Portal:Chicago

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The Chicago Portal

Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. As the seat of Cook County, the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents.

Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It has the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. O'Hare International Airport is routinely ranked among the world's top six busiest airports by passenger traffic, and the region is also the nation's railroad hub. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) of any urban region in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018. Chicago's economy is diverse, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. (Full article...)

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The Elgin, Illinois, Centennial half dollar was a fifty-cent commemorative coin issued by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936, part of the wave of commemoratives authorized by Congress and struck that year. Intended to commemorate the centennial of the founding of Elgin, the piece was designed by local sculptor Trygve Rovelstad. The obverse depicts an idealized head of a pioneer man. The reverse shows pioneers based upon a sculptural group that Rovelstad hoped to build as a memorial to those who settled Illinois, but which was not erected in his lifetime. Rovelstad had heard of other efforts to authorize commemorative coins, which were sold by the Mint to a designated group at face value and then retailed a premium. In 1935, he had legislation introduced into the House of Representatives for a commemorative coin in honor of Elgin's centennial that year. Rovelstad hoped that the proposed coin would both depict and be a source of funds for his memorial to the pioneers. Texas coin dealer L.W. Hoffecker contacted Rovelstad to offer assistance—Hoffecker had been behind the Old Spanish Trail half dollar, issued in 1935. The bill for the Elgin coin did not pass until 1936. Hoffecker was able to sell about 20,000 coins, four-fifths of the issue: the remaining 5,000 were returned to the Mint for melting. Unlike many commemorative coins of that era, the piece was sold directly to collectors at the issue price. Art historian Cornelius Vermeule considered the Elgin coin among the most outstanding American commemoratives.

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General images

The following are images from various Chicago-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Replica of Daniel Chester French's Statue of The Republic at the site of the World's Columbian Exposition (from Chicago)
Image 2Traditional Potawatomi regalia on display at the Field Museum of Natural History (from Chicago)
Image 3A satellite image of Chicago (from Chicago)
Image 4When 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. (from Chicago)
Image 5Amtrak train on the Empire Builder route departs Chicago from Union Station. (from Chicago)
Image 6Willie Dixon (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 7Court of Honor at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 (from Chicago)
Image 8Map of racial distribution in Chicago, 2010 U.S. census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤ White ⬤ Black ⬤ Asian ⬤ Hispanic ⬤ Other (from Chicago)
Image 9Ford Explorer SUV as a Chicago Police Department vehicle, 2021 (from Chicago)
Image 10The Chicago Picasso (1967) inspired a new era in urban public art. (from Chicago)
Image 11Home Insurance Building (1885) (from Chicago)
Image 12Chicago Union Station, opened in 1925, is the third-busiest passenger rail terminal in the United States. (from Chicago)
Image 13Aerial view of the Chicago Loop in 2012 (from Chicago)
Image 14Downtown and the North Side with beaches lining the waterfront (from Chicago)
Image 15The Chicago Board of Trade Building (from Chicago)
Image 16Daley Plaza and Chicago Picasso, with City Hall-County Building visible in background. At right, the Daley Center contains the state law courts. (from Chicago)
Image 17Flag of Chicago (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 18The Chicago River during the January 2014 cold wave (from Chicago)
Image 19Aerial photo of the Jane Byrne Interchange (2022) after reconstruction, initially opened in the 1960s (from Chicago)
Image 20O'Hare International Airport (from Chicago)
Image 21Prentice Women's Hospital on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Downtown Campus (from Chicago)
Image 22The Chicago Building (1904–05) is a prime example of the Chicago School, displaying both variations of the Chicago window. (from Chicago)
Image 23The Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 24Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 25Chicago-style deep-dish pizza (from Chicago)
Image 26A Polish market in Chicago (from Chicago)
Image 27Chicago-style hot dog (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 28Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (from Chicago)
Image 29Men outside a soup kitchen during the Great Depression (1931) (from Chicago)
Image 30Ferries offer sightseeing tours and water-taxi transportation along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. (from Chicago)
Image 31Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 32Chicago tenants picket against rent increases (March 1920) (from Chicago)
Image 33Community areas of Chicago (from Chicago)
Image 34Protesters in Grant Park outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention (from Chicago)
Image 35The University of Chicago campus as seen from the Midway Plaisance (from Chicago)
Image 36People walking around Buckingham Fountain to attend a rally (2013) (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 37Jay Pritzker Pavilion (from Chicago)
Image 38Buckingham Fountain is located in Grant Park in the Loop (from Chicago)
Image 39The main hall of the Field Museum of Natural History in 2007, with Sue the T. rex in the foreground (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 40Chicago was home of The Oprah Winfrey Show from 1986 until 2011 and other Harpo Production operations until 2015. (from Chicago)
Image 41Chicago Half Marathon on Lake Shore Drive on the South Side (from Chicago)
Image 42The Chicago Picasso (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 43Ethnic origins in Chicago (from Chicago)
Image 44"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg (from Chicago)
Image 45The Field Museum of Natural History (from Chicago)
Image 46Chicago Theatre (from Chicago)
Image 47WGN began in the early days of radio and developed into a multi-platform broadcaster, including a cable television super-station. (from Chicago)
Image 48Aerial view of Navy Pier located in the Streeterville neighborhood, one of the most visited attractions in the Midwestern United States. (from Chicago)
Image 49Nature Boardwalk at the Lincoln Park Zoo, North Side (from Chicago)
Image 50Chicago Theatre (from Culture of Chicago)
Image 51An artist's rendering of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (from Chicago)

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Selected list

The list of Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters includes initiated and honorary members of Alpha Kappa Alpha (ΆKΆ), the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter sorority established for Black college women.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., by nine women who were known as The Original Group of 1908, and seven sophomores, who were accepted as honor initiates and are known as The Sophomores of 1910. Alpha Kappa Alpha serves the community through a membership of more than 200,000 women in over 950 chapters in the United States and several other countries. Membership is extended to female college undergraduate and graduate students. The sorority also bestows honorary membership as the highest honor.

Alpha Kappa Alpha states that since the organization's founding, "the sisterhood of Alpha Kappa Alpha has responded to the world’s increasing complexity. The sorority continues to empower communities through exemplary service initiatives and progressive programs." The sorority celebrated a centennial anniversary on January 15, 2008. (Read more...)

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... that Ruth Scott Miller, the first female music critic for the Chicago Tribune, said she was hired to "write for the masses and not for 'four or five thousand freak music lovers'"?
... that a college designed for and led by Native Americans was active in Chicago from 1974 to 2005?
... that decades after its closure, the station house of the Chicago "L"'s Madison station would house a hot dog stand?
... that Bally's Chicago, a proposed casino resort in Chicago, has a goal of bringing in $200 million in annual tax revenue to fund the city's police and firefighter pension fund?
... that the Dearborn Street Subway had skip-stop service in 1951 for one morning before it was discontinued?
... that Chicago's Kasama is the world's first Filipino restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star?
... that John William Kiser, who arrived in Chicago "practically penniless", took advantage of a boom in bicycle usage when he formed the Monarch Bicycle company?
... that William Heath Byford performed the first ovariotomy in Chicago in 1860?

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Selected biography

Alex Seropian is an American video game developer, one of the initial founders and later president of Bungie, the developer of the Marathon, Myth, and Halo video game series. Seropian became interested in computer programming in college and teamed up with fellow student Jason Jones to publish Jones' game Minotaur. The two became partners, and Bungie grew to become the best-known Apple Macintosh game developer before being bought by Microsoft in 2001. In 2002, Seropian left Bungie and created Wideload Games, with the goal of streamlining game development. Wideload's small core development team worked with outside contractors to produce Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Wideload was acquired by Disney in 2009. As part of the deal Seropian became vice president of game development for Disney Interactive Studios.

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Selected landmark

The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, operated in the New City community area of Chicago, Illinois for 106 years, helping the city become known as "hog butcher for the world" and the center of the American meat packing industry for decades. From the Civil War until the 1920s and peaking in 1924, more meat was processed in Chicago than in any other place in the world. Construction began in June 1865 with an opening on Christmas Day in 1865. The Yards closed at midnight on Friday, July 30, 1971 after several decades of decline during the decentralization of the meat packing industry. The Union Stock Yard Gate was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 24, 1972 and a National Historic Landmark on May 29, 1981.

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"Chicago is a sort of journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to a last herd of fantastic bravos." — Ben Hecht

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News

Wikinews Chicago, Illinois portal

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Topics

Chicago

History of Chicago: Windy City • 1871 Great Chicago Fire • Haymarket affair • World's Columbian Exposition • Chicago race riot of 1919 • Chicago Board of Trade • McDonald's • Millennium Park • Cook County Democratic Party

Geography: Chicago River • Fort Dearborn • Prairie Avenue • Magnificent Mile • Cook County, Illinois

People: Daniel Burnham • Richard J. Daley • Oprah Winfrey • Al Capone • Barack Obama • Michael Jordan • Jesse Jackson • Aaron Montgomery Ward • Marshall Field • Potter Palmer • Harold Washington • Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable

Landmarks & Tourist Attractions: Chicago Landmarks • Wrigley Field • Buckingham Fountain • Willis Tower • John Hancock Center • Chicago Cultural Center

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More did you know?

...that Man Enters the Cosmos (pictured) is one of four Henry Moore sculptures in Chicago, two of which are at National Historic Landmarks?
...the South side of Chicago hosted a Black Renaissance that paralleled the Harlem Renaissance?
...that the Chicago race riot of 1919, which resulted in 38 deaths, 537 injuries and approximately 1,000 displaced, was the worst riot of the Red Summer of 1919?
...that during Ted Snyder's six year tenure as dean of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, the business school has relocated two of its four campuses?

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