ILHistory

During World War II, the United States Army built sprawling hospital complexes across the country to treat wounded soldiers. One of the largest was built in Galesburg, Illinois.

When a deadly polio outbreak hit Chicago in 1937, the city shuttered its schools. But kids didn’t get a free pass. They took part in a remote learning experiment with the best technology available: the radio.

In 1846, an Illinois militia laid siege to Nauvoo, one of the state’s largest cities. Their goal? Drive out the last members of the Mormon Church.

Illinois has a state fossil, the Tully Monster, a strange sea creature that swam over Illinois 300 million years ago.

In the early 1900s, the city of West Chicago celebrated its history as the site of a historic Lincoln-Douglas debate. The only problem? The debate never happened.

Sooooouuuuuuullllllllll Train! Before it became one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history, before it propelled up-and-coming Black artists to worldwide fame, "Soul Train" debuted as a small, local dance show in Chicago.

Nazi spy or hapless traveler? Chicago’s Herbert Hans Haupt and his conspirators set off a national sensation when they were rounded up as part of a Nazi spy ring.

While he's not a household name like Edison or Bell, Highland Park's Elisha Gray cranked out some of the 19th Century's most creative inventions, including the first electronic synthesizer and — some argue — the first telephone.

A 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention propels Illinois State Senator Barack Obama into the national spotlight.

He was Illinois' first governor, ushered the frontier territory into statehood, and enacted reforms considered radically progressive for the time. He also owned and sold slaves and led campaigns to expel Native Americans from the state.