From time to time I like to write some interesting tidbits about a particular location. I gather up 25 interesting (and odd) facts that are sure to educate, enlighten and kill some time while at your work desk. Previously I covered U.S. States New York and California, but for this post I went with one of my favorite cities to visit – Chicago. Enjoy!
1. Chicago offers locals and guests about 40 museums, more than 150 theaters and over 6,000 restaurants!
2. Harold Washington Library Center is the world’s largest public library with a collection of more than 2 million books.
3. Move over Krakow and Greenpoint, because after Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population.
4. Chicago River is the only river in the world that flows backwards.
5. The Windy City, Chi-Town, the Second City, the City of Big Shoulders, and the City That Works are just some of Chicago’s many nicknames.
6. Did you know that the infamous “Route 66″ starts in Chicago at Grant Park on Adams Street in front of the Art Institute of Chicago?
7. The metropolitan Chicago area is home to over 30 Fortune 500 companies!
8. In 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Ferris Wheel debuted.
9. Encircled by the elevated (‘L’) train tracks, Chicago’s downtown area is simply called “The Loop.”
10. Chicago is home to one of only three major free zoos in the United States – the Lincoln Park Zoo.
11. Lincoln Park Zoo is the country’s oldest public zoo with an annual attendance of roughly three million.
12. Four states are visible from the Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower) Skydeck (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin).
13. Montgomery Ward & Co. founded the first mail-order business in 1872.
14. Sorry Big Apple. but Chicago’s Home Insurance Company built the first skyscraper in 1885.
15. In 1930, Chicago opened the Western Hemisphere’s first ever planetarium called The Adler Planetarium.
16. Dr. Bernard Fantus opened the nation’s first blood bank at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital in 1937.
17. Couch potatoes can thank Chicago because the remote control was invented there in 1950.
18. On September 26, 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Richard Milhouse Nixon were apart of the first televised U.S. presidential candidates’ debate. It took place at Chicago’s CBS Studios.
19. Roller skates rolled onto the scene in 1884 in Chicago.
20. The Twinkie was invented in Chicago in 1930.
21. The first ever daytime soap opera was filmed in Chicago and televised in 1949. The show “These are my Children” only lasted a few weeks before being canceled.
22. The drive-through bank opened on November 12, 1946, in Chicago.
23. But Chicago has played a vital role as the setting for some of televisions most memorable shows. They include “Chicago Hope,” “ER,” “Perfect Strangers,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “According to Jim,” “Family Matters,” and “Married with Children.”
24. The band Chicago actually was formed in Oakland, California. Kidding…they were in fact formed in Chicago, one of the many bands that named themselves after popular destinations (i.e. Boston, America, Kansas etc.).
25. The name Chicago is derived from an Algonquin word “Chigagou,” which translates to “onion field.” So why was it called that? Basically it is pretty self explanatory, lots of onions grew on fields where the city was formed. Makes sense.
Now that you know so much about the Windy City, book a budget hotel in Chicago.
