Chicago Skyline
Illinois |
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Chicago is a major city in the state of Illinois. The name "Chicago" is
the French rendering of the Miami-Illinois name shikaakwa, meaning
wild leek (an analogical extension of the original meaning of "skunk").
During the mid-18th century the Chicago area was inhabited primarily
by Potawatomis, who took the place of the Miami and Sauk and
Fox people. The first non-native settler in Chicago, Jean Baptiste
Pointe du Sable, was Haitian and arrived in the 1770s, married
a Potawatomi woman, and founded the area's first trading post.
In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was
destroyed in 1812 in the Fort Dearborn Massacre. The Ottawa,
Ojibwa, and Potawatomi later ceded the land to the United States
in the Treaty of St. Louis of 1816. On August 12, 1833, the Town
of Chicago was organized with a population of 350, and within
seven years it grew to a population of over 4,000. The City of
Chicago was incorporated on March 4, 1837. After the Great Chicago
Fire of 1871, Chicago experienced rapid rebuilding and growth. During Chicago's rebuilding period, the first skyscraper was
constructed in 1885 using steel-skeleton construction. The origin
of Chicago's nickname as "The Windy City" is debated.
The most common explanation had been that the phrase was created
by New York newspapers in the 1880s during a national debate
over which city would host the 1893 World's Fair, making reference
to the long-windedness of the city's supporters. However, "Windy
City" was used as early as 1876 by Cincinnati papers. As
a result, the name remains in common usage. |
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