Illinois Trivia & Tidbits - Page 8

Looking for Illinois trivia? Try our list Illinois little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The infield of Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet is so large—measuring 1,200 feet by 2,850 feet—that it could accommodate four Soldier Fields, home of the Chicago Bears football team.

first appeared: 6/13/2004

Teeming with nearly 8,000 aquatic animals, the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is the world’s largest indoor aquarium.

first appeared: 6/6/2004

Louella Parsons became the nation’s first movie columnist in 1914 for the Chicago Record-Herald. She was born in 1881 in Freeport (pop. 26,443).

first appeared: 5/30/2004

America’s first public community college, Joliet Junior College, opened in 1901 in Joliet with six students.

first appeared: 5/23/2004

In August 2003, some 2,900 skydivers descended on Rantoul (pop. 12,857), home of the World Free Fall Convention.

first appeared: 5/16/2004

The Peace Museum in Chicago, opened in 1981, explores war and peace through 10,000 artifacts about individual peacemakers and artists.

first appeared: 5/9/2004

Americans were introduced to one of the first restaurant salad bars at R.J. Grunts in Chicago in 1971.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

The first known photograph showing missionary work in the United States, an 1854 picture of Rev. Able Bingham, is exhibited at the Billy Graham Center Museum in Wheaton (pop. 55,416).

first appeared: 4/25/2004

In the 1960s, U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen introduced legislation to adopt the marigold as the national flower. The idea didn’t take root nationally, but Dirksen’s hometown of Pekin (pop. 33,857) planted 2 million marigolds and became the Marigold Capital of the World.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

Since 1824, the Funk family has made maple sirup (it’s their spelling, and they’re sticking to it) at Funks Grove, still a sweet stop on old U.S. Route 66 in McLean County.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

Built by Frederick Graue in 1852, Graue Mill near Oak Brook (pop. 8,702) is the state’s only operating water-powered gristmill.

first appeared: 4/4/2004

From 1936 to 1971, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad had a premier passenger train called the “Super Chief,” which transported passengers from Chicago to Los Angeles in less than 40 hours. Two presidents and many movie stars rode the train.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

President Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in a second-floor apartment in Tampico (pop. 772) in 1911.

first appeared: 3/21/2004

Henry Bacon of Watseka (pop. 5,522) designed the Lincoln Memorial structure, which was dedicated in 1922.

first appeared: 3/21/2004

Lincoln Logs were invented in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright of Chicago, an architect and one of the five children of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

first appeared: 3/14/2004

Illinois was the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery in 1865.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

When the NFL’s Chicago Bears (originally the Decatur Staleys) were organized in 1920, in Decatur, each player was paid $1,900 for the season.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

Of the roughly 150 different species of mosquitoes in the United States, about 20 live in northern Illinois.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

A state record 105,067 deer were harvested by hunters using firearms during the 1995 deer season.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

The state leads America in pumpkin production, growing 319 million pounds in 2001. The next biggest producers were California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

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