but Capone henchman Frank Nitti's intelligence network learned of the transaction and had Sheldon shot in front of a West Side hotel, although he survived the incident.[48] In November 1927, Aiello organized machine-gun ambushes across from Lombardo's home and a cigar store frequented by Capone, but those plans were foiled after an anonymous tip led police to raid several addresses and arrest Milwaukee gunman Angelo La Mantio and four other Aiello gunmen. After the police discovered receipts for the apartments in La Mantio's pockets, he confessed that Aiello had hired him to kill Capone and Lombardo, leading the police to arrest Aiello himself and bring him to the South Clark Street police station.[48][52] Upon learning of the arrest, Capone dispatched nearly two dozen gunmen to stand guard outside the station and await Aiello's release.[48][53] The men made no attempt to conceal their purpose there, and reporters and photographers rushed to the scene to observe Aiello's expected murder.[51] Political alliances Chicago politicians had long been associated with questionable methods, and even newspaper circulation "wars", but the need for bootleggers to have protection in city hall introduced a far more serious level of violence and graft. Capone is generally seen as having an appreciable effect in bringing about the victory of Republican mayoral candidate William Hale Thompson, who had campaigned on a platform of not enforcing Prohibition and at one time hinted that he'd reopen illegal saloons.[54] Thompson allegedly accepted a contribution of $250,000 from Capone. Thompson beat Democratic candidate William Emmett Dever in the 1927 mayoral race by a relatively slim margin.[55][56] On the day of the so-called Pineapple Primary on April 10, 1928, voting booths were targeted by Capone's bomber, James Belcastro, in wards where Thompson's opponents were thought to have support, causing the deaths of at least fifteen people. Belcastro was accused of the murder of lawyer Octavius Granady, an African-American who challenged Thompson's candidate for the Black vote, and was chased through the streets on polling day by cars of gunmen before being shot dead. Four policemen were among those charged along with Belcastro, but all charges were dropped after key witnesses recanted their statements. An indication of the attitude of local law enforcement toward Capone's organization came in 1931 when Belcastro was wounded in a shooting; police suggested to skeptical journalists that Belcastro was an independent operator.[57][58][59][60][61] A 1929 report by The New York Times connected Capone to the 1926 murder of Assistant State Attorney William H. McSwiggin, the 1928 murders of chief investigator Ben Newmark and former mentor Frankie Yale.[62] Saint Valentine's Day Massacre Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, despite being at his Florida home at the time of the massacre.[63] The massacre was an attempt to eliminate Bugs Moran, head of the North Side Gang, and the motivation for the plan may have been the fact that some expensive whisky illegally imported from Canada via the Detroit River had been hijacked while it was being transported to Cook County, Illinois.[64] Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen; his succession had come about because his similarly aggressive predecessors, Weiss and Vincent Drucci, had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of original leader Dean O'Banion.[65][66] To monitor their targets' habits and movements, Capone's men rented an apartment across from the trucking warehouse and garage at 2122 North Clark Street, which served as Moran's headquarters. On the morning of Thursday, February 14, 1929,[67][68] Capone's lookouts signaled four gunmen disguised as police officers to initiate a "police raid". The faux police lined the seven victims along a wall and signaled for accomplices armed with machine guns and shotguns. Moran was not among the victims. Photos of the slain victims shocked the public and damaged Capone's image. Within days, Capone received a summons to testify before a Chicago grand jury on charges of federal Prohibition violations, but he claimed to be too unwell to attend.[69] In an effort to clean up his image, Capone donated to charities and sponsored a soup kitchen in Chicago during the Depression.[70][2] The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre led to public disquiet about Thompson's alliance with Capone and was a factor in Anton J. Cermak winning the mayoral election on April 6, 1931.[71] Feud with Aiello ends Capone was primarily known for ordering other men to do his dirty work for him. In May 1929, one of Capone's bodyguards, Frank Rio, uncovered a plot by three of his men, Albert Anselmi, John Scalise and Joseph Giunta, who had been persuaded by Aiello to depose Capone and take over the Chicago Outfit.[72] Capone later beat the men with a baseball bat and then ordered his bodyguards to shoot them, a scene that was included in the 1987 film The Untouchables.[73] Deirdre Bair, along with writers and historians such as William Elliot Hazelgrove, have questioned the veracity of the claim.[73][74] Bair questioned why "three trained killers could sit quietly and let this happen", while Hazelgrove stated that Capone would have been "hard pressed to beat three men to death with a baseball bat" and that he would have instead let an enforcer perform the murders.[73][74] However, despite claims that the story was first reported by author Walter Noble Burns in his 1931 book The One-way Ride: The red trail of Chicago gangland from prohibition to Jake Lingle,[73] Capone biographers Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz have found versions of the story in press coverage shortly after the crime. Collins and Schwartz suggest that similarities among reported versions of the story indicate a basis in truth and that the Outfit deliberately spread the tale to enhance Capone's fearsome reputation.[75]: xvi, 209–213, 565  George Meyer, an associate of Capone's, also claimed to have witnessed both the planning of the murders and the event itself.[3] In 1930, upon learning of Aiello's continued plotting against him, Capone resolved to finally eliminate him.[50] In the weeks before Aiello's death, Capone's men tracked him to Rochester, New York, where he had connections through Buffalo crime family boss Stefano Magaddino, and plotted to kill him there, but Aiello returned to Chicago before the plot could be executed.[76] Aiello, angst-ridden from the constant need to hide out and the killings of several of his men,[77] set up residence in the Chicago apartment of Unione Siciliana treasurer Pasquale "Patsy Presto" Prestogiacomo at 205 N. Kolmar Ave.[50][78] On October 23, upon exiting Prestogiacomo's building to enter a taxicab, a gunman in a second-floor window across the street started firing at Aiello with a submachine gun.[50][78] Aiello was said to have been shot at least 13 times before he toppled off the building steps and moved around the corner,[79] attempting to move out of the line of fire. Instead, he moved directly into the range of a second submachine gun positioned on the third floor of another apartment block, and was subsequently gunned down.[50][78] Federal intervention In the wake of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, Walter A. Strong, publisher of the Chicago Daily News, decided to ask his friend President Herbert Hoover for federal intervention to stem Chicago's lawlessness. He arranged a secret meeting at the White House, just two weeks after Hoover's inauguration. On March 19, 1929, Strong, joined by Frank Loesch of the Chicago Crime Commission, and Laird Bell, made their case to the President.[80] In Hoover's 1952 Memoir, the former President reported that Strong argued "Chicago was in the hands of the gangsters, that the police and magistrates were completely under their control, …that the Federal government was the only force by which the city's ability to govern itself could be restored. At once I directed that all the Federal agencies concentrate upon Mr. Capone and his allies."[81] That meeting launched a multi-agency attack on Capone. Treasury and Justice Departments developed plans for income tax prosecutions against Chicago gangsters, and a small, elite squad of Prohibition Bureau agents (whose members included Eliot Ness) were deployed against bootleggers. In a city used to corruption, these lawmen were incorruptible. Charles Schwarz, a writer for the Chicago Daily News, dubbed them Untouchables. To support Federal efforts, Strong secretly used his newspaper's resources to gather and share intelligence on the Capone outfit.[82] Trials Capone's cell at the now decommissioned Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, where he spent about nine months starting in May 1929 Mug shot of Capone in Miami, Florida, 1930 On March 27, 1929, Capone was arrested by FBI agents as he left a Chicago courtroom after testifying to a grand jury that was investigating violations of federal prohibition laws. He was charged with contempt of court for feigning illness to avoid an earlier appearance.[83] On May 16, 1929, Capone was arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for carrying a concealed weapon. On May 17, 1929, Capone was indicted by a grand jury and a trial was held before Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge John E Walsh. Following the entering of a guilty plea by his attorney, Capone was sentenced to a prison term of one year.[84] On August 8, 1929, Capone was transferred to Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary. A week after his release in March 1930, Capone was listed as the number one "Public Enemy" on the unofficial Chicago Crime Commission's widely publicized list.[85] In April 1930, Capone was arrested on vagrancy charges when visiting Miami Beach; the governor had ordered sheriffs to run him out of the state. Capone claimed that Miami police had refused him food and water and threatened to arrest his family. He was charged with perjury for making these statements, but was acquitted after a three-day trial in July.[86] In September, a Chicago judge issued a warrant for Capone's arrest on charges of vagrancy and then used the publicity to run against Thompson in the Republican primary.[87][88] In February 1931, Capone was tried on the contempt of court charge. In court, Judge James Herbert Wilkerson intervened to reinforce questioning of Capone's doctor by the prosecutor. Wilkerson sentenced Capone to six months, but he remained free while on appeal of the contempt conviction.[89][90] In February 1930, Capone's organization was linked to the murder of Julius Rosenheim, who served as a police informant in the Chicago Outfit for 20 years.[91] Tax evasion Wikisource has original text related to this article: IRS investigation of Al Capone Capone's FBI criminal record in 1932, showing most of his criminal charges were discharged/dismissed Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt is said to have originated the tactic of charging obviously wealthy crime figures with federal tax evasion on the basis of their luxurious lifestyles.[92] In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Sullivan that the approach was legally sound: illegally earned income was subject to income tax.[93] The key to Capone's conviction on tax charges was not his spending, but proving his income, and the most valuable evidence in that regard originated in his offer to pay tax. Ralph, his brother and a gangster in his own right, was tried for tax evasion in 1930. Ralph spent the next 18 months in prison after being convicted in a two-week trial over which Wilkerson presided.[94] Seeking to avoid the same fate, Al Capone ordered his lawyer to regularize his tax position, and although it was not done, his lawyer made crucial admissions when stating the income that Capone was willing to pay tax on for various years, admitting income of $100,000 for 1928 and 1929, for instance. Hence, without any investigation, the government had been given a letter from a lawyer acting for Capone conceding his large taxable income for certain years he had paid no tax on. On March 13, 1931, Capone was charged with income tax evasion for 1924, in a secret grand jury. On June 5, 1931, Capone was indicted by a federal grand jury on 22 counts of income tax evasion from 1925 through 1929; he was released on $50,000 bail.[95] Capone was then indicted on 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act (Prohibition laws).[75]: 385–421, 493–496 [96][95] On June 16, 1931, at the Chicago Federal Building in the courtroom of Wilkerson, Capone pleaded guilty to income tax evasion and the 5,000 Volstead Act violations as part of a 2+1⁄2-year prison sentence plea bargain. However, on July 30, 1931, Wilkerson refused to honor the plea bargain, and Capone's counsel rescinded the guilty pleas.[95] On the second day of the trial, Wilkerson deemed that the 1930 letter to federal authorities could be admitted into evidence, overruling objections that a lawyer could not confess for his client.[97][98][99] Wilkerson later tried Capone only on the income tax evasion charges as he determined they took precedence over the Volstead Act charges.[95] Much was later made of other evidence, such as witnesses and ledgers, but these strongly implied Capone's control rather than stating it. Capone's lawyers, who had relied on the plea bargain Wilkerson refused to honor and therefore had mere hours to prepare for the trial, ran a weak defense focused on claiming that essentially all his income was lost to gambling.[100] This would have been irrelevant regardless, since gambling losses can only be subtracted from gambling winnings, but it was further undercut by Capone's expenses, which were well beyond what his claimed income could support; Wilkerson allowed Capone's spending to be presented at very great length.[100] The government charged Capone with evasion of $215,000 in taxes on a total income of $1,038,654, during the five-year period.[95] Capone was convicted on five counts of income tax evasion on October 17, 1931,[101][102][103] and was sentenced a week later to 11 years in federal prison, fined $50,000 plus $7,692 for court costs, and was held liable for $215,000 plus interest due on his back taxes.[104][105][106][107] The contempt of court sentence was served concurrently.[108][109][110] New lawyers hired to represent Capone were Washington-based tax experts. They filed a writ of habeas corpus based on a Supreme Court ruling that tax evasion was not fraud, which apparently meant that Capone had been convicted on charges relating to years that were actually outside the time limit for prosecution. However, a judge interpreted the law so that the time that Capone had spent in Miami was subtracted from the age of the offences, thereby denying the appeal of both Capone's conviction and sentence.[111] Imprisonment Cell 181 in Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary where Capone was imprisoned Mug shot of Capone at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, 1934 Capone was sent to Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary in May 1932, aged 33. Upon his arrival at Atlanta, Capone was officially diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhoea. He was also experiencing withdrawal symptoms from cocaine addiction, the use of which had perforated his nasal septum. Capone was competent at his prison job of stitching soles on shoes for eight hours a day, but his letters were barely coherent. He was seen as a weak personality, and so out of his depth dealing with bullying at the hands of fellow inmates that his cellmate, seasoned convict Red Rudensky, feared that Capone would have a breakdown. Rudensky was formerly a small-time criminal associated with the Capone gang and found himself becoming a protector for Capone. The conspicuous protection by Rudensky and other prisoners, drew accusations from less friendly inmates and fueled suspicion that Capone was receiving special treatment. No solid evidence ever emerged, but it formed part of the rationale for moving Capone to the recently opened Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco, in August 1934.[112] On June 23, 1936, Capone was stabbed and superficially wounded by fellow Alcatraz inmate James C. Lucas.[113] Due to his good behavior, Capone was permitted to play banjo in the Alcatraz prison band, the Rock Islanders, which gave regular Sunday concerts for other inmates.[114] Capone also transcribed the song "Madonna Mia" creating his own arrangement as a tribute to his wife Mae.[115] Al Capone's inmate file from Alcatraz Prison At Alcatraz, Capone's decline became increasingly evident, as neurosyphilis progressively eroded his mental faculties; his formal diagnosis of syphilis of the brain was made in February 1938.[116] He spent the last year of his Alcatraz sentence in the hospital section, confused and disoriented.[117] Capone completed his term in Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, and was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in California to serve out his sentence for contempt of court.[118] He was paroled on November 16, 1939, after his wife Mae appealed to the court, based on his reduced mental capabilities.[119][120] Chicago aftermath The main effect of Capone's conviction was that he ceased to be boss immediately on his imprisonment, but those involved in the jailing of Capone portrayed it as considerably undermining the city's organized crime syndicate. Capone's underboss, Frank Nitti, took over as boss of the Outfit after he was released from prison in March 1932, having also been convicted of tax evasion charges.[121] Far from being smashed, the Outfit continued without being troubled by the Chicago police, but at a lower level and without the open violence that had marked Capone's rule. Organized crime in the city had a lower profile once Prohibition was repealed, already wary of attention after seeing Capone's notoriety bring him down, to the extent that there is a lack of consensus among writers about who was actually in control and who was a figurehead "front boss".[71][75]: 468–469, 517–518, 524–527, 538–541  Prostitution, labor union racketeering, and gambling became moneymakers for organized crime in the city without incurring serious investigation. In the late 1950s, FBI agents discovered an organization led by Capone's former lieutenants reigning supreme over the Chicago underworld.[122] Some historians have speculated that Capone ordered the 1939 murder of Edward J. O'Hare a week before his release, for helping federal prosecutors convict Capone of tax evasion, though there are other theories for O'Hare's death.[123] Illness and death Due to his failing health, Capone was released from prison on November 16, 1939,[124] and referred to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for the treatment of syphilitic paresis. Because of his unsavory reputation, Johns Hopkins refused to treat him, but Union Memorial Hospital was willing to take him as a patient. Capone was grateful for the compassionate care that he received and donated two Japanese weeping cherry trees to Union Memorial Hospital in 1939. After a few weeks of inpatient and outpatient care, on March 20, 1940, a very sickly Capone left Baltimore and travelled to his mansion in Palm Island, Florida.[125][126][127] In 1942, after mass production of penicillin was started in the United States, Capone was one of the first American patients treated by the new drug.[128] Though it was too late for him to reverse the damage to his brain, it did slow down the progression of the disease.[119] In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist examined him and concluded that Capone had the mentality of a 12-year-old child.[83] He spent the last years of his life at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida, spending time with his wife and grandchildren.[129] On January 21, 1947, Capone had a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve, but contracted bronchopneumonia. He suffered a cardiac arrest on January 22, and on January 25, surrounded by his family in his home, Capone died after his heart failed as a result of apoplexy.[130][131] His body was transported back to Chicago a week later and a private funeral was held.[132] He was originally buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago. In 1950, Capone's remains, along with those of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Frank, were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.[133][134] Capone's death certificate January 25, 1947 Capone's death certificate January 25, 1947   Capone's grave in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois Capone's grave in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois In popular culture Main article: Al Capone in popular culture Capone is one of the most notorious American gangsters of the 20th century and has been the major subject of numerous articles, books, and films. Particularly, from 1925 to 1929, shortly after he relocated to Chicago, he enjoyed status as the most notorious mobster in the country. He cultivated a certain image of himself in the media that made him a subject of fascination.[135][136] His personality and character have been used in fiction as a model for crime lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. The stereotypical image of a mobster wearing a pinstriped suit and tilted fedora are based on photos of Capone. His accent, mannerisms, facial construction, physical stature, and parodies of his name have been used for numerous gangsters in comics, movies, music, and literature. See also Biography portal List of Depression-era outlaws The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults Timeline of organized crime Al Capone bibliography Chicago (/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ (listen) shih-KAH-goh, locally also /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/ shih-KAW-goh;[6] Miami-Illinois: Shikaakwa; Ojibwe: Zhigaagong) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third-most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census,[7] it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. As the seat of Cook County, the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, the 39th-largest city in the world as of 2018. On the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century.[8][9] The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless,[10] but Chicago's population continued to grow.[9] Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and architecture, such as the Chicago School, the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper.[11][12] Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It is the financial center of the U.S. Midwest. It has the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone.[13] O'Hare International Airport is routinely ranked among the world's top six busiest airports.[14] The region is the nation's railroad hub.[15] The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018.[16] Chicago's economy is diverse, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.[13] Chicago is a major tourist destination. Chicago's culture has contributed much to the visual arts, literature, film, theater, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, dance, and music (particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel,[17] and electronic dance music, including house music). Chicago is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Chicago area also hosts the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Chicago, among other institutions of learning. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams. Etymology and nicknames Main article: Nicknames of Chicago See also: Windy City (nickname) The name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion; it is known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more commonly as "ramps". The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou" was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir.[18] Henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the eponymous wild "garlic" grew profusely in the area.[19] According to his diary of late September 1687: ... when we arrived at the said place called "Chicagou" which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region.[19] The city has had several nicknames throughout its history, such as the Windy City, Chi-Town, Second City, and City of the Big Shoulders.[20] History Main article: History of Chicago For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Chicago history. Beginnings Traditional Potawatomi regalia on display at the Field Museum of Natural History In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi, a Native American tribe who had succeeded the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples in this region.[21] An artist's rendering of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 Home Insurance Building (1885) Court of Honor at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 The first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African descent, perhaps born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and established the settlement in the 1780s. He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago".[22][23][24] In 1795, following the victory of the new United States in the Northwest Indian War, an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the US for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville. In 1803, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn by the Potawatomi before being later rebuilt.[25] After the War of 1812, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago and sent west of the Mississippi River as part of the federal policy of Indian removal.[26][27][28] 19th century The location and course of the Illinois and Michigan Canal (completed 1848) 0:50 State and Madison Streets, once known as the busiest intersection in the world (1897) On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200.[28] Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837,[29] and for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city.[30] As the site of the Chicago Portage,[31] the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River.[32][33][34][35] A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy.[36] The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts.[37] In the 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas, the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery.[38] These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for US president at the 1860 Republican National Convention, which was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the Wigwam. He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War. To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved Chesbrough's plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system.[39] The project raised much of central Chicago to a new grade with the use of jackscrews for raising buildings.[40] While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the city's health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River, and subsequently into Lake Michigan, polluting the city's primary freshwater source. The city responded by tunneling two miles (3.2 km) out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs. In 1900, the problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River, which flows into the Mississippi River.[41][42][43] In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 1-mile (1.6 km) wide, a large section of the city at the time.[44][45][46] Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards, survived intact,[47] and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction.[48][49] During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed the world's first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction.[50][51] The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township, which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and the Jefferson Township, which now makes up most of Chicago's Northwest Side.[52] The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents. Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States. Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in the United States of foreign parentage. Germans, Irish, Poles, Swedes, and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population).[53][54] Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike. Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889.[55] Programs that were developed there became a model for the new field of social work.[56] During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states.[57] The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks, which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago was John H. Rauch, M.D. Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago.[58] In the 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals.[59][60] In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones.[61] This system for telling time spread throughout the continent. In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the present location of Jackson Park. The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world's fair in history.[62][63] The University of Chicago, formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance, a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects the Washington and Jackson Parks.[64][65] 20th and 21st centuries Men outside a soup kitchen during the Great Depression (1931) 1900 to 1939 Aerial motion film photography of Chicago in 1914 as filmed by A. Roy Knabenshue During World War I and the 1920s there was a major expansion in industry. The availability of jobs attracted African Americans from the Southern United States. Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population of Chicago increased dramatically, from 44,103 to 233,903.[66] This Great Migration had an immense cultural impact, called the Chicago Black Renaissance, part of the New Negro Movement, in art, literature, and music.[67] Continuing racial tensions and violence, such as the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, also occurred.[68] The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the Gangster Era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters, including Al Capone, Dion O'Banion, Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era.[69] Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, when Al Capone sent men to gun down members of a rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran.[70] Chicago was the first American city to have a homosexual-rights organization. The organization, formed in 1924, was called the Society for Human Rights. It produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. Police and political pressure caused the organization to disband.[71] The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the city's heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of the Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost, and unemployment rates amongst blacks and Mexicans in the city were over 40%. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat.[72] From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. The fiscal crisis was resolved by 1933, and at the same time, federal relief funding began to flow into Chicago.[72] Chicago was also a hotbed of labor activism, with Unemployed Councils contributing heavily in the early depression to create solidarity for the poor and demand relief, these organizations were created by socialist and communist groups. By 1935 the Workers Alliance of America begun organizing the poor, workers, the unemployed. In the spring of 1937 Republic Steel Works witnessed the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 in the neighborhood of East Side. In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida, during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition World's Fair.[73] The theme of the fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding.[74] 1940 to 1979 Boy from Chicago, 1941 The Chicago Picasso (1967) inspired a new era in urban public art. During World War II, the city of Chicago alone produced more steel than the United Kingdom every year from 1939 – 1945, and more than Nazi Germany from 1943 – 1945.[citation needed] Protesters in Grant Park outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention The Great Migration, which had been on pause due to the Depression, resumed at an even faster pace in the second wave, as hundreds of thousands of blacks from the South arrived in the city to work in the steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards.[75] On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945.[76] Mayor Richard J. Daley, a Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics. In 1956, the city conducted its last major expansion when it annexed the land under O'Hare airport, including a small portion of DuPage County.[77] By the 1960s, white residents in several neighborhoods left the city for the suburban areas – in many American cities, a process known as white flight – as Blacks continued to move beyond the Black Belt.[78] While home loan discriminatory redlining against blacks continued, the real estate industry practiced what became known as blockbusting, completely changing the racial composition of whole neighborhoods.[79] Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy job losses for lower-skilled workers. At its peak during the 1960s, some 250,000 workers were employed in the steel industry in Chicago, but the steel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s reduced this number to just 28,000 in 2015. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement, which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders.[80] Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside the convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being beaten by police.[81] Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower, which in 1974 became the world's tallest building), University of Illinois at Chicago, McCormick Place, and O'Hare International Airport, were undertaken during Richard J. Daley's tenure.[82] In 1979, Jane Byrne, the city's first female mayor, was elected. She was notable for temporarily moving into the crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project and for leading Chicago's school system out of a financial crisis.[83] 1980 to present In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. Washington's first term in office directed attention to poor and previously neglected minority neighborhoods. He was re‑elected in 1987 but died of a heart attack soon after.[84] Washington was succeeded by 6th ward Alderman Eugene Sawyer, who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election. Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development, as well as closing Meigs Field in the middle of the night and destroying the runways. After successfully running for re-election five times, and becoming Chicago's longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term.[85][86] In 1992, a construction accident near the Kinzie Street Bridge produced a breach connecting the Chicago River to a tunnel below, which was part of an abandoned freight tunnel system extending throughout the downtown Loop district. The tunnels filled with 250 million US gallons (1,000,000 m3) of water, affecting buildings throughout the district and forcing a shutdown of electrical power.[87] The area was shut down for three days and some buildings did not reopen for weeks; losses were estimated at $1.95 billion.[87] On February 23, 2011, former Illinois Congressman and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel won the mayoral election.[88] Emanuel was sworn in as mayor on May 16, 2011, and won re-election in 2015.[89] Lori Lightfoot, the city's first African American woman mayor and its first openly LGBTQ Mayor, was elected to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019.[90] All three city-wide elective offices were held by women (and women of color) for the first time in Chicago history: in addition to Lightfoot, the City Clerk was Anna Valencia and City Treasurer, Melissa Conyears-Ervin.[91] On May 15th, 2023, Brandon Johnson assumed office as the 57th Mayor of Chicago. Geography Main article: Geography of Chicago Chicago skyline at sunset in October 2020, from near Fullerton Avenue looking south Topography Downtown and the North Side with beaches lining the waterfront A satellite image of Chicago Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois on the southwestern shores of freshwater Lake Michigan. It is the principal city in the Chicago metropolitan area, situated in both the Midwestern United States and the Great Lakes region. The city rests on a continental divide at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds. In addition to it lying beside Lake Michigan, two rivers—the Chicago River in downtown and the Calumet River in the industrial far South Side—flow either entirely or partially through the city.[92][93] Chicago's history and economy are closely tied to its proximity to Lake Michigan. While the Chicago River historically handled much of the region's waterborne cargo, today's huge lake freighters use the city's Lake Calumet Harbor on the South Side. The lake also provides another positive effect: moderating Chicago's climate, making waterfront neighborhoods slightly warmer in winter and cooler in summer.[94] When Chicago was founded in 1837, most of the early building was around the mouth of the Chicago River, as can be seen on a map of the city's original 58 blocks.[95] The overall grade of the city's central, built-up areas is relatively consistent with the natural flatness of its overall natural geography, generally exhibiting only slight differentiation otherwise. The average land elevation is 579 ft (176.5 m) above sea level. While measurements vary somewhat,[96] the lowest points are along the lake shore at 578 ft (176.2 m), while the highest point, at 672 ft (205 m), is the morainal ridge of Blue Island in the city's far south side.[97] While the Chicago Loop is the central business district, Chicago is also a city of neighborhoods. Lake Shore Drive runs adjacent to a large portion of Chicago's waterfront. Some of the parks along the waterfront include Lincoln Park, Grant Park, Burnham Park, and Jackson Park. There are 24 public beaches across 26 miles (42 km) of the waterfront.[98] Landfill extends into portions of the lake providing space for Navy Pier, Northerly Island, the Museum Campus, and large portions of the McCormick Place Convention Center. Most of the city's high-rise commercial and residential buildings are close to the waterfront. An informal name for the entire Chicago metropolitan area is "Chicagoland", which generally means the city and all its suburbs, though different organizations have slightly different definitions.[99][100][101] Communities See also: Community areas in Chicago and Neighborhoods in Chicago Community areas of Chicago Major sections of the city include the central business district, called The Loop, and the North, South, and West Sides.[102] The three sides of the city are represented on the Flag of Chicago by three horizontal white stripes.[103] The North Side is the most-densely-populated residential section of the city, and many high-rises are located on this side of the city along the lakefront.[104] The South Side is the largest section of the city, encompassing roughly 60% of the city's land area. The South Side contains most of the facilities of the Port of Chicago.[105] In the late-1920s, sociologists at the University of Chicago subdivided the city into 77 distinct community areas, which can further be subdivided into over 200 informally defined neighborhoods.[106][107] Streetscape Main article: Roads and expressways in Chicago Chicago's streets were laid out in a street grid that grew from the city's original townsite plot, which was bounded by Lake Michigan on the east, North Avenue on the north, Wood Street on the west, and 22nd Street on the south.[108] Streets following the Public Land Survey System section lines later became arterial streets in outlying sections. As new additions to the city were platted, city ordinance required them to be laid out with eight streets to the mile in one direction and sixteen in the other direction, about one street per 200 meters in one direction and one street per 100 meters in the other direction. The grid's regularity provided an efficient means of developing new real estate property. A scattering of diagonal streets, many of them originally Native American trails, also cross the city (Elston, Milwaukee, Ogden, Lincoln, etc.). Many additional diagonal streets were recommended in the Plan of Chicago, but only the extension of Ogden Avenue was ever constructed.[109] In 2016, Chicago was ranked the sixth-most walkable large city in the United States.[110] Many of the city's residential streets have a wide patch of grass or trees between the street and the sidewalk itself. This helps to keep pedestrians on the sidewalk further away from the street traffic. Chicago's Western Avenue is the longest continuous urban street in the world.[111] Other notable streets include Michigan Avenue, State Street, Oak, Rush, Clark Street, and Belmont Avenue. The City Beautiful movement inspired Chicago's boulevards and parkways.[112] Architecture Further information: Architecture of Chicago, List of tallest buildings in Chicago, and List of Chicago Landmarks The Chicago Building (1904–05) is a prime example of the Chicago School, displaying both variations of the Chicago window. The destruction caused by the Great Chicago Fire led to the largest building boom in the history of the nation. In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building, the Home Insurance Building, rose in the city as Chicago ushered in the skyscraper era,[51] which would then be followed by many other cities around the world.[113] Today, Chicago's skyline is among the world's tallest and densest.[114] Some of the United States' tallest towers are located in Chicago; Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) is the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere after One World Trade Center, and Trump International Hotel and Tower is the third tallest in the country.[115] The Loop's historic buildings include the Chicago Board of Trade Building, the Fine Arts Building, 35 East Wacker, and the Chicago Building, 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments by Mies van der Rohe. Many other architects have left their impression on the Chicago skyline such as Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Charles B. Atwood, John Root, and Helmut Jahn.[116][117] The Merchandise Mart, once first on the list of largest buildings in the world, currently listed as 44th-largest (as of 9 September 2013), had its own zip code until 2008, and stands near the junction of the North and South branches of the Chicago River.[118] Presently, the four tallest buildings in the city are Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower, also a building with its own zip code), Trump International Hotel and Tower, the Aon Center (previously the Standard Oil Building), and the John Hancock Center. Industrial districts, such as some areas on the South Side, the areas along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Northwest Indiana area are clustered.[119] Chicago gave its name to the Chicago School and was home to the Prairie School, two movements in architecture.[120] Multiple kinds and scales of houses, townhouses, condominiums, and apartment buildings can be found throughout Chicago. Large swaths of the city's residential areas away from the lake are characterized by brick bungalows built from the early 20th century through the end of World War II. Chicago is also a prominent center of the Polish Cathedral style of church architecture. The Chicago suburb of Oak Park was home to famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who had designed The Robie House located near the University of Chicago.[121][122] A popular tourist activity is to take an architecture boat tour along the Chicago River.[123] Monuments and public art Replica of Daniel Chester French's Statue of The Republic at the site of the World's Columbian Exposition Main article: List of public art in Chicago Chicago is famous for its outdoor public art with donors establishing funding for such art as far back as Benjamin Ferguson's 1905 trust.[124] A number of Chicago's public art works are by modern figurative artists. Among these are Chagall's Four Seasons; the Chicago Picasso; Miro's Chicago; Calder's Flamingo; Oldenburg's Batcolumn; Moore's Large Interior Form, 1953-54, Man Enters the Cosmos and Nuclear Energy; Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast, Abakanowicz's Agora; and, Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate which has become an icon of the city. Some events which shaped the city's history have also been memorialized by art works, including the Great Northern Migration (Saar) and the centennial of statehood for Illinois. Finally, two fountains near the Loop also function as monumental works of art: Plensa's Crown Fountain as well as Burnham and Bennett's Buckingham Fountain.[citation needed] Climate Main article: Climate of Chicago Chicago, Illinois Climate chart (explanation) J F M A M J J A S O N D   2.1  3218   1.9  3622   2.7  4731   3.6  5942   4.1  7052   4.1  8062   4  8568   4  8366   3.3  7558   3.2  6346   3.4  4935   2.6  3523 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches Metric conversion The Chicago River during the January 2014 cold wave The city lies within the typical hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa), and experiences four distinct seasons.[125][126][127] Summers are hot and humid, with frequent heat waves. The July daily average temperature is 75.9 °F (24.4 °C), with afternoon temperatures peaking at 85.0 °F (29.4 °C). In a normal summer, temperatures reach at least 90 °F (32 °C) on as many as 23 days, with lakefront locations staying cooler when winds blow off the lake. Winters are relatively cold and snowy. Blizzards do occur, such as in winter 2011.[128] There are many sunny but cold days. The normal winter high from December through March is about 36 °F (2 °C). January and February are the coldest months. A polar vortex in January 2019 nearly broke the city's cold record of −27 °F (−33 °C), which was set on January 20, 1985.[129][130][131] Measurable snowfall can continue through the first or second week of April.[132] Spring and autumn are mild, short seasons, typically with low humidity. Dew point temperatures in the summer range from an average of 55.7 °F (13.2 °C) in June to 61.7 °F (16.5 °C) in July.[133] They can reach nearly 80 °F (27 °C), such as during the July 2019 heat wave. The city lies within USDA plant hardiness zone 6a, transitioning to 5b in the suburbs.[134] According to the National Weather Service, Chicago's highest official temperature reading of 105 °F (41 °C) was recorded on July 24, 1934.[135] Midway Airport reached 109 °F (43 °C) one day prior and recorded a heat index of 125 °F (52 °C) during the 1995 heatwave.[136] The lowest official temperature of −27 °F (−33 °C) was recorded on January 20, 1985, at O'Hare Airport.[133][136] Most of the city's rainfall is brought by thunderstorms, averaging 38 a year. The region is prone to severe thunderstorms during the spring and summer which can produce large hail, damaging winds, and occasionally tornadoes.[137] Like other major cities, Chicago experiences an urban heat island, making the city and its suburbs milder than surrounding rural areas, especially at night and in winter. The proximity to Lake Michigan tends to keep the Chicago lakefront somewhat cooler in summer and less brutally cold in winter than inland parts of the city and suburbs away from the lake.[138] Northeast winds from wintertime cyclones departing south of the region sometimes bring the city lake-effect snow.[139] Climate data for Chicago (Midway Airport), 1991–2020 normals,[a] extremes 1928–present Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 67 (19) 75 (24) 86 (30) 92 (33) 102 (39) 107 (42) 109 (43) 104 (40) 102 (39) 94 (34) 81 (27) 72 (22) 109 (43) Mean maximum °F (°C) 53.4 (11.9) 57.9 (14.4) 72.0 (22.2) 81.5 (27.5) 89.2 (31.8) 93.9 (34.4) 96.0 (35.6) 94.2 (34.6) 90.8 (32.7) 82.8 (28.2) 68.0 (20.0) 57.5 (14.2) 97.1 (36.2) Average high °F (°C) 32.8 (0.4) 36.8 (2.7) 47.9 (8.8) 60.0 (15.6) 71.5 (21.9) 81.2 (27.3) 85.2 (29.6) 83.1 (28.4) 76.5 (24.7) 63.7 (17.6) 49.6 (9.8) 37.7 (3.2) 60.5 (15.8) Daily mean °F (°C) 26.2 (−3.2) 29.9 (−1.2) 39.9 (4.4) 50.9 (10.5) 61.9 (16.6) 71.9 (22.2) 76.7 (24.8) 75.0 (23.9) 67.8 (19.9) 55.3 (12.9) 42.4 (5.8) 31.5 (−0.3) 52.4 (11.3) Average low °F (°C) 19.5 (−6.9) 22.9 (−5.1) 32.0 (0.0) 41.7 (5.4) 52.4 (11.3) 62.7 (17.1) 68.1 (20.1) 66.9 (19.4) 59.2 (15.1) 46.8 (8.2) 35.2 (1.8) 25.3 (−3.7) 44.4 (6.9) Mean minimum °F (°C) −3 (−19) 3.4 (−15.9) 14.1 (−9.9) 28.2 (−2.1) 39.1 (3.9) 49.3 (9.6) 58.6 (14.8) 57.6 (14.2) 45.0 (7.2) 31.8 (−0.1) 19.7 (−6.8) 5.3 (−14.8) −6.5 (−21.4) Record low °F (°C) −25 (−32) −20 (−29) −7 (−22) 10 (−12) 28 (−2) 35 (2) 46 (8) 43 (6) 29 (−2) 20 (−7) −3 (−19) −20 (−29) −25 (−32) Average precipitation inches (mm) 2.30 (58) 2.12 (54) 2.66 (68) 4.15 (105) 4.75 (121) 4.53 (115) 4.02 (102) 4.10 (104) 3.33 (85) 3.86 (98) 2.73 (69) 2.33 (59) 40.88 (1,038) Average snowfall inches (cm) 12.5 (32) 10.1 (26) 5.7 (14) 1.0 (2.5) 0.0 (0.0) 0.0 (0.0) 0.0 (0.0) 0.0 (0.0) 0.0 (0.0) 0.1 (0.25) 1.5 (3.8) 7.9 (20) 38.8 (99) Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 11.5 9.4 11.1 12.0 12.4 11.1 10.0 9.3 8.4 10.8 10.2 10.8 127.0 Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 8.9 6.4 3.9 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 1.6 6.3 28.2 Average ultraviolet index 1 2 4 6 7 9 9 8 6 4 2 1 5 Source 1: NOAA[140][133][136], WRCC[141] Source 2: Weather Atlas (UV)[142] Climate data for Chicago (O'Hare Int'l Airport), 1991–2020 normals,[a] extremes 1871–present[b] Sunshine data for Chicago Time zone As in the rest of the state of Illinois, Chicago forms part of the Central Time Zone. The border with the Eastern Time Zone is located a short distance to the east, used in Michigan and certain parts of Indiana. Demographics Main article: Demographics of Chicago Historical population Census Pop. Note %± 1840 4,470 — 1850 29,963 570.3% 1860 112,172 274.4% 1870 298,977 166.5% 1880 503,185 68.3% 1890 1,099,850 118.6% 1900 1,698,575 54.4% 1910 2,185,283 28.7% 1920 2,701,705 23.6% 1930 3,376,438 25.0% 1940 3,396,808 0.6% 1950 3,620,962 6.6% 1960 3,550,404 −1.9% 1970 3,366,957 −5.2% 1980 3,005,072 −10.7% 1990 2,783,726 −7.4% 2000 2,896,016 4.0% 2010 2,695,598 −6.9% 2020 2,746,388 1.9% 2021 (est.) 2,696,555 −1.8% United States Census Bureau[148] 2010–2020[7] During its first hundred years, Chicago was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. When founded in 1833, fewer than 200 people had settled on what was then the American frontier. By the time of its first census, seven years later, the population had reached over 4,000. In the forty years from 1850 to 1890, the city's population grew from slightly under 30,000 to over 1 million. At the end of the 19th century, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world,[149] and the largest of the cities that did not exist at the dawn of the century. Within sixty years of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the population went from about 300,000 to over 3 million,[150] and reached its highest ever recorded population of 3.6 million for the 1950 census. From the last two decades of the 19th century, Chicago was the destination of waves of immigrants from Ireland, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, including Italians, Jews, Russians, Poles, Greeks, Lithuanians, Bulgarians, Albanians, Romanians, Turkish, Croatians, Serbs, Bosnians, Montenegrins and Czechs.[151][152] To these ethnic groups, the basis of the city's industrial working class, were added an additional influx of African Americans from the American South—with Chicago's black population doubling between 1910 and 1920 and doubling again between 1920 and 1930.[151] Chicago has a significant Bosnian population, many of whom arrived in the 1990s and 2000s.[153] In the 1920s and 1930s, the great majority of African Americans moving to Chicago settled in a so‑called "Black Belt" on the city's South Side.[151] A large number of blacks also settled on the West Side. By 1930, two-thirds of Chicago's black population lived in sections of the city which were 90% black in racial composition.[151] Chicago's South Side emerged as United States second-largest urban black concentration, following New York's Harlem. In 1990, Chicago's South Side and the adjoining south suburbs constituted the largest black majority region in the entire United States.[151] Most of Chicago's foreign-born population were born in Mexico, Poland and India.[154] Chicago's population declined in the latter half of the 20th century, from over 3.6 million in 1950 down to under 2.7 million by 2010. By the time of the official census count in 1990, it was overtaken by Los Angeles as the United States' second largest city.[155] The city has seen a rise in population for the 2000 census and after a decrease in 2010, it rose again for the 2020 census.[156] According to U.S. census estimates as of July 2019, Chicago's largest racial or ethnic group is non-Hispanic White at 32.8% of the population, Blacks at 30.1% and the Hispanic population at 29.0% of the population.[157][158][159][160] Racial composition 2020[161] 2010[162] 1990[160] 1970[160] 1940[160] White (non-Hispanic) 31.4% 31.7% 37.9% 59.0%[c] 91.2% Hispanic or Latino 29.8% 28.9% 19.6% 7.4%[c] 0.5% Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 28.7% 32.3% 39.1% 32.7% 8.2% Asian (non-Hispanic) 6.9% 5.4% 3.7% 0.9% 0.1% Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 2.6% 1.3% n/a n/a n/a Ethnic origins in Chicago Map of racial distribution in Chicago, 2010 U.S. census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤ White ⬤ Black ⬤ Asian ⬤ Hispanic ⬤ Other Chicago has the third-largest LGBT population in the United States. In 2018, the Chicago Department of Health, estimated 7.5% of the adult population, approximately 146,000 Chicagoans, were LGBTQ.[163] In 2015, roughly 4% of the population identified as LGBT.[164][165] Since the 2013 legalization of same-sex marriage in Illinois, over 10,000 same-sex couples have wed in Cook County, a majority of them in Chicago.[166][167] Chicago became a "de jure" sanctuary city in 2012 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council passed the Welcoming City Ordinance.[168] According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey data estimates for 2008–2012, the median income for a household in the city was $47,408, and the median income for a family was $54,188. Male full-time workers had a median income of $47,074 versus $42,063 for females. About 18.3% of families and 22.1% of the population lived below the poverty line.[169] In 2018, Chicago ranked seventh globally for the highest number of ultra-high-net-worth residents with roughly 3,300 residents worth more than $30 million.[170] According to the 2008–2012 American Community Survey, the ancestral groups having 10,000 or more persons in Chicago were:[171] Ireland (137,799) Poland (134,032) Germany (120,328) Italy (77,967) China (66,978) American (37,118) UK (36,145) recent African (32,727) India (25,000) Russia (19,771) Arab (17,598) European (15,753) Sweden (15,151) Japan (15,142) Greece (15,129) France (except Basque) (11,410) Ukraine (11,104) West Indian (except Hispanic groups) (10,349) Persons identifying themselves in "Other groups" were classified at 1.72 million, and unclassified or not reported were approximately 153,000.[171] Religion Religion in Chicago (2014)[172][173]   Protestantism (35%)   Roman Catholicism (34%)   Eastern Orthodoxy (1%)   Jehovah's Witness (1%)   No religion (22%)   Judaism (3%)   Islam (2%)   Buddhism (1%)   Hinduism (1%) According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, Christianity is the most prevalently practiced religion in Chicago (71%),[173] with the city being the fourth-most religious metropolis in the United States after Dallas, Atlanta and Houston.[173] Roman Catholicism and Protestantism are the largest branches (34% and 35% respectively), followed by Eastern Orthodoxy and Jehovah's Witnesses with 1% each.[172] Chicago also has a sizable non-Christian population. Non-Christian groups include Irreligious (22%), Judaism (3%), Islam (2%), Buddhism (1%) and Hinduism (1%).[172] Chicago is the headquarters of several religious denominations, including the Evangelical Covenant Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is the seat of several dioceses. The Fourth Presbyterian Church is one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in the United States based on memberships.[174] Since the 20th century Chicago has also been the headquarters of the Assyrian Church of the East.[175] In 2014 the Catholic Church was the largest individual Christian denomination (34%), with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago being the largest Catholic jurisdiction. Evangelical Protestantism form the largest theological Protestant branch (16%), followed by Mainline Protestants (11%), and historically Black churches (8%). Among denominational Protestant branches, Baptists formed the largest group in Chicago (10%); followed by Nondenominational (5%); Lutherans (4%); and Pentecostals (3%).[172] Non-Christian faiths accounted for 7% of the religious population in 2014. Judaism has at least 261,000 adherents which is 3% of the population, making it the second largest religion.[176][172] A 2020 study estimated the total Jewish population of the Chicago metropolitan area, both religious and irreligious, at 319,600.[177] The first two Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893 and 1993 were held in Chicago.[178] Many international religious leaders have visited Chicago, including Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama[179] and Pope John Paul II in 1979.[180] Economy Main article: Economy of Chicago See also: List of companies in the Chicago metropolitan area Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago The Chicago Board of Trade Building Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $670.5 billion according to September 2017 estimates.[181] The city has also been rated as having the most balanced economy in the United States, due to its high level of diversification.[182] The Chicago metropolitan area has the third-largest science and engineering work force of any metropolitan area in the nation.[183] Chicago was the base of commercial operations for industrialists John Crerar, John Whitfield Bunn, Richard Teller Crane, Marshall Field, John Farwell, Julius Rosenwald and many other commercial visionaries who laid the foundation for Midwestern and global industry. Chicago is a major world financial center, with the second-largest central business district in the United States.[184] The city is the seat of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Bank's Seventh District. The city has major financial and futures exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"), which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), by Chicago's CME Group. In 2017, Chicago exchanges traded 4.7 billion derivatives with a face value of over one quadrillion dollars. Chase Bank has its commercial and retail banking headquarters in Chicago's Chase Tower.[185] Academically, Chicago has been influential through the Chicago school of economics, which fielded some 12 Nobel Prize winners. The city and its surrounding metropolitan area contain the third-largest labor pool in the United States with about 4.63 million workers.[186] Illinois is home to 66 Fortune 1000 companies, including those in Chicago.[187] The city of Chicago also hosts 12 Fortune Global 500 companies and 17 Financial Times 500 companies. The city claims three Dow 30 companies: aerospace giant Boeing, which moved its headquarters from Seattle to the Chicago Loop in 2001,[188] McDonald's and Walgreens Boots Alliance.[189] For six consecutive years from 2013 through 2018, Chicago was ranked the nation's top metropolitan area for corporate relocations.[190] However, three Fortune 500 companies left Chicago in 2022, leaving the city with 35, still second to New York City.[191] Manufacturing, printing, publishing, and food processing also play major roles in the city's economy. Several medical products and services companies are headquartered in the Chicago area, including Baxter International, Boeing, Abbott Laboratories, and the Healthcare division of General Electric. Prominent food companies based in Chicago include the world headquarters of Conagra, Ferrara Candy Company, Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Mondelez International, and Quaker Oats.[citation needed] Chicago has been a hub of the retail sector since its early development, with Montgomery Ward, Sears, and Marshall Field's. Today the Chicago metropolitan area is the headquarters of several retailers, including Walgreens, Sears, Ace Hardware, Claire's, ULTA Beauty and Crate & Barrel.[citation needed] Late in the 19th century, Chicago was part of the bicycle craze, with the Western Wheel Company, which introduced stamping to the production process and significantly reduced costs,[192] while early in the 20th century, the city was part of the automobile revolution, hosting the Brass Era car builder Bugmobile, which was founded there in 1907.[193] Chicago was also the site of the Schwinn Bicycle Company. Chicago is a major world convention destination. The city's main convention center is McCormick Place. With its four interconnected buildings, it is the largest convention center in the nation and third-largest in the world.[194] Chicago also ranks third in the U.S. (behind Las Vegas and Orlando) in number of conventions hosted annually.[195] Chicago's minimum wage for non-tipped employees is one of the highest in the nation and reached $15 in 2021.[196][197] Culture and contemporary life Further information: Culture of Chicago, List of people from Chicago, and List of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago The National Hellenic Museum in Greektown is one of several ethnic museums comprising the Chicago Cultural Alliance. Andy's Jazz Club in River North, a staple of the Chicago jazz scene since the 1950s The city's waterfront location and nightlife has attracted residents and tourists alike. Over a third of the city population is concentrated in the lakefront neighborhoods from Rogers Park in the north to South Shore in the south.[198] The city has many upscale dining establishments as well as many ethnic restaurant districts. These districts include the Mexican American neighborhoods, such as Pilsen along 18th street, and La Villita along 26th Street; the Puerto Rican enclave of Paseo Boricua in the Humboldt Park neighborhood; Greektown, along South Halsted Street, immediately west of downtown;[199] Little Italy, along Taylor Street; Chinatown in Armour Square; Polish Patches in West Town; Little Seoul in Albany Park around Lawrence Avenue; Little Vietnam near Broadway in Uptown; and the Desi area, along Devon Avenue in West Ridge.[200] Downtown is the center of Chicago's financial, cultural, governmental and commercial institutions and the site of Grant Park and many of the city's skyscrapers. Many of the city's financial institutions, such as the CBOT and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, are located within a section of downtown called "The Loop", which is an eight-block by five-block area of city streets that is encircled by elevated rail tracks. The term "The Loop" is largely used by locals to refer to the entire downtown area as well. The central area includes the Near North Side, the Near South Side, and the Near West Side, as well as the Loop. These areas contribute famous skyscrapers, abundant restaurants, shopping, museums, a stadium for the Chicago Bears, convention facilities, parkland, and beaches.[citation needed] Lincoln Park contains the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Lincoln Park Conservatory. The River North Gallery District features the nation's largest concentration of contemporary art galleries outside of New York City.[citation needed] Lakeview is home to Boystown, the city's large LGBT nightlife and culture center. The Chicago Pride Parade, held the last Sunday in June, is one of the world's largest with over a million people in attendance.[201] North Halsted Street is the main thoroughfare of Boystown.[202] The South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park is the home of former US President Barack Obama. It also contains the University of Chicago, ranked one of the world's top ten universities,[203] and the Museum of Science and Industry. The 6-mile (9.7 km) long Burnham Park stretches along the waterfront of the South Side. Two of the city's largest parks are also located on this side of the city: Jackson Park, bordering the waterfront, hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and is the site of the aforementioned museum; and slightly west sits Washington Park. The two parks themselves are connected by a wide strip of parkland called the Midway Plaisance, running adjacent to the University of Chicago. The South Side hosts one of the city's largest parades, the annual African American Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic, which travels through Bronzeville to Washington Park. Ford Motor Company has an automobile assembly plant on the South Side in Hegewisch, and most of the facilities of the Port of Chicago are also on the South Side.[citation needed] The West Side holds the Garfield Park Conservatory, one of the largest collections of tropical plants in any U.S. city. Prominent Latino cultural attractions found here include Humboldt Park's Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture and the annual Puerto Rican People's Parade, as well as the National Museum of Mexican Art and St. Adalbert's Church in Pilsen. The Near West Side holds the University of Illinois at Chicago and was once home to Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios, the site of which has been rebuilt as the global headquarters of McDonald's.[citation needed] The city's distinctive accent, made famous by its use in classic films like The Blues Brothers and television programs like the Saturday Night Live skit "Bill Swerski's Superfans", is an advanced form of Inland Northern American English. This dialect can also be found in other cities bordering the Great Lakes such as Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Rochester, New York, and most prominently features a rearrangement of certain vowel sounds, such as the short 'a' sound as in "cat", which can sound more like "kyet" to outsiders. The accent remains well associated with the city.[204] Entertainment and the arts See also: Theater in Chicago, Visual arts of Chicago, and Music of Chicago The Chicago Theatre The spire of the Copernicus Center is modeled on the Royal Castle in Warsaw. Jay Pritzker Pavilion at night Renowned Chicago theater companies include the Goodman Theatre in the Loop; the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Victory Gardens Theater in Lincoln Park; and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. Broadway In Chicago offers Broadway-style entertainment at five theaters: the Nederlander Theatre, CIBC Theatre, Cadillac Palace Theatre, Auditorium Building of Roosevelt University, and Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. Polish language productions for Chicago's large Polish speaking population can be seen at the historic Gateway Theatre in Jefferson Park. Since 1968, the Joseph Jefferson Awards are given annually to acknowledge excellence in theater in the Chicago area. Chicago's theater community spawned modern improvisational theater, and includes the prominent groups The Second City and I.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic).[citation needed] The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) performs at Symphony Center, and is recognized as one of the best orchestras in the world.[205] Also performing regularly at Symphony Center is the Chicago Sinfonietta, a more diverse and multicultural counterpart to the CSO. In the summer, many outdoor concerts are given in Grant Park and Millennium Park. Ravinia Festival, located 25 miles (40 km) north of Chicago, is the summer home of the CSO, and is a favorite destination for many Chicagoans. The Civic Opera House is home to the Lyric Opera of Chicago.[citation needed] The Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago was founded by Lithuanian Chicagoans in 1956,[206] and presents operas in Lithuanian. The Joffrey Ballet and Chicago Festival Ballet perform in various venues, including the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. Chicago has several other contemporary and jazz dance troupes, such as the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Chicago Dance Crash.[citation needed] Other live-music genre which are part of the city's cultural heritage include Chicago blues, Chicago soul, jazz, and gospel. The city is the birthplace of house music (a popular form of electronic dance music) and industrial music, and is the site of an influential hip hop scene. In the 1980s and 90s, the city was the global center for house and industrial music, two forms of music created in Chicago, as well as being popular for alternative rock, punk, and new wave. The city has been a center for rave culture, since the 1980s. A flourishing independent rock music culture brought forth Chicago indie. Annual festivals feature various acts, such as Lollapalooza and the Pitchfork Music Festival.[citation needed] Lollapalooza originated in Chicago in 1991 and at first travelled to many cities, but as of 2005 its home has been Chicago.[207] A 2007 report on the Chicago music industry by the University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center ranked Chicago third among metropolitan U.S. areas in "size of music industry" and fourth among all U.S. cities in "number of concerts and performances".[208] Chicago has a distinctive fine art tradition. For much of the twentieth century, it nurtured a strong style of figurative surrealism, as in the works of Ivan Albright and Ed Paschke. In 1968 and 1969, members of the Chicago Imagists, such as Roger Brown, Leon Golub, Robert Lostutter, Jim Nutt, and Barbara Rossi produced bizarre representational paintings. Henry Darger is one of the most celebrated figures of outsider art.[209] Tourism Main article: Tourism in Chicago Ferries offer sightseeing tours and water-taxi transportation along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Aerial view of Navy Pier at night Magnificent Mile hosts numerous upscale stores and landmarks, including the Chicago Water Tower. In 2014, Chicago attracted 50.17 million domestic leisure travelers, 11.09 million domestic business travelers and 1.308 million overseas visitors.[210] These visitors contributed more than US$13.7 billion to Chicago's economy.[210] Upscale shopping along the Magnificent Mile and State Street, thousands of restaurants, as well as Chicago's eminent architecture, continue to draw tourists. The city is the United States' third-largest convention destination. A 2017 study by Walk Score ranked Chicago the sixth-most walkable of fifty largest cities in the United States.[211] Most conventions are held at McCormick Place, just south of Soldier Field. Navy Pier, located just east of Streeterville, is 3,000 ft (910 m) long and houses retail stores, restaurants, museums, exhibition halls and auditoriums. Chicago was the first city in the world to ever erect a ferris wheel. The Willis Tower (formerly named Sears Tower) is a popular destination for tourists.[212] Museums Among the city's museums are the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium. The Museum Campus joins the southern section of Grant Park, which includes the renowned Art Institute of Chicago. Buckingham Fountain anchors the downtown park along the lakefront. The University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa has an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern archaeological artifacts. Other museums and galleries in Chicago include the Chicago History Museum, the Driehaus Museum, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Polish Museum of America, the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the Pritzker Military Library, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, and the Museum of Science and Industry.[citation needed] Cuisine See also: Culture of Chicago § Food and drink, Chicago farmers' markets, and List of Michelin starred restaurants in Chicago Chicago-style deep-dish pizza A Polish market in Chicago Chicago lays claim to a large number of regional specialties that reflect the city's ethnic and working-class roots. Included among these are its nationally renowned deep-dish pizza; this style is said to have originated at Pizzeria Uno.[213] The Chicago-style thin crust is also popular in the city.[214] Certain Chicago pizza favorites include Lou Malnati's and Giordano's.[215] The Chicago-style hot dog, typically an all-beef hot dog, is loaded with an array of toppings that often includes pickle relish, yellow mustard, pickled sport peppers, tomato wedges, dill pickle spear and topped off with celery salt on a poppy seed bun.[216] Enthusiasts of the Chicago-style hot dog frown upon the use of ketchup as a garnish, but may prefer to add giardiniera.[217][218][219] A distinctly Chicago sandwich, the Italian beef sandwich is thinly sliced beef simmered in au jus and served on an Italian roll with sweet peppers or spicy giardiniera. A popular modification is the Combo—an Italian beef sandwich with the addition of an Italian sausage. The Maxwell Street Polish is a grilled or deep-fried kielbasa—on a hot dog roll, topped with grilled onions, yellow mustard, and hot sport peppers.[220] Chicken Vesuvio is roasted bone-in chicken cooked in oil and garlic next to garlicky oven-roasted potato wedges and a sprinkling of green peas. The Puerto Rican-influenced jibarito is a sandwich made with flattened, fried green plantains instead of bread. The mother-in-law is a tamale topped with chili and served on a hot dog bun.[221] The tradition of serving the Greek dish saganaki while aflame has its origins in Chicago's Greek community.[222] The appetizer, which consists of a square of fried cheese, is doused with Metaxa and flambéed table-side.[223] Chicago-style barbecue features hardwood smoked rib tips and hot links which were traditionally cooked in an aquarium smoker, a Chicago invention.[224] Annual festivals feature various Chicago signature dishes, such as Taste of Chicago and the Chicago Food Truck Festival.[225] One of the world's most decorated restaurants and a recipient of three Michelin stars, Alinea is located in Chicago. Well-known chefs who have had restaurants in Chicago include: Charlie Trotter, Rick Tramonto, Grant Achatz, and Rick Bayless. In 2003, Robb Report named Chicago the country's "most exceptional dining destination".[226] Literature Further information: Chicago literature Carl Sandburg's most famous description of the city is as "Hog Butcher for the World / Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat / Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler, / Stormy, Husky, Brawling, City of the Big Shoulders." Chicago literature finds its roots in the city's tradition of lucid, direct journalism, lending to a strong tradition of social realism. In the Encyclopedia of Chicago, Northwestern University Professor Bill Savage describes Chicago fiction as prose which tries to "capture the essence of the city, its spaces and its people". The challenge for early writers was that Chicago was a frontier outpost that transformed into a global metropolis in the span of two generations. Narrative fiction of that time, much of it in the style of "high-flown romance" and "genteel realism", needed a new approach to describe the urban social, political, and economic conditions of Chicago.[227] Nonetheless, Chicagoans worked hard to create a literary tradition that would stand the test of time,[228] and create a "city of feeling" out of concrete, steel, vast lake, and open prairie.[229] Much notable Chicago fiction focuses on the city itself, with social criticism keeping exultation in check. At least three short periods in the history of Chicago have had a lasting influence on American literature.[230] These include from the time of the Great Chicago Fire to about 1900, what became known as the Chicago Literary Renaissance in the 1910s and early 1920s, and the period of the Great Depression through the 1940s. What would become the influential Poetry magazine was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, who was working as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune. The magazine discovered such poets as Gwendolyn Brooks, James Merrill, and John Ashbery.[231] T. S. Eliot's first professionally published poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", was first published by Poetry. Contributors have included Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, and Carl Sandburg, among others. The magazine was instrumental in launching the Imagist and Objectivist poetic movements. From the 1950s through 1970s, American poetry continued to evolve in Chicago.[232] In the 1980s, a modern form of poetry performance began in Chicago, the poetry slam.[233] Sports Main article: Sports in Chicago Top: Soldier Field; Bottom: Wrigley Field Top: United Center; Bottom: Guaranteed Rate Field The city has two Major League Baseball (MLB) teams: the Chicago Cubs of the National League play in Wrigley Field on the North Side; and the Chicago White Sox of the American League play in Guaranteed Rate Field on the South Side. The two teams have faced each other in a World Series only once, in 1906.[citation needed] The Cubs are the oldest Major League Baseball team to have never changed their city;[234] they have played in Chicago since 1871.[235] They had the dubious honor of having the longest championship drought in American professional sports, failing to win a World Series between 1908 and 2016. The White Sox have played on the South Side continuously since 1901. They have won three World Series titles (1906, 1917, 2005) and six American League pennants, including the first in 1901. The Chicago Bears, one of the last two remaining charter members of the National Football League (NFL), have won nine NFL Championships, including the 1985 Super Bowl XX. The Bears play their home games at Soldier Field. The Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world.[236] During the 1990s, with Michael Jordan leading them, the Bulls won six NBA championships in eight seasons.[237][238] The Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL) began play in 1926, and are one of the "Original Six" teams of the NHL. The Blackhawks have won six Stanley Cups, including in 2010, 2013, and 2015. Both the Bulls and the Blackhawks play at the United Center.[citation needed] Major league professional teams in Chicago (ranked by attendance) Club League Sport Venue Attendance Founded Championships Chicago Bears NFL Football Soldier Field 61,142 1919 9 Championships (1 Super Bowl) Chicago Cubs MLB Baseball Wrigley Field 41,649 1870 3 World Series Chicago White Sox MLB Baseball Guaranteed Rate Field 40,615 1900 3 World Series Chicago Blackhawks NHL Ice hockey United Center 21,653 1926 6 Stanley Cups Chicago Bulls NBA Basketball 20,776 1966 6 NBA Championships Chicago Fire MLS Soccer Soldier Field 17,383 1997 1 MLS Cup, 1 Supporters Shield Chicago Sky WNBA Basketball Wintrust Arena 10,387 2006 1 WNBA Championships Chicago Half Marathon on Lake Shore Drive on the South Side Chicago Fire FC is a member of Major League Soccer (MLS) and plays at Soldier Field. The Fire have won one league title and four U.S. Open Cups, since their founding in 1997. In 1994, the United States hosted a successful FIFA World Cup with games played at Soldier Field.[citation needed] The Chicago Sky is a professional basketball team playing in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). They play home games at the Wintrust Arena. The team was founded before the 2006 WNBA season began.[239] The Chicago Marathon has been held each year since 1977 except for 1987, when a half marathon was run in its place. The Chicago Marathon is one of six World Marathon Majors.[240] Five area colleges play in Division I conferences: two from major conferences—the DePaul Blue Demons (Big East Conference) and the Northwestern Wildcats (Big Ten Conference)—and three from other D1 conferences—the Chicago State Cougars (Western Athletic Conference); the Loyola Ramblers (Missouri Valley Conference); and the UIC Flames (Horizon League).[241] Chicago has also entered into esports with the creation of the Chicago Huntsmen, a professional Call of Duty team that participates within the CDL.[citation needed] Parks and greenspace Main articles: Parks in Chicago, Chicago Boulevard System, and Cook County Forest Preserves Portage Park on the Northwest Side Washington Square Park on the Near North Side When Chicago was incorporated in 1837, it chose the motto Urbs in Horto, a Latin phrase which means "City in a Garden". Today, the Chicago Park District consists of more than 570 parks with over 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of municipal parkland. There are 31 sand beaches, a plethora of museums, two world-class conservatories, and 50 nature areas.[242] Lincoln Park, the largest of the city's parks, covers 1,200 acres (490 ha) and has over 20 million visitors each year, making it third in the number of visitors after Central Park in New York City, and the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C.[243] There is a historic boulevard system,[244] a network of wide, tree-lined boulevards which connect a number of Chicago parks.[245] The boulevards and the parks were authorized by the Illinois legislature in 1869.[246] A number of Chicago neighborhoods emerged along these roadways in the 19th century.[245] The building of the boulevard system continued intermittently until 1942. It includes nineteen boulevards, eight parks, and six squares, along twenty-six miles of interconnected streets.[247] The Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.[248][249] With berths for more than 6,000 boats, the Chicago Park District operates the nation's largest municipal harbor system.[250] In addition to ongoing beautification and renewal projects for the existing parks, a number of new parks have been added in recent years, such as the Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chinatown, DuSable Park on the Near North Side, and most notably, Millennium Park, which is in the northwestern corner of one of Chicago's oldest parks, Grant Park in the Chicago Loop.[citation needed] The wealth of greenspace afforded by Chicago's parks is further augmented by the Cook County Forest Preserves, a network of open spaces containing forest, prairie, wetland, streams, and lakes that are set aside as natural areas which lie along the city's outskirts,[251] including both the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield.[252] Washington Park is also one of the city's biggest parks; covering nearly 400 acres (160 ha). The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in South Side Chicago.[253] Law and government Government Main article: Government of Chicago Daley Plaza with Picasso statue, City Hall in background. At right, the Daley Plaza Building contains the state law courts. The government of the City of Chicago is divided into executive and legislative branches. The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive, elected by general election for a term of four years, with no term limits. The current mayor is Brandon Johnson. The mayor appoints commissioners and other officials who oversee the various departments. As well as the mayor, Chicago's clerk and treasurer are also elected citywide. The City Council is the legislative branch and is made up of 50 aldermen, one elected from each ward in the city.[254] The council takes official action through the passage of ordinances and resolutions and approves the city budget.[255] The Chicago Police Department provides law enforcement and the Chicago Fire Department provides fire suppression and emergency medical services for the city and its residents. Civil and criminal law cases are heard in the Cook County Circuit Court of the State of Illinois court system, or in the Northern District of Illinois, in the federal system. In the state court, the public prosecutor is the Illinois state's attorney; in the Federal court it is the United States attorney. Politics Main article: Political history of Chicago Presidential election results in Chicago[256] Year Democratic Republican Others 2020 82.5% 944,735 15.8% 181,234 1.6% 18,772 2016 82.9% 912,945 12.3% 135,320 4.8% 53,262 During much of the last half of the 19th century, Chicago's politics were dominated by a growing Democratic Party organization. During the 1880s and 1890s, Chicago had a powerful radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist, anarchist and labor organizations.[257] For much of the 20th century, Chicago has been among the largest and most reliable Democratic strongholds in the United States; with Chicago's Democratic vote the state of Illinois has been "solid blue" in presidential elections since 1992. Even before then, it was not unheard of for Republican presidential candidates to win handily in downstate Illinois, only to lose statewide due to large Democratic margins in Chicago. The citizens of Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since 1927, when William Thompson was voted into office. The strength of the party in the city is partly a consequence of Illinois state politics, where the Republicans have come to represent rural and farm concerns while the Democrats support urban issues such as Chicago's public school funding.[citation needed] Chicago contains less than 25% of the state's population, but it is split between eight of Illinois' 17 districts in the United States House of Representatives. All eight of the city's representatives are Democrats; only two Republicans have represented a significant portion of the city since 1973, for one term each: Robert P. Hanrahan from 1973 to 1975, and Michael Patrick Flanagan from 1995 to 1997.[citation needed] Machine politics persisted in Chicago after the decline of similar machines in other large U.S. cities.[258] During much of that time, the city administration found opposition mainly from a liberal "independent" faction of the Democratic Party. The independents finally gained control of city government in 1983 with the election of Harold Washington (in office 1983–1987). From 1989 until May 16, 2011, Chicago was under the leadership of its longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley, the son of Richard J. Daley. Because of the dominance of the Democratic Party in Chicago, the Democratic primary vote held in the spring is generally more significant than the general elections in November for U.S. House and Illinois State seats. The aldermanic, mayoral, and other city offices are filled through nonpartisan elections with runoffs as needed.[259] The city is home of former United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama; Barack Obama was formerly a state legislator representing Chicago and later a US senator. The Obamas' residence is located near the University of Chicago in Kenwood on the city's south side.[260] Crime Main articles: Crime in Chicago and Timeline of organized crime in Chicago Chicago Police Department SUV, 2011 Chicago's crime rate in 2020 was 3,926 per 100,000 people.[261] Chicago experienced major rises in violent crime in the 1920s, in the late 1960s, and in the 2020s.[262][263] Chicago's biggest criminal justice challenges have changed little over the last 50 years, and statistically reside with homicide, armed robbery, gang violence, and aggravated battery. Chicago has attracted attention for a high murder rate and perceived crime rate compared to other major cities like New York and Los Angeles. However, while it has a large absolute number of crimes due to its size, Chicago is not among the top-25 most violent cities in the United States.[264][265] Murder rates in Chicago vary greatly depending on the neighborhood in question.[266] The neighborhoods of Englewood on the South Side, and Austin on the West side, for example, have homicide rates that are ten times higher than other parts of the city.[267] Chicago has an estimated population of over 100,000 active gang members from nearly 60 factions.[268][269] According to reports in 2013, "most of Chicago's violent crime comes from gangs trying to maintain control of drug-selling territories",[270] and is specifically related to the activities of the Sinaloa Cartel, which is active in several American cities.[271] Violent crime rates vary significantly by area of the city, with more economically developed areas having low rates, but other sections have much higher rates of crime.[270] In 2013, the violent crime rate was 910 per 100,000 people;[272] the murder rate was 10.4 – while high crime districts saw 38.9, low crime districts saw 2.5 murders per 100,000.[273] Chicago has a long history of public corruption that regularly draws the attention of federal law enforcement and federal prosecutors.[274] From 2012 to 2019, 33 Chicago aldermen were convicted on corruption charges, roughly one third of those elected in the time period. A report from the Office of the Legislative Inspector General noted that over half of Chicago's elected alderman took illegal campaign contributions in 2013.[275] Most corruption cases in Chicago are prosecuted by the US Attorney's office, as legal jurisdiction makes most offenses punishable as a federal crime.[276] Education Main article: Chicago Public Schools When it was opened in 1991, the central Harold Washington Library appeared in Guinness World Records as the largest municipal public library building in the world. Schools and libraries Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the governing body of the school district that contains over 600 public elementary and high schools citywide, including several selective-admission magnet schools. There are eleven selective enrollment high schools in the Chicago Public Schools,[277] designed to meet the needs of Chicago's most academically advanced students. These schools offer a rigorous curriculum with mainly honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses.[278] Walter Payton College Prep High School is ranked number one in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois.[279] Chicago high school rankings are determined by the average test scores on state achievement tests.[280] The district, with an enrollment exceeding 400,545 students (2013–2014 20th Day Enrollment), is the third-largest in the U.S.[281] On September 10, 2012, teachers for the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike for the first time since 1987 over pay, resources and other issues.[282] According to data compiled in 2014, Chicago's "choice system", where students who test or apply and may attend one of a number of public high schools (there are about 130), sorts students of different achievement levels into different schools (high performing, middle performing, and low performing schools).[283] Chicago has a network of Lutheran schools,[284] and several private schools are run by other denominations and faiths, such as the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in West Ridge. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago operates Catholic schools, that include Jesuit preparatory schools and others. A number of private schools are completely secular. There are also the private Chicago Academy for the Arts, a high school focused on six different categories of the arts and the public Chicago High School for the Arts, a high school focused on five categories (visual arts, theatre, musical theatre, dance, and music) of the arts.[285] The Chicago Public Library system operates 3 regional libraries and 77 neighbourhood branches, including the central library.[286] Colleges and universities For a more comprehensive list, see List of colleges and universities in Chicago. The University of Chicago, as seen from the Midway Plaisance Since the 1850s, Chicago has been a world center of higher education and research with several universities. These institutions consistently rank among the top "National Universities" in the United States, as determined by U.S. News & World Report.[citation needed] Highly regarded universities in Chicago and the surrounding area are: the University of Chicago; Northwestern University; Illinois Institute of Technology; Loyola University Chicago; DePaul University; Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago. Other notable schools include: Chicago State University; the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; East–West University; National Louis University; North Park University; Northeastern Illinois University; Robert Morris University Illinois; Roosevelt University; Saint Xavier University; Rush University; and Shimer College.[287] William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago, was instrumental in the creation of the junior college concept, establishing nearby Joliet Junior College as the first in the nation in 1901.[288] His legacy continues with the multiple community colleges in the Chicago proper, including the seven City Colleges of Chicago: Richard J. Daley College, Kennedy–King College, Malcolm X College, Olive–Harvey College, Truman College, Harold Washington College and Wilbur Wright College, in addition to the privately held MacCormac College.[citation needed] Chicago also has a high concentration of post-baccalaureate institutions, graduate schools, seminaries, and theological schools, such as the Adler School of Professional Psychology, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, the Erikson Institute, The Institute for Clinical Social Work, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the Catholic Theological Union, the Moody Bible Institute, the John Marshall Law School and the University of Chicago Divinity School.[citation needed] Media Further information: Media in Chicago and Chicago International Film Festival WGN began in the early days of radio and developed into a multi-platform broadcaster, including a cable television super-station. Chicago was home of The Oprah Winfrey Show from 1986 until 2011 and other Harpo Production operations until 2015. Television The Chicago metropolitan area is the third-largest media market in North America, after New York City and Los Angeles and a major media hub.[289] Each of the big four U.S. television networks, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, directly owns and operates a high-definition television station in Chicago (WBBM 2, WLS 7, WMAQ 5 and WFLD 32, respectively). Former CW affiliate WGN-TV 9, which was owned from its inception by Tribune Broadcasting (now owned by the Nexstar Media Group since 2019), is carried with some programming differences, as "WGN America" on cable and satellite TV nationwide and in parts of the Caribbean. WGN America eventually became NewsNation in 2021. Chicago has also been the home of several prominent talk shows, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Steve Harvey Show, The Rosie Show, The Jerry Springer Show, The Phil Donahue Show, The Jenny Jones Show, and more. The city also has one PBS member station (its second: WYCC 20, removed its affiliation with PBS in 2017[290]): WTTW 11, producer of shows such as Sneak Previews, The Frugal Gourmet, Lamb Chop's Play-Along and The McLaughlin Group. As of 2018, Windy City Live is Chicago's only daytime talk show, which is hosted by Val Warner and Ryan Chiaverini at ABC7 Studios with a live weekday audience. Since 1999, Judge Mathis also films his syndicated arbitration-based reality court show at the NBC Tower. Beginning in January 2019, Newsy began producing 12 of its 14 hours of live news programming per day from its new facility in Chicago.[citation needed] Newspapers Two major daily newspapers are published in Chicago: the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, with the Tribune having the larger circulation. There are also several regional and special-interest newspapers and magazines, such as Chicago, the Dziennik Związkowy (Polish Daily News), Draugas (the Lithuanian daily newspaper), the Chicago Reader, the SouthtownStar, the Chicago Defender, the Daily Herald, Newcity,[291][292] StreetWise and the Windy City Times. The entertainment and cultural magazine Time Out Chicago and GRAB magazine are also published in the city, as well as local music magazine Chicago Innerview. In addition, Chicago is the home of satirical national news outlet, The Onion, as well as its sister pop-culture publication, The A.V. Club.[293] Movies and filming Main articles: List of movies set in Chicago and List of television shows set in Chicago Radio This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Chicago has five 50,000 watt AM radio stations: the CBS Radio-owned WBBM and WSCR; the Tribune Broadcasting-owned WGN; the Cumulus Media-owned WLS; and the ESPN Radio-owned WMVP. Chicago is also home to a number of national radio shows, including Beyond the Beltway with Bruce DuMont on Sunday evenings.[citation needed] Chicago Public Radio produces nationally aired programs such as PRI's This American Life and NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!.[citation needed] Infrastructure Transportation Further information: Transportation in Chicago Aerial photo of the Jane Byrne Interchange (2022) after reconstruction, initially opened in the 1960s Chicago is a major transportation hub in the United States. It is an important component in global distribution, as it is the third-largest inter-modal port in the world after Hong Kong and Singapore.[294] The city of Chicago has a higher than average percentage of households without a car. In 2015, 26.5 percent of Chicago households were without a car, and increased slightly to 27.5 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Chicago averaged 1.12 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.[295] Expressways Further information: Roads and expressways in Chicago Seven mainline and four auxiliary interstate highways (55, 57, 65 (only in Indiana), 80 (also in Indiana), 88, 90 (also in Indiana), 94 (also in Indiana), 190, 290, 294, and 355) run through Chicago and its suburbs. Segments that link to the city center are named after influential politicians, with three of them named after former U.S. Presidents (Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan) and one named after two-time Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson. The Kennedy and Dan Ryan Expressways are the busiest state maintained routes in the entire state of Illinois.[296] Transit systems Chicago Union Station, opened in 1925, is the third-busiest passenger rail terminal in the United States. The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) coordinates the operation of the three service boards: CTA, Metra, and Pace. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) handles public transportation in the City of Chicago and a few adjacent suburbs outside of the Chicago city limits. The CTA operates an extensive network of buses and a rapid transit elevated and subway system known as the Chicago "L" or just "L" (short for "elevated"), with lines designated by colors. These rapid transit lines also serve both Midway and O'Hare Airports. The CTA's rail lines consist of the Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Brown, Purple, Pink, and Yellow lines. Both the Red and Blue lines offer 24‑hour service which makes Chicago one of a handful of cities around the world (and one of two in the United States, the other being New York City) to offer rail service 24 hours a day, every day of the year, within the city's limits. Metra, the nation's second-most used passenger regional rail network, operates an 11-line commuter rail service in Chicago and throughout the Chicago suburbs. The Metra Electric Line shares its trackage with Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's South Shore Line, which provides commuter service between South Bend and Chicago. Pace provides bus and paratransit service in over 200 surrounding suburbs with some extensions into the city as well. A 2005 study found that one quarter of commuters used public transit.[297] Greyhound Lines provides inter-city bus service to and from the city, and Chicago is also the hub for the Midwest network of Megabus (North America). Passenger rail Amtrak train on the Empire Builder route departs Chicago from Union Station. Amtrak long distance and commuter rail services originate from Union Station.[298] Chicago is one of the largest hubs of passenger rail service in the nation.[299] The services terminate in the San Francisco area, Washington, D.C., New York City, New Orleans, Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Quincy, St. Louis, Carbondale, Boston, Grand Rapids, Port Huron, Pontiac, Los Angeles, and San Antonio. Future services will terminate at Rockford and Moline. An attempt was made in the early 20th century to link Chicago with New York City via the Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad. Parts of this were built, but it was never completed. Bicycle and scooter sharing systems In July 2013, the bicycle-sharing system Divvy was launched with 750 bikes and 75 docking stations[300] It is operated by Lyft for the Chicago Department of Transportation.[301] As of July 2019, Divvy operated 5800 bicycles at 608 stations, covering almost all of the city, excluding Pullman, Rosedale, Beverly, Belmont Cragin and Edison Park.[302] In May 2019, The City of Chicago announced its Chicago's Electric Shared Scooter Pilot Program, scheduled to run from June 15 to October 15.[303] The program started on June 15 with 10 different scooter companies, including scooter sharing market leaders Bird, Jump, Lime and Lyft.[304] Each company was allowed to bring 250 electric scooters, although both Bird and Lime claimed that they experienced a higher demand for their scooters.[305] The program ended on October 15, with nearly 800,000 rides taken.[306] Freight rail Chicago is the largest hub in the railroad industry.[307] All five Class I railroads meet in Chicago. As of 2002, severe freight train congestion caused trains to take as long to get through the Chicago region as it took to get there from the West Coast of the country (about 2 days).[308] According to U.S. Department of Transportation, the volume of imported and exported goods transported via rail to, from, or through Chicago is forecast to increase nearly 150 percent between 2010 and 2040.[309] CREATE, the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program, comprises about 70 programs, including crossovers, overpasses and underpasses, that intend to significantly improve the speed of freight movements in the Chicago area.[310] Airports Further information: Transportation in Chicago § Airports O'Hare International Airport Chicago is served by O'Hare International Airport, the world's busiest airport measured by airline operations,[311] on the far Northwest Side, and Midway International Airport on the Southwest Side. In 2005, O'Hare was the world's busiest airport by aircraft movements and the second-busiest by total passenger traffic.[312] Both O'Hare and Midway are owned and operated by the City of Chicago. Gary/Chicago International Airport and Chicago Rockford International Airport, located in Gary, Indiana and Rockford, Illinois, respectively, can serve as alternative Chicago area airports, however they do not offer as many commercial flights as O'Hare and Midway. In recent years the state of Illinois has been leaning towards building an entirely new airport in the Illinois suburbs of Chicago.[313] The City of Chicago is the world headquarters for United Airlines, the world's third-largest airline. Port authority Main article: Port of Chicago The Port of Chicago consists of several major port facilities within the city of Chicago operated by the Illinois International Port District (formerly known as the Chicago Regional Port District). The central element of the Port District, Calumet Harbor, is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.[314] Iroquois Landing Lakefront Terminal: at the mouth of the Calumet River, it includes 100 acres (0.40 km2) of warehouses and facilities on Lake Michigan with over 780,000 square meters (8,400,000 square feet) of storage. Lake Calumet terminal: located at the union of the Grand Calumet River and Little Calumet River 6 miles (9.7 km) inland from Lake Michigan. Includes three transit sheds totaling over 29,000 square meters (310,000 square feet) adjacent to over 900 linear meters (3,000 linear feet) of ship and barge berthing. Grain (14 million bushels) and bulk liquid (800,000 barrels) storage facilities along Lake Calumet. The Illinois International Port district also operates Foreign trade zone No. 22, which extends 60 miles (97 km) from Chicago's city limits. Utilities Electricity for most of northern Illinois is provided by Commonwealth Edison, also known as ComEd. Their service territory borders Iroquois County to the south, the Wisconsin border to the north, the Iowa border to the west and the Indiana border to the east. In northern Illinois, ComEd (a division of Exelon) operates the greatest number of nuclear generating plants in any US state. Because of this, ComEd reports indicate that Chicago receives about 75% of its electricity from nuclear power. Recently, the city began installing wind turbines on government buildings to promote renewable energy.[315][316][317] Natural gas is provided by Peoples Gas, a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group, which is headquartered in Chicago. Domestic and industrial waste was once incinerated but it is now landfilled, mainly in the Calumet area. From 1995 to 2008, the city had a blue bag program to divert recyclable refuse from landfills.[318] Because of low participation in the blue bag programs, the city began a pilot program for blue bin recycling like other cities. This proved successful and blue bins were rolled out across the city.[319] Health systems Prentice Women's Hospital on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Downtown Campus The Illinois Medical District is on the Near West Side. It includes Rush University Medical Center, ranked as the second best hospital in the Chicago metropolitan area by U.S. News & World Report for 2014–16, the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Jesse Brown VA Hospital, and John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation.[320] Two of the country's premier academic medical centers reside in Chicago, including Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of Chicago Medical Center. The Chicago campus of Northwestern University includes the Feinberg School of Medicine; Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which is ranked as the best hospital in the Chicago metropolitan area by U.S. News & World Report for 2017–18;[321] the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly named the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), which is ranked the best U.S. rehabilitation hospital by U.S. News & World Report;[322] the new Prentice Women's Hospital; and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. The University of Illinois College of Medicine at UIC is the second largest medical school in the United States (2,600 students including those at campuses in Peoria, Rockford and Urbana–Champaign).[323] In addition, the Chicago Medical School and Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine are located in the suburbs of North Chicago and Maywood, respectively. The Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine is in Downers Grove. The American Medical Association, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, American Osteopathic Association, American Dental Association, Academy of General Dentistry, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, American College of Surgeons, American Society for Clinical Pathology, American College of Healthcare Executives, the American Hospital Association and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association are all based in Chicago. Sister cities Main article: List of sister cities of Chicago See also Chicago area water quality Chicago Wilderness Gentrification of Chicago List of cities with the most skyscrapers List of people from Chicago List of fiction set in Chicago National Register of Historic Places listings in Central Chicago National Register of Historic Places listings in North Side Chicago National Register of Historic Places listings in West Side Chicago USS Chicago, 4 ships Chicago History   "It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago. She outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them." - Mark Twain, 1883 Chicago was only 46 years old when Mark Twain wrote those words, but it had already grown more than 100-fold, from a small trading post at the mouth of the Chicago River into one of the nation?s largest cities, and it wasn?t about to stop. Over the next 20 years, it would quadruple in population, amazing the rest of the world with its ability to repeatedly reinvent itself. And it still hasn?t stopped. Chicago continues to be a place that many people from diverse backgrounds call home. Before it was a city, it was the home to numerous indigenous peoples, a legacy which continues to frame our relationship with the city, the land, and the environment. Today, Chicago has become a global city, a thriving center of international trade and commerce, and a place where people of every nationality and background come to pursue the American dream. Indigenous Chicago Chicago is the traditional homelands of  Hooc?k (Winnebago/Ho?Chunk), Jiwere (Otoe), Nutachi (Missouria), and Baxoje (Iowas); Kiash Matchitiwuk (Menominee); Meshkwahkîha (Meskwaki); Asâkîwaki (Sauk); Myaamiaki (Miami), Waayaahtanwaki (Wea), and Peeyankih?iaki (Piankashaw); Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo); Inoka (Illini Confederacy); Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), Odawak (Odawa), and Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi). Seated atop a continental divide, the Chicago region is located at the intersection of several great waterways, leading the area to become the site of travel and healing for many Tribes. The City understands that Tribes are sovereign Nations and should have the first voice in acknowledging their historical and contemporary presence on this land. If your Tribe would like to see changes, please reach out to us for comments. Early Chicago Chicago?s first permanent non-indigenous resident was a trader named Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a free black man from Haiti whose father was a French sailor and whose mother was an African slave, he came here in the 1770s via the Mississippi River from New Orleans with his Native American wife, and their home stood at the mouth of the Chicago River. In 1803, the U.S. government built Fort Dearborn at what is now the corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive (look for the bronze markers in the pavement). It was destroyed in 1812 following the Battle of Fort Dearborn, rebuilt in 1816, and permanently demolished in 1857. A Trading Center Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago was ideally situated to take advantage of the trading possibilities created by the nation?s westward expansion. The completion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1848 created a water link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, but the canal was soon rendered obsolete by railroads. Today, 50 percent of U.S. rail freight continues to pass through Chicago, even as the city has become the nation?s busiest aviation center, thanks to O?Hare and Midway International airports. The Great Fire of 1871 As Chicago grew, its residents took heroic measures to keep pace. In the 1850s, they raised many of the streets five to eight feet to install a sewer system ? and then raised the buildings, as well. Unfortunately, the buildings, streets and sidewalks were made of wood, and most of them burned to the ground in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The Chicago Fire Department training academy at 558 W. DeKoven St. is on the site of the O?Leary property where the fire began. The Chicago Water Tower and Pumping Station at Michigan and Chicago avenues are among the few buildings to have survived the fire. "The White City" Chicago rebuilt quickly. Much of the debris was dumped into Lake Michigan as landfill, forming the underpinnings for what is now Grant Park, Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago. Only 22 years later, Chicago celebrated its comeback by holding the World?s Columbian Exposition of 1893, with its memorable ?White City.? One of the Exposition buildings was rebuilt to become the Museum of Science and Industry. Chicago refused to be discouraged even by the Great Depression. In 1933 and 1934, the city held an equally successful Century of Progress Exposition on Northerly Island. Hull House  In the half-century following the Great Fire, waves of immigrants came to Chicago to take jobs in the factories and meatpacking plants. Many poor workers and their families found help in settlement houses operated by Jane Addams and her followers. Her Hull House Museum is located at 800 S. Halsted St. Chicago Firsts Throughout their city?s history, Chicagoans have demonstrated their ingenuity in matters large and small: The nation?s first skyscraper, the 10-story, steel-framed Home Insurance Building, was built in 1884 at LaSalle and Adams streets and demolished in 1931.  When residents were threatened by waterborne illnesses from sewage flowing into Lake Michigan, they reversed the Chicago River in 1900 to make it flow toward the Mississippi.  Start of the "Historic Route 66" which begins at Grant Park on Adams Street in the front of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago was the birthplace of:  the refrigerated rail car (Swift) mail-order retailing (Sears and Montgomery Ward) the car radio (Motorola) the TV remote control (Zenith) The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, ushering in the Atomic Age, took place at the University of Chicago in 1942. The spot is marked by a Henry Moore sculpture on Ellis Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. The 1,451-foot Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), completed in 1974, was the the tallest building in the world from 1974 to 1998. Chicago has played a central role in American economic, cultural and political history. Since the 1850s Chicago has been one of the dominant metropolises in the Midwestern United States, and has been the largest city in the Midwest since the 1880 census. The area's recorded history begins with the arrival of French explorers, missionaries and fur traders in the late 17th century and their interaction with the local Pottawatomie Native Americans. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable was the first permanent non-indigenous settler in the area, having a house at the mouth of the Chicago River in the late 18th century. There were small settlements and a U.S. Army fort, but the soldiers and settlers were all driven off in 1812. The modern city was incorporated in 1837 by Northern businessmen and grew rapidly from real estate speculation and the realization that it had a commanding position in the emerging inland transportation network, based on lake traffic and railroads, controlling access from the Great Lakes into the Mississippi River basin. Despite a fire in 1871 that destroyed the Central Business District, the city grew exponentially, becoming the nation's rail center and the dominant Midwestern center for manufacturing, commerce, finance, higher education, religion, broadcasting, sports, jazz, and high culture. The city was a magnet for European immigrants?at first Germans, Irish and Scandinavians, then from the 1890s to 1914, Jews, Czechs, Poles and Italians. They were all absorbed in the city's powerful ward-based political machines. Many joined militant labor unions, and Chicago became notorious for its violent strikes, but respected for its high wages. Large numbers of African Americans migrated from the South starting in the World War I era as part of the Great Migration. Mexicans started arriving after 1910, and Puerto Ricans after 1945. The Cook County suburbs grew rapidly after 1945, but the Democratic party machine kept both the city and suburbs under control, especially under mayor Richard J. Daley, who was chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. Deindustrialization after 1970 closed the stockyards and most of the steel mills and factories, but the city retained its role as a financial and transportation hub. Increasingly it emphasized its service roles in medicine, higher education, and tourism. The city formed the political base for leaders such as Stephen A. Douglas in the 1850s, Adlai Stevenson in the 1950s, and Barack Obama in recent years. Pre-1830 Early native settlements At its first appearance in records by explorers, the Chicago area was inhabited by a number of Algonquian peoples, including the Mascouten and Miami. The name "Chicago" is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou" was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir.[1] Henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called "chicagoua", grew abundantly in the area.[2] According to his diary of late September 1687: when we arrived at the said place called Chicagou which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region.[2] The tribe was part of the Miami Confederacy, which included the Illini and Kickapoo. In 1671, Potawatomi guides first took the French trader Nicolas Perrot to the Miami villages near the site of present-day Chicago.[3] Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix would write in 1721 that the Miami had a settlement in what is now Chicago around 1670. Chicago's location at a short canoe portage (the Chicago Portage) connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River system attracted the attention of many French explorers, notably Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673. The Jesuit Relations indicate that by this time, the Iroquois tribes of New York had driven the Algonquian tribes entirely out of Lower Michigan and as far as this portage, during the later Beaver Wars.[4] René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who traversed the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers south of Chicago in the winter of 1681?82, identified the Des Plaines River as the western boundary of the Miami. In 1683, La Salle built Fort St. Louis on the Illinois River. Almost two thousand Miami, including Weas and Piankeshaws, left the Chicago area to gather on the opposite shore at the Grand Village of the Illinois, seeking French protection from the Iroquois. In 1696, French Jesuits led by Jean-François Buisson de Saint-Cosme built the Mission of the Guardian Angel to Christianize the local Wea and Miami people.[5] Shortly thereafter, Augustin le Gardeur de Courtemanche visited the settlement on behalf of the French government, seeking peace between the Miami and Iroquois. Miami chief Chichikatalo accompanied de Courtemanche to Montreal.[4] The Algonquian tribes began to retake the lost territory in the ensuing decades, and in 1701, the Iroquois formally abandoned their claim to their "hunting grounds" as far as the portage to England in the Nanfan Treaty, which was finally ratified in 1726. This was largely a political maneuver of little practicality, as the English then had no presence in the region whatsoever, the French and their Algonquian allies being the dominant force in the area. A writer in 1718 noted at the Was had a village in Chicago, but had recently fled due to concerns about approaching Ojibwes and Pottawatomis. The Iroquois and Meskwaki probably drove out all Miami from the Chicago area by the end of the 1720s. The Pottawatomi assumed control of the area, but probably did not have any major settlements in Chicago. French and allied use of the Chicago portage was mostly abandoned during the 1720s because of continual Native American raids during the Fox Wars.[6] There was also a Michigamea chief named Chicago who may have lived in the region. In the 1680s, the Illinois River was called the Chicago River.[7] Retrospective map showing how Chicago may have appeared in 1812 (right is north, published in 1884) Retrospective map showing how Chicago may have appeared in 1812 (right is north, published in 1884)   Chicago in 1820 Chicago in 1820 First non-native settlements Fort Dearborn depicted as in 1831, sketched 1850s although the accuracy of the sketch was debated soon after it appeared. The first settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a free black man,[8] who built a farm at the mouth of the Chicago River in 1790.[8][9] He left Chicago in 1800. In 1968, Point du Sable was honored at Pioneer Court as the city's founder and featured as a symbol. In 1795, following the Northwest Indian War, some Native Americans ceded the area of Chicago to the United States for a military post in the Treaty of Greenville. The US built Fort Dearborn in 1803 on the Chicago River. It was destroyed by Indian forces during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, and many of the inhabitants were killed or taken prisoner.[10] The fort had been ordered to evacuate. During the evacuation soldiers and civilians were overtaken near what is today Prairie Avenue. After the end of the war, the Potawatomi ceded the land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. (Today, this treaty is commemorated in Indian Boundary Park.) Fort Dearborn was rebuilt in 1818 and used until 1837.[11]:?25? Growth of the city 1821 Survey of Chicago Thompson's plat, the first official map of what would become the City of Chicago Chicago in 1830, as depicted in 1884 Chicago in 1831, as depicted in 1893 by Rudolf Cronau Chicago in 1832, as depicted in 1892 Chicago in 1836 Extensions to city limits through 1884 In 1829, the Illinois legislature appointed commissioners to locate a canal and lay out the surrounding town. The commissioners employed James Thompson to survey and plat the town of Chicago, which at the time had a population of less than 100. Historians regard the August 4, 1830, filing of the plat as the official recognition of a location known as Chicago.[4] Yankee entrepreneurs saw the potential of Chicago as a transportation hub in the 1830s and engaged in land speculation to obtain the choicest lots. On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was incorporated with a population of 350.[12] On July 12, 1834, the Illinois from Sackets Harbor, New York, was the first commercial schooner to enter the harbor, a sign of the Great Lakes trade that would benefit both Chicago and New York state.[11]:?29? Chicago was granted a city charter by the State of Illinois on March 4, 1837;[13] it was part of the larger Cook County. By 1840 the boom town had a population of over 4,000. After 1830, the rich farmlands of northern Illinois attracted Yankee settlers. Yankee real estate operators created a city overnight in the 1830s.[14] To open the surrounding farmlands to trade, the Cook County commissioners built roads south and west. The latter crossed the "dismal Nine-mile Swamp," the Des Plaines River, and went southwest to Walker's Grove, now the Village of Plainfield. The roads enabled hundreds of wagons per day of farm produce to arrive and so the entrepreneurs built grain elevators and docks to load ships bound for points east through the Great Lakes. Produce was shipped through the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River to New York City; the growth of the Midwest farms expanded New York City as a port. In 1837, Chicago held its first mayoral election and elected William B. Ogden as its inaugural mayor. Emergence as a transportation hub Further information: Transportation in Chicago 1853 Bird's eye view of Chicago 1857 Bird's eye view of Chicago In 1848, the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal allowed shipping from the Great Lakes through Chicago to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The first rail line to Chicago, the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, was completed the same year. Chicago would go on to become the transportation hub of the United States, with its road, rail, water, and later air connections. Chicago also became home to national retailers offering catalog shopping such as Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck and Company, which used the transportation lines to ship all over the nation. By the 1850s, the construction of railroads made Chicago a major hub and over 30 lines entered the city. The main lines from the East ended in Chicago, and those oriented to the West began in Chicago and so by 1860, the city had become the nation's trans-shipment and warehousing center. Factories were created, most famously the harvester factory that was opened in 1847 by Cyrus Hall McCormick. It was a processing center for natural resource commodities extracted in the West. The Wisconsin forests supported the millwork and lumber business; the Illinois hinterland provided the wheat. Hundreds of thousands of hogs and cattle were shipped to Chicago for slaughter, preserved in salt, and transported to eastern markets. By 1870, refrigerated cars allowed the shipping of fresh meat to cities in the East.[15] The prairie bog nature of the area provided a fertile ground for disease-carrying insects. In springtime, Chicago was so muddy from the high water that horses could scarcely move. Comical signs proclaiming "Fastest route to China" or "No Bottom Here" were placed to warn people of the mud. Travelers reported Chicago was the filthiest city in America. The city created a massive sewer system. In the first phase, sewage pipes were laid across the city above ground and used gravity to move the waste. The city was built in a low-lying area subject to flooding. In 1856, the city council decided that the entire city should be elevated four to five feet by using a newly available jacking-up process. In one instance, the five-story Brigg's Hotel, weighing 22,000 tons, was lifted while it continued to operate. Observing that such a thing could never have happened in Europe, the British historian Paul Johnson cites the astounding feat as a dramatic example of American determination and ingenuity based on the conviction that anything material is possible.[16] Immigration and population in 19th century Portrait of John Jones, a prominent early African-American businessman in Chicago Portrait of Mary Jane Richardson Jones, 1865 Husband and wife John and Mary Jones were among the most prominent early African-American citizens of Chicago. A bird's-eye view of Chicago in 1898. It became the second American city to reach a population of 1.6 million. 0:29 Chicago - State St at Madison Street, 1897 Although originally settled by Yankees in the 1830s, the city in the 1840s had many Irish Catholics come as a result of the Great Famine. Later in the century, the railroads, stockyards, and other heavy industry of the late 19th century attracted a variety of skilled workers from Europe, especially Germans, English, Swedes, Norwegians, and Dutch.[17] A small African-American community formed, led by activist leaders like John Jones and Mary Richardson Jones, who established Chicago as a stop on the Underground Railroad.[18] In 1840, Chicago was the 92nd city in the United States by population. Its population grew so rapidly that 20 years later, it was the ninth city. In the pivotal year of 1848, Chicago saw the completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, its first steam locomotives, the introduction of steam-powered grain elevators, the arrival of the telegraph, and the founding of the Chicago Board of Trade.[19] By 1857, Chicago was the largest city in what was then called the Northwest. In 20 years, Chicago grew from 4,000 people to over 90,000. Chicago surpassed St. Louis and Cincinnati as the major city in the West and gained political notice as the home of Stephen Douglas, the 1860 presidential nominee of the Northern Democrats. The 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated the home-state candidate Abraham Lincoln. The city's government and voluntary societies gave generous support to soldiers during the American Civil War.[20] Many of the newcomers were Irish Catholic and German immigrants. Their neighborhood saloons, a center of male social life, were attacked in the mid-1850s by the local Know-Nothing Party, which drew its strength from evangelical Protestants. The new party was anti-immigration and anti-liquor and called for the purification of politics by reducing the power of the saloonkeepers. In 1855, the Know-Nothings elected Levi Boone mayor, who banned Sunday sales of liquor and beer. His aggressive law enforcement sparked the Lager Beer Riot of April 1855, which erupted outside a courthouse in which eight Germans were being tried for liquor ordinance violations. After 1865, saloons became community centers only for local ethnic men, as reformers saw them as places that incited riotous behavior and moral decay.[21] Salons were also sources of musical entertainment. Francis O'Neill, an Irish immigrant who later became police chief, published compendiums of Irish music that were largely collected from other newcomers playing in saloons.[22] By 1870, Chicago had grown to become the nation's second-largest city and one of the largest cities in the world. Between 1870 and 1900, Chicago grew from a city of 299,000 to nearly 1.7 million and was the fastest-growing city in world history. Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe, especially Jews, Poles, and Italians, along with many smaller groups. Many businesspeople and professionals arrived from the eastern states. Relatively few new arrivals came from Chicago's rural hinterland. The exponential growth put increasing pollution on the environment, as hazards to public health impacted everyone.[23] Gilded Age Further information: Architecture of Chicago and Chicago railroad strike of 1877 The Chicago Water Tower, one of the few surviving buildings after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. A residential building in Chicago's Lincoln Park in 1885, when the city had dirt roads Most of the city burned in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. The damage from the fire was immense since 300 people died, 18,000 buildings were destroyed, and nearly 100,000 of the city's 300,000 residents were left homeless. Several key factors exacerbated the spread of the fire. Most of Chicago's buildings and sidewalks were then constructed of wood. Also, the lack of attention to proper waste disposal practices, which was sometimes deliberate to favor certain industries, left an abundance of flammable pollutants in the Chicago River along which the fire spread from the south to the north.[24][25][circular reference][26] The fire led to the incorporation of stringent fire-safety codes, which included a strong preference for masonry construction.[27] The Danish immigrant Jens Jensen arrived in 1886 and soon became a successful and celebrated landscape designer. Jensen's work was characterized by a democratic approach to landscaping, which was informed by his interest in social justice and conservation, and a rejection of antidemocratic formalism. Among Jensen's creations were four Chicago city parks, most famously Columbus Park. His work also included garden design for some of the region's most influential millionaires. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was constructed on former wetlands at the present location of Jackson Park along Lake Michigan in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The land was reclaimed according to a design by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The temporary pavilions, which followed a classical theme, were designed by a committee of the city's architects under the direction of Daniel Burnham. It was called the "White City" for the appearance of its buildings.[28] The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors; is considered among the most influential world's fairs in history; and affected art, architecture, and design throughout the nation.[29] The classical architectural style contributed to a revival of Beaux Arts architecture that borrowed from historical styles, but Chicago was also developing the original skyscraper and organic forms based in new technologies. The fair featured the first and until recently the largest Ferris wheel ever built. The soft, swampy ground near the lake proved unstable ground for tall masonry buildings. That was an early constraint, but builders developed the innovative use of steel framing for support and invented the skyscraper in Chicago, which became a leader in modern architecture and set the model nationwide for achieving vertical city densities.[30] Developers and citizens began immediate reconstruction on the existing Jeffersonian grid. The building boom that followed saved the city's status as the transportation and trade hub of the Midwest. Massive reconstruction using the newest materials and methods catapulted Chicago into its status as a city on par with New York and became the birthplace of modern architecture in the United States.[31] Rise of industry and commerce Further information: Economy of Chicago 1893 Bird's eye view of Chicago The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, the world's first skyscraper. Chicago became the center of the nation's advertising industry after New York City. Albert Lasker, known as the "father of modern advertising," made Chicago his base from 1898 to 1942. As head of the Lord and Thomas agency, Lasker devised a copywriting technique that appealed directly to the psychology of the consumer. Women, who seldom smoked cigarettes, were told that if they smoked Lucky Strikes, they could stay slender. Lasker's use of radio, particularly with his campaigns for Palmolive soap, Pepsodent toothpaste, Kotex products, and Lucky Strike cigarettes, not only revolutionized the advertising industry but also significantly changed popular culture.[32] Gambling In Chicago, like other rapidly growing industrial centers with large immigrant working-class neighborhoods, gambling was a major issue. The city's elite upper-class had private clubs and closely-supervised horse racing tracks. The middle-class reformers like Jane Addams focused on the workers, who discovered freedom and independence in gambling that were a world apart from their closely-supervised factory jobs and gambled to validate risk-taking aspect of masculinity, betting heavily on dice, card games, policy, and cock fights. By the 1850s, hundreds of saloons had offered gambling opportunities, including off-track betting on the horses.[33][34] The historian Mark Holler argues that organized crime provided upward mobility to ambitious ethnics. The high-income, high-visibility vice lords, and racketeers built their careers and profits in ghetto neighborhoods and often branched into local politics to protect their domains.[35] For example, in 1868 to 1888, Michael C. McDonald, "The Gambler King of Clark Street," kept numerous Democratic machine politicians in his city on expense account to protect his gambling empire and to keep the goo-goo reformers at bay.[36] In large cities, illegal businesses like gambling and prostitution were typically contained in the geographically-segregated red light districts. The businessowners made regularly-scheduled payments to police and politicians, which they treated as licensing expenses. The informal rates became standardized. For example, in Chicago, they ranged from $20 a month for a cheap brothel to $1000 a month for luxurious operations in Chicago. Reform elements never accepted the segregated vice districts and wanted them all destroyed, but in large cities, the political machine was powerful enough to keep the reformers at bay. Finally, around 1900 to 1910, the reformers grew politically strong enough to shut down the system of vice segregation, and the survivors went underground.[37] 20th century All Star Tournament, 18 Inch Balke Line, Chicago, May 7?14, 1906 Detail of lobby columns at the Ford Center for Performing Arts Merchants' Hotel on left, looking North from State and Washington Streets, before 1868 Birds-eye view of Chicago in 1916 Loop street scene in 1900; colorized photograph Chicago's manufacturing and retail sectors, fostered by the expansion of railroads throughout the upper Midwest and East, grew rapidly and came to dominate the Midwest and greatly influence the nation's economy.[38] The Chicago Union Stock Yards dominated the packing trade. Chicago became the world's largest rail hub, and one of its busiest ports by shipping traffic on the Great Lakes. Commodity resources, such as lumber, iron and coal, were brought to Chicago and Ohio for processing, with products shipped both East and West to support new growth.[39] Lake Michigan?the primary source of fresh water for the city?became polluted from the rapidly growing industries in and around Chicago; a new way of procuring clean water was needed. In 1885 the civil engineer Lyman Edgar Cooley proposed the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. He envisioned a deep waterway that would dilute and divert the city's sewage by funneling water from Lake Michigan into a canal, which would drain into the Mississippi River via the Illinois River. Beyond presenting a solution for Chicago's sewage problem, Cooley's proposal appealed to the economic need to link the Midwest with America's central waterways to compete with East Coast shipping and railroad industries. Strong regional support for the project led the Illinois legislature to circumvent the federal government and complete the canal with state funding. The opening in January 1900 met with controversy and a lawsuit against Chicago's appropriation of water from Lake Michigan. By the 1920s the lawsuit was divided between the states of the Mississippi River Valley, who supported the development of deep waterways linking the Great Lakes with the Mississippi, and the Great Lakes states, which feared sinking water levels might harm shipping in the lakes. In 1929 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in support of Chicago's use of the canal to promote commerce, but ordered the city to discontinue its use for sewage disposal.[40] New construction boomed in the 1920s, with notable landmarks such as the Merchandise Mart and art deco Chicago Board of Trade Building completed in 1930. The Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression and diversion of resources into World War II led to the suspension for years of new construction. The Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of the World's Fair held on the Near South Side lakefront from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial.[41][42] The theme of the fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding. More than 40 million people visited the fair, which symbolized for many hope for Chicago and the nation, then in the midst of the Great Depression.[43] The demographics of the city were changing in the early 20th century as black southern families migrated out of the south, but while cities like Chicago empathized with the condition of impoverished white children, black children were mostly excluded from the private and religious institutions that provided homes for such children. Those that did take in black dependent children were overcrowded and underfunded because of institutional racism. Between 1899 and 1945 many of the city's black children found themselves in the juvenile court system. The 1899 Juvenile Court Act, supported by Progressive reformers, created a class of dependants for orphans and other children lacking "proper parental care or guardianship" but the court's designations of "delinquency" and "dependency" were racialized[when defined as?] so black children were far more likely to be labeled as delinquents.[44][fact or opinion?] Politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Further information: Political history of Chicago Nicely dressed Jewish men and boys standing on a sidewalk in Chicago, 1903 Theodore Roosevelt in Chicago, 1915 Map of downtown Chicago in 1917. During the election of April 23, 1875, the voters of Chicago chose to operate under the Illinois Cities and Villages Act of 1872. Chicago still operates under this act, in lieu of a charter. The Cities and Villages Act has been revised several times since, and may be found in Chapter 65 of the Illinois Compiled Statutes. Late-19th-century big city newspapers such as the Chicago Daily News - founded in 1875 by Melville Stone - ushered in an era of news reporting that was, unlike earlier periods, in tune with the particulars of community life in specific cities. Vigorous competition between older and newer-style city papers soon broke out, centered on civic activism and sensationalist reporting of urban political issues and the numerous problems associated with rapid urban growth. Competition was especially fierce between the Chicago Times (Democratic), the Chicago Tribune (Republican), and the Daily News (independent), with the latter becoming the city's most popular paper by the 1880s.[45] The city's boasting lobbyists and politicians earned Chicago the nickname "Windy City" in the New York press. The city adopted the nickname as its own. Violence and crime Polarized attitudes of labor and business in Chicago prompted a strike by workers' lobbying for an eight-hour work day, later named the Haymarket affair. A peaceful demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket near the west side was interrupted by a bomb thrown at police; seven police officers were killed. Widespread violence broke out. A group of anarchists were tried for inciting the riot and convicted. Several were hanged and others were pardoned. The episode was a watershed moment in the labor movement, and its history was commemorated in the annual May Day celebrations.[46] By 1900, Progressive Era political and legal reformers initiated far-ranging changes in the American criminal justice system, with Chicago taking the lead.[47] The city became notorious worldwide for its rate of murders in the early 20th century, yet the courts failed to convict the killers. More than three-fourths of cases were not closed. Even when the police made arrests in cases where killers' identities were known, jurors typically exonerated or acquitted them. A blend of gender-, race-, and class-based notions of justice trumped the rule of law, producing low homicide conviction rates during a period of soaring violence.[48] During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rates of domestic murder tripled in Chicago. Domestic homicide was often a manifestation of strains in gender relations induced by urban and industrial change. At the core of such family murders were male attempts to preserve masculine authority. Yet, there were nuances in the motives for the murder of family members, and study of the patterns of domestic homicide among different ethnic groups reveals basic cultural differences. German male immigrants tended to murder over declining status and the failure to achieve economic prosperity. Italian men killed family members to save a gender-based ideal of respectability that entailed patriarchal control over women and family reputation. African American men, like the Germans, often murdered in response to economic conditions but not over desperation about the future. Like the Italians, the killers tended to be young, but family honor was not usually at stake. Instead, black men murdered to regain control of wives and lovers who resisted their patriarchal "rights".[49] Progressive reformers in the business community created the Chicago Crime Commission (CCC) in 1919 after an investigation into a robbery at a factory showed the city's criminal justice system was deficient. The CCC initially served as a watchdog of the justice system. After its suggestion that the city's justice system begin collecting criminal records was rejected, the CCC assumed a more active role in fighting crime. The commission's role expanded further after Frank J. Loesch became president in 1928. Loesch recognized the need to eliminate the glamor that Chicago's media typically attributed to criminals. Determined to expose the violence of the crime world, Loesch drafted a list of "public enemies"; among them was Al Capone, whom he made a scapegoat for widespread social problems.[50] After the passage of Prohibition, the 1920s brought international notoriety to Chicago. Bootleggers and smugglers bringing in liquor from Canada formed powerful gangs. They competed with each other for lucrative profits, and to evade the police, to bring liquor to speakeasies and private clients. The most notorious was Al Capone.[51][52] Immigration and migration in the 20th century Further information: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago From 1890 to 1914, migrations swelled, attracting to the city of mostly unskilled Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Italians, Greeks, Czechs, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, and Slovaks. World War I cut off immigration from Europe, which brought hundreds of thousands of southern blacks and whites into Northern cities to fill in the labor shortages. The Immigration Act of 1924 restricted populations from southern and eastern Europe, apart from refugees after World War II. The heavy annual turnover of ethnic populations ended, and the groups stabilized, each favoring specific neighborhoods.[53][54] While whites from rural areas arrived and generally settled in the suburban parts of the city, large numbers of blacks from the South arrived as well.[55] The near South Side of the city became the first Black residential area, as it had the oldest, less expensive housing. Although restricted by segregation and competing ethnic groups such as the Irish, gradually continued black migration caused this community to expand, as well as the black neighborhoods on the near West Side. These were de facto segregated areas (few blacks were tolerated in ethnic white neighborhoods); the Irish and ethnic groups who had been longer in the city began to move to outer areas and the suburbs. After World War II, the city built public housing for working-class families to upgrade residential quality. The high-rise design of such public housing proved a problem when industrial jobs left the city and poor families became concentrated in the facilities. After 1950, public housing high rises anchored poor black neighborhoods south and west of the Loop. "Old stock" Americans who relocated to Chicago after 1900 preferred the outlying areas and suburbs, with their commutes eased by train lines, making Oak Park and Evanston enclaves of the upper middle class. In the 1910s, high-rise luxury apartments were constructed along the lakefront north of the Loop, continuing into the 21st century. They attracted wealthy residents but few families with children, as wealthier families moved to suburbs for the schools. There were problems in the public school system; mostly Catholic students attended schools in the large parochial system, which was of middling quality.[56] There were a few private schools. The Latin School, Francis Parker and later The Bateman School, all centrally located served those who could afford to pay. The northern and western suburbs developed some of the best public schools in the nation, which were strongly supported by their wealthier residents. The suburban trend accelerated after 1945, with the construction of highways and train lines that made commuting easier. Middle-class Chicagoans headed to the outlying areas of the city, and then into the Cook County and Dupage County suburbs. As ethnic Jews and Irish rose in economic class, they left the city and headed north. Well-educated migrants from around the country moved to the far suburbs. Chicago's Polonia sustained diverse political cultures in the early twentieth century, each with its own newspaper. In 1920 the community had a choice of five daily papers ? from the Socialist Dziennik Ludowy (People's Daily; 1907?1925) to the Polish Roman Catholic Union's Dziennik Zjednoczenia (Union Daily; 1921?1939). The decision to subscribe to a particular paper reaffirmed a particular ideology or institutional network based on ethnicity and class, which lent itself to different alliances and different strategies.[57] In 1926, the city hosted the 28th International Eucharistic Congress, a major event for the Catholic community of Chicago. As the First World War cut off immigration, tens of thousands of African Americans came north in the Great Migration out of the rural South. With new populations competing for limited housing and jobs, especially on the South Side, social tensions rose in the city. Postwar years were more difficult. Black veterans looked for more respect for having served their nation, and some whites resented it. In 1919, the Chicago race riot erupted, in what became known as "Red Summer", when other major cities also suffered mass racial violence based in competition for jobs and housing as the country tried to absorb veterans in the postwar years. During the riot, thirty-eight people died (23 black and 15 white) and over five hundred were injured. Much of the violence against blacks in Chicago was led by members of ethnic Irish athletic clubs, who had much political power in the city and defended their "territory" against African Americans. As was typical in these occurrences, more blacks than whites died in the violence. Concentrating the family resources to achieve home ownership was a common strategy in the ethnic European neighborhoods. It meant sacrificing current consumption, and pulling children out of school as soon as they could earn a wage. By 1900, working-class ethnic immigrants owned homes at higher rates than native-born people. After borrowing from friends and building associations, immigrants kept boarders, grew market gardens, and opened home-based commercial laundries, eroding home-work distinctions, while sending out women and children to work to repay loans. They sought not middle-class upward mobility but the security of home ownership. Many social workers wanted them to pursue upward job mobility (which required more education), but realtors asserted that houses were better than a bank for a poor man. With hindsight, and considering uninsured banks' precariousness, this appears to have been true. Chicago's workers made immense sacrifices for home ownership, contributing to Chicago's sprawling suburban geography and to modern myths about the American dream. The Jewish community, by contrast, rented apartments and maximized education and upward mobility for the next generation.[58] Beginning in the 1940s, waves of Hispanic immigrants began to arrive. The largest numbers were from Mexico and Puerto Rico, as well as Cuba during Fidel Castro's rise. During the 1980s, Hispanic immigrants were more likely to be from Central and South America. After 1965 and the change in US immigration laws, numerous Asian immigrants came; the largest proportion were well-educated Indians and Chinese, who generally settled directly in the suburbs. By the 1970s gentrification began in the city, in some cases with people renovating housing in old inner city neighborhoods, and attracting singles and gay people. State Street c. 1907 State Street c. 1907   International Ballooning Contest, Aero Park, Chicago, July 4, 1908 International Ballooning Contest, Aero Park, Chicago, July 4, 1908   Bird's eye view of Chicago in 1938 Bird's eye view of Chicago in 1938   Oak Street Beach, 1925 Oak Street Beach, 1925 1930s Main article: Chicago in the 1930s Labor unions Chicago skyline from Northerly Island Taken sometime in 1941 After 1900 Chicago was a heavily unionized city, apart from the factories (which were non-union until the 1930s). The Industrial Workers of the World was founded in Chicago in June 1905 at a convention of 200 socialists, anarchists, and radical trade unionists from all over the United States. The Railroad brotherhoods were strong, as were the crafts unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The AFL unions operated through the Chicago Federation of Labor to minimize jurisdictional conflicts, which caused many strikes as two unions battled to control a work site. The unionized teamsters in Chicago enjoyed an unusually strong bargaining position when they contended with employers around the city, or supported another union in a specific strike. Their wagons could easily be positioned to disrupt streetcars and block traffic. In addition, their families and neighborhood supporters often surrounded and attacked the wagons of nonunion teamsters who were strikebreaking. When the teamsters used their clout to engage in sympathy strikes, employers decided to coordinate their antiunion efforts, claiming that the teamsters held too much power over commerce in their control of the streets. The teamsters' strike in 1905 represented a clash both over labor issues and the public nature of the streets. To the employers, the streets were arteries for commerce, while to the teamsters, they remained public spaces integral to their neighborhoods.[59] World War II On December 2, 1942, the world's first controlled nuclear reaction was conducted at the University of Chicago as part of the top secret Manhattan Project. During World War II, the steel mills in the city of Chicago alone accounted for 20% of all steel production in the United States and 10% of global production. The city produced more steel than the United Kingdom during the war, and surpassed Nazi Germany's output in 1943 (after barely missing in 1942). The city's diversified industrial base made it second only to Detroit in the value?$24 billion?of war goods produced. Over 1,400 companies produced everything from field rations to parachutes to torpedoes, while new aircraft plants employed 100,000 in the construction of engines, aluminum sheeting, bombsights, and other components. The Great Migration, which had been on pause due to the Depression, resumed at an even faster pace as the 1910 - 1930 period, as hundreds of thousands of black Americans arrived in the city to work in the steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards.[60] Postwar Returning World War II veterans and immigrants from Europe (in particular displaced persons from Eastern Europe) created a postwar economic boom and led to the development of huge housing tracts on Chicago's Northwest and Southwest sides. The city was extensively photographed during the postwar years by street photographers such as Richard Nickel and Vivian Maier. In the 1950s, the postwar desire for new and improved housing, aided by new highways and commuter train lines, caused many middle and higher income Americans to begin to move from the inner-city of Chicago to the suburbs. Changes in industry after 1950, with restructuring of the stockyards and steel industries, led to massive job losses in the city for working-class people. The city population shrank by nearly 700,000. The City Council devised "Plan 21" to improve neighborhoods and focused on creating "Suburbs within the city" near downtown and the lakefront. It built public housing to try to improve housing standards in the city. As a result, many poor were uprooted from newly created enclaves of Black, Latino, and poor people in neighborhoods such as Near North, Wicker Park, Lakeview, Uptown, Cabrini?Green, West Town and Lincoln Park. The passage of civil rights laws in the 1960s also affected Chicago and other northern cities. In the 1960s and the 1970s, many middle- and upper-class Americans continued to move from the city for better housing and schools in the suburbs. Office building resumed in the 1960s. When completed in 1974, the Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower, was at 1451 feet the world's tallest building. It was designed by the famous Chicago firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which designed many of the city's other famous buildings. House in Chicago's inner city, 1974. Photo by Danny Lyon. House in Chicago's inner city, 1974. Photo by Danny Lyon.   Chicago Picasso, a 1967 sculpture in Daley Plaza. Pablo Picasso refused the $100,000 fee and donated it to the people of Chicago. Chicago Picasso, a 1967 sculpture in Daley Plaza. Pablo Picasso refused the $100,000 fee and donated it to the people of Chicago. Mayor Richard J. Daley served 1955?1976, dominating the city's machine politics by his control of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, which selected party nominees, who were usually elected in the Democratic stronghold. Daley took credit for building four major expressways focused on the Loop, and city-owned O'Hare Airport (which became the world's busiest airport, displacing Midway Airport's prior claims). Several neighborhoods near downtown and the lakefront were gentrified and transformed into "suburbs within the city".[61] He held office during the unrest of the 1960s, some of which was provoked by the police department's discriminatory practices. In the Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park and Humboldt Park communities, the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez marched and held sit ins to protest the displacement of Latinos and the poor. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, major riots of despair resulted in the burning down of sections of the black neighborhoods of the South and West sides. Protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago, resulted in street violence, with televised broadcasts of the Chicago police's beating of unarmed protesters.[62] In 1979, Jane Byrne, the city's first woman mayor, was elected, winning the Democratic primary due to a citywide outrage about the ineffective snow removal across the city.[63] In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, became mayor in 1989, and was repeatedly reelected until he declined to seek re-election in 2011. He sparked debate by demolishing many of the city's vast public housing projects, which had deteriorated and were holding too many poor and dysfunctional families. Concepts for new affordable and public housing have changed to include many new features to make them more viable: smaller scale, environmental designs for public safety, mixed-rate housing, etc. New projects during Daley's administration have been designed to be environmentally sound, more accessible and better for their occupants. 21st century In September 2008, Chicago accepted a $2.52 billion bid on a 99-year lease of Midway International Airport to a group of private investors, but the deal fell through due to the collapse of credit markets during the 2008?2012 global recession[64][65] In 2008, as Chicago struggled to close a growing budget deficit, the city agreed to a 75-year, $1.16 billion deal to lease its parking meter system to an operating company created by Morgan Stanley. Daley said the "agreement is very good news for the taxpayers of Chicago because it will provide more than $1 billion in net proceeds that can be used during this very difficult economy." The agreement quadrupled rates, in the first year alone, while the hours which people have to pay for parking were broadened from 9 a.m. ? 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. ? 9 p.m., and from Monday through Saturday to every day of the week. Additionally, the city agreed to compensate the new owners for loss of revenue any time any road with parking meters is closed by the city for anything from maintenance work to street festivals.[66][67] In three years, the proceeds from the lease were all but spent. In his annual budget address on October 21, 2009, Daley projected a deficit for 2009 of more than $520 million. Daley proposed a 2010 budget totaling $6.14 billion, including spending $370 million from the $1.15 billion proceeds from the parking meter lease.[68] In his annual budget address on October 13, 2010, Daley projected a deficit for 2010 of $655 million, the largest in city history.[69] Daley proposed a 2011 budget totaling $6.15 billion, including spending all but $76 million of what remained of the parking meter lease proceeds, and received a standing ovation from aldermen.[70][71] In 2011, Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago.[72] Chicago earned the title of "City of the Year" in 2008 from GQ for contributions in architecture and literature, its world of politics, and the downtown's starring role in the Batman movie The Dark Knight.[73] The city was rated by Moody's as having the most balanced economy in the United States due to its high level of diversification.[74] Flag Four historical events are commemorated by the four red stars on Chicago's flag: The United States' Fort Dearborn, established at the mouth of the Chicago River in 1803; the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed much of the city; the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, by which Chicago celebrated its recovery from the fire; and the Century of Progress World's Fair of 1933?1934, which celebrated the city's centennial. The flag's two blue stripes symbolize the north and south branches of the Chicago River, which flows through the city's downtown. The three white stripes represent the North, West and South sides of the city, Lake Michigan being the east side. Major disasters Main article: Timeline of Chicago history The most famous and serious disaster was the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. On December 30, 1903, the "absolutely fireproof", five-week-old Iroquois Theater was engulfed by fire. The fire lasted less than thirty minutes; 602 people died as a result of being burned, asphyxiated, or trampled.[75] The S.S. Eastland was a cruise ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On July 24, 1915?a calm, sunny day?the ship was taking on passengers when it rolled over while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed. An investigation found that the Eastland had become too heavy with rescue gear that had been ordered by Congress in the wake of the Titanic disaster.[76] On December 1, 1958, the Our Lady of the Angels School Fire occurred in the Humboldt Park area. The fire killed 92 students and three nuns; in response, fire safety improvements were made to public and private schools across the United States.[77] April 13, 1992, billions of dollars in damage was caused by the Chicago Flood, when a hole was accidentally drilled into the long-abandoned (and mostly forgotten) Chicago Tunnel system, which was still connected to the basements of numerous buildings in the Loop. It flooded the central business district with 250 million US gallons (950,000 m3) of water from the Chicago River.[78][79] A major environmental disaster occurred in July 1995, when a week of record high heat and humidity caused 739 heat-related deaths, mostly among isolated elderly poor and others without air conditioning.[80] See also American urban history Bibliography of Chicago history Chicago in the 1930s Ethnic groups in Chicago; the larger groups have articles such as Poles in Chicago and History of African Americans in Chicago History of education in Chicago Political history of Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago Timeline of Chicago history Before the 19th century As interpreted from the 1670 translation of the de Soto narrative into French by Pierre Richelet, the Chucagua River, was believed to be the Mississippi. La Salle named Checagou, the transliterated from Spanish, as the gateway to the River of de Soto. Site of Chicagou on the lake, in Guillaume de L'Isle's map (Paris, 1718) 1673: French-Canadian explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, on their way to Québec, pass through the area that will become Chicago. 1677: Father Claude Allouez arrived to try to convert the natives to Christianity 1682: French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, passes through Chicago en route to the mouth of the Mississippi River. 1696: Jesuit missionary Francois Pinet founds the Mission of the Guardian Angel. It is abandoned four years later. 1705: Conflicts develop between French traders and the Fox tribe of Native Americans. 1719: The Comanche Indian Tribe settle in the Great Plains and in the Midwest of the United States. 1754: The Illinois Country becomes part of New France, days later The French and Indian War begins with the war against the British. 1763: The Illinois Country falls to British Troops after the defeat of New France. 1775: The Revolutionary War begins with America declaring independence from Britain. 1778: The Illinois Campaign is born under the command of George Rogers Clark to lead the fight against major British outposts scattered across the country. 1780s: Jean Baptiste Point du Sable establishes Chicago's first permanent settlement near the mouth of the Chicago River. 1795: Six square miles (16 km2) of land at the mouth of the Chicago River are reserved by the Treaty of Greenville for use by the United States. 1796: Kittahawa, du Sable's Potawatomi Indian wife, delivers Eulalia Point du Sable, Chicago's first recorded birth. 19th century 1800s?1840s 1803: The United States Army orders the construction of Fort Dearborn by Major John Whistler. It is built near the mouth of the Chicago River. 1812 June 17, Jean La Lime is killed by John Kinzie, making him the first recorded murder victim in Chicago. August 15, the Battle of Fort Dearborn. 1816: The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri. Ft. Dearborn is rebuilt. 1818: December 3, Illinois joins the Union and becomes a state. 1820 Chicago 1821 Survey of Chicago 1830 August 4, Chicago is surveyed and platted for the first time by James Thompson. Population: "Less than 100".[1] 1833: Chicago incorporated as a town.[1] 1837 Chicago incorporated as a city.[1] C.D. Peacock jewelers was founded. It is the oldest Chicago business still operating today. Chicago receives its first charter.[2] Rush Medical College is founded two days before the city was chartered. It is the first medical school in the state of Illinois which is still operating. The remaining 450 Potawatomi left Chicago. 1840 July 10, Chicago's first legally executed criminal, John Stone was hanged for rape and murder. Population: 4,470.[3] 1844: Lake Park designated.[4] 1847: June 10, The first issue of the Chicago Tribune is published. 1848 Chicago Board of Trade opens on April 3 by 82 local businessmen. Illinois and Michigan Canal opens and traffic begins moving faster. Galena and Chicago Union Railroad enters operation becoming the first railroad in Chicago 1849 Wauconda is founded. Merchants' Hotel on left, looking North from State and Washington Streets, before 1868 Chicago in 1830, as depicted in 1884 Chicago in 1832, as depicted in 1892 Chicago in 1836 1893 Bird's eye view of Chicago Fort Dearborn depicted as in 1831, sketched 1850s although the accuracy of the sketch was debated soon after it appeared. 1850s?1890s 1850: Population: 29,963.[3] 1851: Chicago's first institution of higher education, Northwestern University, is founded. 1852: Mercy Hospital becomes the first hospital in Illinois. 1853 October: State Convention of the Colored Citizens held in city.[5] Union Park named.[4] 1854: A cholera epidemic took the lives of 5.5% of the population of Chicago.[6] 1855 Chicago Theological Seminary founded.[1] April 21, Lager Beer riot. Population: 80,000.[4] 1856: Chicago Historical Society founded. 1857 Iwan Ries & Co. Chicago's oldest family-owned business opens, still in operation today, the oldest family-owned tobacco shop. Mathias A. Klein & Sons (Klein Tools Inc.), still family owned and run today by fifth and sixth generation Klein's. Cook County Hospital opens.[1] Hyde Park House built.[4] 1859: McCormick Theological Seminary relocated.[1] 1860 September 8, the Lady Elgin Disaster. Population: 112,172.[3] Daprato Statuary Company (Currently Daprato Rigali Studios) founded by the Daprato brothers, Italian immigrants from Barga. 1865 Corporal punishment was abandoned in schools.[4] Population: 178,492.[4] 1866: School of the Art Institute of Chicago founded. 1867 Construction began on the Water Tower designed by architect W. W. Boyington. Chicago Academy of Music founded.[4] 1868 Rand McNally is formed as a railway guide company. Lincoln Park Zoo founded.[4] 1869 Chicago Water Tower built. The first Illinois woman suffrage convention was held in Chicago The Chicago Club is established. Washington Square Park being developed.[4] 1870 St. Ignatius College founded, later Loyola University Population: 298,977.[3] 1871: October 8 ? 10, the Great Chicago Fire.[4][7] 1872 Montgomery Ward in business. Establishment of the first Black fire company in the city. The original library, inside the old water tower on the site that is now the Rookery Building. This former water tower was the site of the original public library, exterior view 1873: Chicago Public Library established.[4] 1875: Holy Name Cathedral dedicated.[4] 1877: Railroad strike.[8] Art Institute of Chicago As seen from Michigan Ave 1878 Art Institute of Chicago established. Conservator newspaper begins publication.[9][10] 1879: Art Institute of Chicago founded.[1] 1880: Polish National Alliance headquartered in city. 1881: Unsightly beggar ordinance effected.[11] Home Insurance Building Field Museum in Chicago 1885: Home Insurance Building building was the first skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and 138 ft (42.1 m) tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884[12][13] Two floors were added in 1891, bringing its now finished height to 180 feet (54.9 meters). It was the first tall building to be supported both inside and outside by a fireproof structural steel frame, though it also included reinforced concrete. A landmark lost to history and is considered the world's first skyscraper. Chicago Water Tower and Chicago Avenue Pumping Station, circa 1886 1886 May 4, the Haymarket riot.[14] Chicago Evening Post published (until 1932).[1] 1887: Newberry Library established. 1888: Dearborn Observatory rebuilt. 1889 Hull House founded.[1][15] Auditorium Building completed.[1] Auditorium Theatre opened. 1890: The University of Chicago is founded by John D. Rockefeller. 1891 Chicago Symphony Orchestra founded by Theodore Thomas.[1] Provident Hospital founded.[1] 1892 June 6, The Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad, Chicago's first 'L' line, went into operation. Masonic Temple for two years, the tallest building in Chicago. Streetcar tunnels in Chicago (under the Chicago River) in use until 1906.[1] 1893 May 1 ? October 30, The World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair); World's Parliament of Religions held.[16][1] October 28, Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast.[17] Sears, Roebuck and Company in business. First Ferris wheel built by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. Art Institute of Chicago building opens.[1] Monadnock Building completed.[1] Universal Peace Congress held.[18] Chicago Civic Federation founded.[17] 1894 May 11 ? August 2, the Pullman Strike.[14][1] ?enské Listy women's magazine begins publication.[19][20] Field Museum of Natural History established.[1] 1895: Marquette Building completed.[1] 1896 1896 Democratic National Convention held; Bryan delivers Cross of Gold speech.[21] Campaign "to improve municipal service and politics" begun in 1896.[1] Abeny beauty shop[22] and Tonnesen Sisters photo studio[23] in business. 1897 March 12, The Chicago Elevator Protective Association of Chicago was formed. Later, on July 15, 1901, to become the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 2. The Union Loop Elevated is completed. National union of meat packers formed.[1] 1898: National peace jubilee was held.[1] 1899 Cook County juvenile court established.[24] Municipal Art League established.[1] Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building constructed. Chicago-Sanitary-and-Ship-Canal, during construction Chicago USA. Map of the business portion of Chicago. 1905 Source The New International Encyclopædia, v. 4, 1905, between pp. 610?11. 1900 Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal opens;[25] the Chicago River is completely reversed. Municipal Reference Library active (approximate date).[26] Labor strike of machinists.[8] Population: 1,698,575.[1] 20th century Construction of the Chicago Drainage Canal, 1900s 1900s?1940s See also: Chicago in the 1930s 1902: Meatpacking strike.[8] 1903 December 30, Iroquois Theater Fire City Club of Chicago formed. 1905 The Industrial Workers of the World was founded in June[27] Teamsters' strike.[1] Chicago Defender newspaper begins publication.[28] City Hall rebuilding completed.[1] Chicago Federal Building completed.[1] 1906 Municipal court established.[24] The Chicago White Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs in the only all-Chicago World Series. Sinclair's fictional The Jungle published.[14] Chicago Tunnel Company operated a 2 ft. narrow-gauge railway freight tunnel network (until 1959).[1] 1907: Adolph Kroch opens a bookstore which will evolve into Kroch's and Brentano's 1908 The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the second year in a row Binga Bank in business.[29] 1909: Burnham's Plan of Chicago presented.[14] 1910: Population: 2,185,283.[1][30] July 1: Comiskey Park opened (originally called White Sox Park). December 22: Chicago Union Stock Yards fire (1910) 1911: Chicago and North Western Railway Terminal completed.[1] 1912: Harriet Monroe starts Poetry, which will soon make Chicago a magnet for modern poets. 1913 Great Lakes Storm of 1913 Wabash Avenue YMCA opens.[31] 1914: Alpha Suffrage Club active.[32] April 23: Wrigley Field opened (originally called Weeghman Park). All Star Tournament, 18 Inch Balke Line, Chicago, May 7?14, 1906 Jewish men and boys standing on a sidewalk in Chicago, 1903 Theodore Roosevelt in Chicago, 1915 During construction, 1915 (Chicago Daily News) 1915 July 24, the SS Eastland Disaster.[1] Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium founded.[30] 1916 Rebuilding of the American Fort Navy Pier built. [30] 1918 Micheaux Film and Book Company in business.[33] The Spanish flu killed over 8,500 people in Chicago between September and November 1918. 1919 July 27, the Chicago race riot of 1919. Real estate broker Archibald Teller opened the first Fannie May candy store. 1920: Population: 2,701,705.[30] 1921 Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre built, (later the Chicago Theatre). Field Museum of Natural History relocates to Chicago Park District.[30] Street-widening and street-opening projects underway.[30] Medill School of Journalism opens.[30] 1922: Chicago Council on Global Affairs established.[34] 1924 Murder trial and conviction of Leopold and Loeb. October 9: Soldier Field opened. 1925 Goodman Theatre established. Chicago railway station opened.[30] The Tribune Tower was completed on Michigan Avenue. The building's large Gothic entrance contains pieces of stone from other famous buildings: Westminster Abbey, Cologne Cathedral, the Alamo, the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramid, and the Arc de Triomphe. 1926 Nederlander Theatre opened. Granada Theatre opened. 1927: Originally called the Chicago Municipal Airport, Chicago Midway International Airport opened. It was renamed in 1949 to honor the Battle of Midway in World War II. July 28: 27 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the Favorite Boat Disaster. 1929 February 14, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.[21][35] Oscar De Priest becomes U.S. representative for Illinois's 1st congressional district.[36][37] Civic Opera Building & Civic Opera House opened. 1930 March 6: 50,000 gather for International Unemployment Day, capping 10 days of protest against Great Depression conditions. May 12, Adler Planetarium opened, through a gift from local merchant Max Adler. It was the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere.[38] April 6, Twinkies are in Invented in Schiller Park. May 30, Shedd Aquarium opens. The Merchandise Mart was built for Marshall Field & Co. The $32 million, 4.2 million square foot (390,000 m2) building was the world's largest commercial building. It was sold it to Joseph P. Kennedy in 1945. 1933 Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) opened. March 6: Mayor Anton Cermak was killed while riding in a car with President-elect Roosevelt. The assassin was thought to have been aiming for Roosevelt. 1933?34: Century of Progress World's Fair. 1934 May 19: Chicago Union Stock Yards fire (1934) July 1: Brookfield Zoo opened. July 22: John Dillinger was shot by the FBI in the alley next to the Biograph Theater.[21] 1935 January 19: Coopers Inc. sells the world's first briefs. Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago is awarded the very first Heisman Trophy 1937: Labor strike of steelworkers.[8] 1938: Community Factbook begins publication.[39] 1944: Premiere of Williams' play The Glass Menagerie. 1945: Ebony magazine begins publication.[40] 1946: Construction of Thatcher Homes begins. 1948: Chicago Daily Sun and Times newspaper begins publication.[9] 1950s?1990s 1950: Chess Records in business.[41] 1954: Johnson Products Company in business. 1955: The first McDonald's franchise restaurant, owned by Ray Kroc, opened in the suburb of Des Plaines. 1958 December 1, Our Lady of the Angels School Fire. The last streetcar ran in the city. At one time, Chicago had the largest streetcar system in the world. 1959: Second City comedy troupe active. 1960 September 26: Nixon-Kennedy televised presidential debate held.[21] The first of the Playboy Clubs, featuring bunnies, opened in Chicago. 1963 ? Donald Rumsfeld became U.S. representative for Illinois's 13th congressional district.[42] 1965?66 ? The Chicago Freedom Movement, centering on the topic of open housing, paves the way for the 1968 Fair Housing Act. 1966 July 13?14: Chicago student nurse massacre 1967 January 26 ? 27, Major snowstorm deposits 23 inches of snow, closing the city for several days.[2] August 1: maiden voyage of UAC TurboTrain. 1968: February 7: Mickelberry Sausage Company plant explosion kills nine and injured 70. August 26 ? 29, 1968 Democratic National Convention and its accompanying anti-Vietnam War protests. 1969 October: Weathermen's antiwar demonstration.[43] December 4: Black Panther Fred Hampton assassinated. The Chicago 8 trial opens. The 100-floor John Hancock Center was built. 1970 Soul Train television program begins broadcasting. Casa Aztlán (organization) founded.[44] 1971: Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center founded.[45] 1972: Vietnam Veterans Against the War headquartered in Chicago. 1973: Sears Tower, the tallest building in the world for the next 25 years, was completed. 1974: Steppenwolf Theatre Company founded. 1977: Chicago Marathon begins.[41] 1978: First BBS goes online on February 16. 1979 Heavy snowstorm and city's slow response lead to upset of incumbent mayor. May 25, the American Airlines Flight 191 crashes. Chicago's first female mayor, Jane M. Byrne, takes office. Woodstock Institute headquartered in city.[46] 1981: Hill Street Blues television show premieres on January 15. 1982 September ? October: Chicago Tylenol murders 1983 Harold Washington became the first African American mayor.[47] Ordinance banning handguns takes effect.[35][48] 1984 The Chicago Cubs reach the postseason for the first time since 1945 The Nike shoe Air Jordan is made for superstar basketball player of the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan. Heartland Institute headquartered in city.[49] 1986 Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, Inc. in business. The Chicago Bears win Super Bowl XX Presidential Towers complex completed 1988 Lights are installed in Wrigley Field Christian Peacemaker Teams headquartered in city.[49] 1990: Population: 2,783,726.[3] 1991: May 28, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, Sony proudly revealed that it was working with Nintendo to create a version of the Super NES with an in-built CD drive. The two Japanese companies had been working together in secret on the project, tentatively titled the Nintendo PlayStation, since 1989 and with the hype about CD-ROM reaching fever pitch, Sony?s announcement should have been a highlight of the trade show. Eventually leads to betrayal of the company Nintendo to Sony into Leading to the beginning of PlayStation Counsel.[50] 1992: April 13, the Chicago Flood. 1995 The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995. Your Radio Playhouse begins broadcasting. Kroch's and Brentano's, once the largest privately owned bookstore chain in the US, closes. 1996 Chicago hosts the 1996 Democratic National Convention, sparking protests such as the one whereby Civil Rights Movement historian Randy Kryn and 10 others were arrested by the Federal Protective Service.[51] City website online (approximate date).[52][53] 1998: The Chicago Bulls won their sixth NBA championship in eight years. 21st century 2001: 9/11 Chicago International Speedway is opened. Boeing moves its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago A video game company called Bungie Launches Halo that would give Rise to Microsoft's Xbox counsels. 2002: Lakeview Polar Bear Club founded (now known as the Chicago Polar Bear Club). 2003 Meigs Field closed after having large X-shaped gouges dug into the runway surface by bulldozers in the middle of the night. Chicago Film Archives founded. February 17: 2003 E2 nightclub stampede June 29: 2003 Chicago balcony collapse 2004: Millennium Park opens.[54] 2005 The Chicago White Sox win their first World Series in 88 years. Regional Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning established.[55] 2006 May 1, the 2006 U.S. immigration reform protests draw over 400,000. Cloud Gate artwork installed in Millennium Park. 2008: November 4, US President-elect Barack Obama makes his victory speech in Grant Park. In 2009, an Amtrak Lake Shore Limited train backing into Chicago Union Station Chicago Theater in 2011 2010 June 28: US supreme court case McDonald v. City of Chicago decided; overturns city handgun ban.[48] Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup. City of Chicago Data Portal launched.[3] 2011 February 2: 900 cars abandoned on Lake Shore Drive due to Blizzard. March 30: Last of Cabrini Green towers torn down. Rahm Emanuel becomes mayor. Population: 8,707,120; metro 17,504,753.[56] 2012 38th G8 summit and 2012 Chicago Summit are to take place in Chicago. The first of an ongoing franchise of NBC Chicago-set dramas, Chicago Fire, makes its world premiere on WMAQ 2013 Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup scoring 2 goals in 17 seconds to defeat the Boston Bruins Robin Kelly becomes U.S. representative for Illinois's 2nd congressional district. 2014: January: Chiberia August: Archer Daniels Midland completes its headquarters move from Decatur to the Loop. November 2: Wallenda performs high-wire stunt.[57] 2015 606 linear park opens. Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup yet again for the third time in six years, establishing a "puck dynasty" nationwide and arguably becoming the best team in the NHL. Video of the murder of Laquan McDonald is released by court order, and protests ensue. 2016: June 16: McDonald's announces it will move its headquarters from Oak Brook to the West Loop by 2018. ConAgra completes its headquarters move from Omaha to the Merchandise Mart. November 2: Cubs win the world series. Navy Pier in 2017 2017 January 21: Women's protest against U.S. president Trump.[58] City approves public high school "post-graduation plan" graduation requirement (to be effected 2020).[59] 2018: Walgreens announces the move of its headquarters from Deerfield, including 2,000 jobs, to the Old Chicago Main Post Office. 14th Street Coach Yard and Willis Tower, October 2018 2019 May 20: Lori Lightfoot becomes the first female African-American mayor of Chicago. 2020 March 16: First Chicago death due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Governor J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot issue a stay at home order. Over 7,700 people in Chicago died in the pandemic. May 28 ? June 1: George Floyd protests in Chicago 2022 May ? July: 2022-2023 abortion protests 2023 May 15: Brandon Johnson becomes mayor. See also History of Chicago List of mayors of Chicago National Register of Historic Places listings in Chicago
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