Event Timeline

Indians of the Mississippian culture improve agricultural methods, build temple mounds and large fortified villages. Their works include Cahokia Mounds, home to thousands of people. At the time, it was the largest North American city outside Mexico. Most of the Mississippian settlements are abandoned prior to the arrival of European explorers.

Illinois has two major Mississippian sites: Cahokia Mounds and Kincaid Mounds

Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, a missionary and a fur trader, become the first Europeans to explore Illinois. Following the course of the Mississippi River, they head south and encounter the Peoria tribe. They continue downriver, past the mouth of the Arkansas River, before a warning of foreigners ahead causes them to return north by way of the Illinois River. On their return to Quebec, they come across the Kaskaskia tribe and spend the winter at what is now Chicago.

Read more about French settlement and learn about a French fort

Cahokia, Illinois' first permanent European settlement, is established along the Mississippi River across from what is now St. Louis. The area for the French village is selected to be the site of the Mission of the Holy Family and settled by the French Seminary of Foreign Missions of Quebec.

A building from the French era is still standing Cahokia Courthouse.

Fort de Chartres becomes the center of French military and civilian government in the region. The settlement attracted a mix of settlers, soldiers, voyageurs, converted Indians and administrators. A 1723 census found 126 people living at Fort de Chartres.

Find out more about this historic fort

Chief Pontiac is murdered in Cahokia by a member of the Peoria tribe. According to legend, angry Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians seek retribution against the Illini, the confederacy of tribes that includes the Peoria. The Illini flee to a butte but are trapped and eventually starve to death. The site known as Fort St. Louis becomes known as Starved Rock.

Fact vs. fiction at Starved Rock

On July 4, George Rogers Clark seizes Kaskaskia from the British without firing a shot, one of the western-most military actions of the American Revolution. Jubilant townspeople ring a bell, known today as the "Liberty Bell of the West."

More about Kaskaskia's famous bell

​Arthur St. Clair becomes first governor of the Northwest Territory, which includes Illinois. One of Illinois' oldest buildings, from the period when this was part of the Northwest Territory

Kaskaskia Indians give up nearly all of their land in Illinois. U.S. Army establishes Fort Dearborn in Chicago's future location.

A look at the Native Americans of Illinois

Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery spends the winter in Illinois, near present-day Wood River, to train and prepare for their cross-country journey and then depart in May

Explore the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site

Potawatomi Indians massacre 52 soldiers and civilians as they leave Fort Dearborn, on the site of present-day Chicago, for Fort Wayne. Indians burn the fort, and few people live in the area until soldiers rebuild the fort in 1816. The fort is finally demolished in 1857.

A children's guide to early Chicago

Illinois, with 34,620 residents, becomes the 21st state. Kaskaskia is the capital, and Shadrach Bond is the first governor. Most people live in the south of the state along rivers and forested areas. The prairies are largely unsettled, and Chicago is an unimportant village.

The fort designed to protect the key village of Kaskaskia

Vandalia, founded in 1819 specifically to replace flood-prone Kaskaskia as the state capital, officially becomes the seat of government. Vandalia is also the western end of America's first interstate, the National Road.

The Vandalia State House historic site

Galena, named for a variety of lead ore, becomes a center for lead mining. By 1845, the county was producing 80 percent of the nation's lead, according to some estimates.

The hub of the lead-mining industry

War leader Black Hawk brings about 1,500 Sauk and Fox (or Meskwakis) back into Illinois territory their tribes had given up in 1804. Their presence panics settlers into violence and triggers the Black Hawk War. After three months of skirmishes, Black Hawk's band -- mostly women, children and elders -- is massacred in Wisconsin at the Battle of Bad Axe.

Black Hawk and his people are honored today at a state historic site

​With Illinois' population moving northward, officials decide the state capital should move northward, too. After intense competition and legislative dealmaking -- some of it involving Abraham Lincoln -- Springfield becomes the new capital. In western Illinois, Mormons who have been driven out of Missouri begin settling in Nauvoo and turning it into a major power center.

Another new capital

Mormon leader Joseph Smith is murdered by a mob on June 27. About 200 men invade the Carthage Jail where Smith is being held on charges of treason against the state of Illinois. Smith attempts to flee through a window but is shot several times and falls to the ground below. No one is convicted of killing him.

Swedish immigrants found the utopian religious community of Bishop Hill, one of many waves of immigration throughout Illinois history.

Seeking utopia

Chicago Tribune founded.

At the urging of John A. Logan -- a future Union general and U.S. senator -- the General Assembly passes one of the nation's harshest "black laws." It bars free blacks from spending more than 10 days in Illinois. Violators are jailed and fined $50. Those who can't pay are auctioned off and required to work until their "debt" is paid.

Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, rivals for a U.S. Senate seat, hold seven debates across Illinois on the subject of slavery. Douglas espouses "popular sovereignty" -- the idea that voters in each state and territory should decide whether to accept or reject slavery. Lincoln takes the position that slavery must not be allowed to expand. Douglas wins the Senate seat, but the national attention given to the debates sets Lincoln on a path to the presidency. 

Abraham Lincoln is nominated for president in Chicago after his top aides cut deals and pack the "Wigwam" convention hall. Lincoln goes on to win the presidency of a country that is falling apart. His name didn't even appear on the ballot in many southern states.

Justice Davis builds a mansion

Civil War begins. Ulysses S. Grant recruits troops in Galena and resumes a military career that will take him to the head of the Union Army.

A gift for the victor

Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War general from Galena, is elected President of the United States. He oversees Reconstruction of the former Confederacy and faces the financial Panic of 1873. His presidential reputation is tarnished by repeated scandals.

Grant goes to the White House

​Chicago Fire destroys 18,000 buildings, kills about 300 people and leaves one-third of the city's residents homeless. The fire did indeed start in the barn of a Mrs. O'Leary (Catherine O'Leary of 137 DeKoven Street, to be exact) but a reporter invented the story that it was started by a cow kicking over a lantern. Rebuilding from the fire triggered a period of growth and innovation for Chicago.

Inferno

John Jones becomes a Cook County commissioner, the first African-American to hold elective office in Illinois. Jones arrived in Chicago in 1845 as an illiterate tailor. He turned himself into one of the nation's richest African-Americans, wrote influential anti-slavery pamphlets and made his home a stop on the Underground Railroad.

A bombing and riot in Chicago's Haymarket Square results in at least 11 deaths. Activists were rallying in favor of an eight-hour workday when police moved to disperse the crowd. Someone threw a bomb at the police, killing one instantly and inflicting mortal wounds on six others, and police reacted by opening fire on the crowd, killing four people.

Violence erupts

Chicago attorney Myra Bradwell becomes the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Construction to reverse the Chicago River flow begins.

World's Columbian Exposition is held in Chicago, commemorating the 400th anniversary of European exploratory voyages to the western hemisphere.

George Pullman cuts pay to factory workers who make his railroad cars but refuses to lower the rent he charges those workers in the company town he had built outside Chicago. Thousands of Pullman workers go on strike, and railroad laborers across the country refuse to handle trains with Pullman cars, crippling rail traffic in the western United States. The administration of President Grover Cleveland sends in U.S. marshals and Army troops to end the boycott city by city. After violent clashes in which 30 strikers are killed and 57 wounded, the boycott collapses. Eugene V. Debs, leader of the American Railway Union, is sentenced to six months in prison.

A company town explodes

Frank Lloyd Wright establishes a studio in Oak Park for designing "prairie style" architecture. Population of the state is 4,821,550.

Perfecting the Prairie Style

Thousands of white Springfield residents go on a rampage after being foiled in their attempts to lynch two African-American men accused of violent crimes. They descend on African-American neighborhoods and start destroying homes and businesses. The rioters shoot one man to death and hang another. Five white rioters are killed, some by accidents amid the rampage and some by armed African-Americans who were defending themselves. The shock of this kind of violence in Abraham Lincoln's hometown helps inspire formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

White rampage

More than 2,500 Western Electric Co. employees crowd aboard the excursion boat Eastland to enjoy a day of picnicking in Indiana. But the Eastland is an unstable ship with a tendency to list to one side or another. On this day, the ship lists to port and then rolls onto its side, killing 844 people who were trapped inside and drowned or were crushed. Twenty-two entire families are killed

White mobs rampage through East St. Louis in May, attacking African-American residents at random. The National Guard brings order to the city but soon leaves. Mobs form again on July 2, this time escalating the violence even further. They set buildings on fire and kill African-Americans as they run from the flames. They hang others or beat them to death. At least 40 people are murdered, although some estimates put the death toll three or four times higher

A week of rioting by white mobs in Chicago leaves 38 dead and more than 500 injured. The National Guard is called in, and parts of the city are shut down for days.

Racial violence flares in Chicago

​Gunmen of Al Capone murder seven rival Chicago mobsters in the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre." Two men in civilian clothes and two dressed as police line the seven victims up against a wall in a North Side garage and mow them down with Tommy guns and shotguns. Outrage over the shocking act of violence helped intensify pressure for police to end Capone's criminal career, and in 1931 he was sent to prison for tax evasion.

The number of unemployed Chicago workers during the Great Depression reaches 750,000.

Chicago author Richard Wright (1908-1960) publishes "Native Son," the first major novel about the black experience in modern America. The book, a huge success commercially and critically, tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a poor, frustrated African-American in Chicago who kills, goes on the run and finally is sentenced to die. The watershed book offers an unprecedented peek into the frustrations of many African-Americans.

Black renaissance

Orchard Place Airport in Chicago is renamed O'Hare Field for Lt. Cmdr. Edward H. O'Hare, Medal of Honor recipient killed in World War II.

History of O’Hare International Airport

Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Important African-American authors

Richard J. Daley is elected to the first of six terms as Chicago mayor. Daley builds himself into the nation's most powerful mayor, allowing him to dominate Chicago and influence national politics. "Da Mare" maintains the city's health while midwestern cities like Detroit and Cleveland decline. He builds universities, airports and convention centers. But he fails to take strong action against segregation and poverty. When rioting breaks out after the assassination of Martin Luther King, he says police can "shoot to kill" anyone about to set a fire. And during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, his police force uses excessive violence to shut down demonstrations, creating a national scandal.

General Assembly names Pulitzer Prize-winner Carl Sandburg the first poet laureate of Illinois. Sandburg, born in Galesburg in 1878, wrote ambitious biographies of Abraham Lincoln and labeled Chicago the "city of big shoulders" in one of his most famous poems.

Jane Byrne becomes the first female mayor of Chicago.

Harold Washington (1922-1987) is elected the first African-American mayor of Chicago. The achievement requires defeating the incumbent mayor and the son of political legend Richard J. Daley in the Democratic primary and then beating a Republican candidate who suddenly gained important Democratic support. As mayor, he faced harsh opposition from many white Democrats on the city council, a period known as "council wars." Ultimately, additional Washington supporters were elected to the council and he was able to enact more of the policies he wanted. Washington died at his desk just seven months into his second term.

The worst floods in the state's history ravage western and southern Illinois. The flooding lasts 195 days at Grafton and 152 days in Quincy. The entire town of Valmeyer was moved to higher ground to escape future floods. New flooding records were set at six Illinois measuring points on the Mississippi River and one on the Illinois River.

Chicagoan Barack Obama elected president, becoming the first African-American to reach that office. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is arrested by the FBI on a long list of corruption charges