About Chicago Illinois

Chicago is the largest city by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Adjacent to Lake Michigan, the Chicago metropolitan area (commonly referred to as Chicagoland) has a population of over 9.7 million people in three U.S. states, Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, and was the third largest metropolitan area in 2000. One of the largest cities in North America, Chicago is among the world's twenty-five largest urban areas by population, and rated an alpha world city by the World Cities Study Group at Loughborough University. It is the third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles, with a population of nearly 3 million people.

The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 as both a museum and school, first stood on the southwest corner of State and Monroe Streets. It opened on its present site at Michigan Avenue and Adams Street in 1893. Built on rubble from the 1871 Chicago fire, the museum housed a collection of plaster casts and had a visionary purpose: to acquire and exhibit art of all kinds and to conduct programs of education. The collection now encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world, and the school's graduate program is continually ranked as one of the best in the country. Within the next decade, a new complex will continue this process of growth. visit their website

Edward L. Kemeys (January 31, 1843 - May 11, 1907) was an American sculptor. He is best known for his sculptures of animals, particularly the two bronze lions that mark the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago Illinois. Kemeys was born in Savannah, Georgia. He studied in New York City and then Paris. Kemeys died in Washington, D.C.

The Chicago Stock Exchange was founded in a formal meeting on March 21, 1882. At this time, Charles Henrotin was elected the chairman and president. In April of that year, a lease was taken out at 115 Dearborn Street for the location of the exchange and during that month 749 memberships were sold.

In July 1914, the Exchange closed as a result of World War I, and remained closed until December 11. In October 1915, the basis of quoting and trading in stocks changed from percent to par value to dollars. On April 26, 1920, the Chicago Stock Exchange Stock Clearing Corporation was established. On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed resulting in a very difficult time period for the Chicago Stock Exchange. During the next few decades the exchange looked upwards and began to make a lot of progress.

In May 1933, the Securities Act of 1933 was enacted. This act provided full disclosure to investors to prohibit fraud in connection with the sales of securities. The following year the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was enacted, which regulated securities trading and established the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), which is still present today. In 1949, the CHX merged with the exchanges of St. Louis, Cleveland and Minneapolis/St. Paul to form the Midwest Stock Exchange. In the following decades the Midwest Stock Exchange consolidates and progresses. On September 29, 1952, the trading hours were changed to 10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. and there was no Saturday trading. In 1959 the New Orleans Stock Exchange became part of the Midwest Stock Exchange and in the early 1960s the Midwest Stock Exchange Service Corporation was established to provide centralized accounting for member firms.

On May 11, 1973, the Midwest Securities Trust Company (MSTC) was established to provide central depository for securities certificates and to electronically record transfers of stock ownership. In October of the next year trading hours at the stock exchange were extended to 4pm and in the following year a fixed commission system was abolished. In April 1978 the Chicago Stock Exchange launched an Intermarket Trading System (ITS), a system that allows order to be sent from one exchange to another to ensure that a customer receives the best execution available.

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After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed a third of the city, including the entire central business district, Chicago experienced rapid rebuilding and growth. Ever since the city was rebuilt, it became known as the Second City, since the first city was largely destroyed in the Fire. During Chicago's rebuilding period, the world's first skyscraper was constructed in 1885 using steel-skeleton construction. The Home Insurance Building was built in 1884 in Chicago, Illinois and demolished in 1931 to make way for the Field Building (now the LaSalle National Bank Building).

It was the first building to use structural steel in its frame, but the majority of its structure was composed of cast and wrought iron. It was the first tall building to be supported, both inside and outside, by a fireproof metal frame. Due to the building's unique architecture and unique weight bearing frame, it is considered to be the first skyscraper in the world. It had 10 stories and rose to a height of 138 feet (42 m). In 1890, two additional floors were built on top of the original 10-story building. A forensic analysis done during its demolition purported to show that the building was the first to carry both floors and external walls entirely on its metal frame, but details and later scholarship have largely disproved this, and it has been shown that the structure must have relied upon both metal and masonry elements to support its weight, and to hold it up against wind. Although the Home Insurance Building made full use of steel framing technology, it was not a pure steel-framed structure since it rested partly on granite piers at the base and on a rear brick wall.

The architect was William LeBaron Jenney, an engineer. In fact, the building weighed only one-third as much as a stone building would have; city officials were so concerned that they halted construction while they investigated its safety. The Home Insurance Building is an example of the Chicago School in architecture. The building led to the future in the skyscrapers. "In 1888, a Minneapolis architect named Leroy S. Buffington was granted a patent on the idea of building skeletal-frame tall buildings. He even proposed the construction of a 28-story "stratosphere-scraper"--a notion mocked by the architectural press of the time as impractical and ludicrous.Nevertheless, Buffington brought the potential of the iron skeletal frame to the attention of the national architectural and building communities. Architects and engineers began using the idea, which in primitive form had been around for decades."

The Bank of America Building (former Field Building and then Lasalle Bank Building), where the Home Insurance Building once stood, contains a plaque in the lobby that reads:

This section of the Field Building is erected on the site of the Home Insurance Building which structure, designed and built in eighteen hundred and eighty four by the late William LeBaron Jenney, was the first high building to utilize as the basic principle of its design the method known as skeleton construction and, being a primal influence in the acceptance of this principle was the true father of the skyscraper, 1932

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On May 3, striking workers in Chicago met near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. plant. Union molders at the plant had been locked out since early February and the predominantly Irish-American workers at McCormick had come under attack from Pinkerton guards during an earlier strike action in 1885. This event, along with the eight-hour militancy of McCormick workers, had gained the strikers some respect and notoriety around the city. By the time of the 1886 general strike, strikebreakers entering the McCormick plant were under protection from a garrison of 400 police officers.

Although half of the replacement workers defected to the general strike on May 1, McCormick workers continued to harass "scabs" who crossed the picket lines. Speaking to a rally outside the plant on May 3, August Spies advised the striking workers to "hold together, to stand by their union, or they would not succeed." Well-planned and coordinated, the general strike to this point had remained largely nonviolent. When the end-of-the-workday bell sounded, however, a group of workers surged to the gates to confront the strikebreakers. Despite calls by Spies for the workers to remain calm, gunfire erupted as police fired on the crowd. In the end, six McCormick workers were killed. Spies would later testify, "I was very indignant. I knew from experience of the past that this butchering of people was done for the express purpose of defeating the eight-hour movement."

The city was the site of labor conflicts and unrest during this period, which included the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886. Concern for social problems among Chicago's lower classes led Jane Addams to be a co-founder of Hull House in 1889, the first of what were called settlement houses. Programs developed there became a model for the new field of social work. The city also invested in many large, well-landscaped municipal parks, which also included public sanitation facilities.

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The University of Chicago was founded by the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, who later called it "the best investment I ever made." The land for the university was donated by Marshall Field, owner of the Marshall Field and Company department store chain. The University's founding was part of a wave of university foundings that followed the American Civil War. Incorporated in 1890, the University has dated its founding as July 1, 1891, when William Rainey Harper became its first president. The first classes were held on October 1, 1892, with an enrollment of 594 students and a faculty of 120, including eight former college presidents. Earlier references to University of Chicago rise from the incorporation of the "first" University of Chicago, a school Senator Stephen A. Douglas started with an 1856 grant.

Westward migration, population growth, and industrialization had led to an increasing need for elite schools away from the East Coast, especially schools that would focus on issues vital to national development. Though Rockefeller was urged to build in New England or the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, he ultimately chose Chicago. His choice reflected his strong desire to realize Thomas Jefferson's dream of a natural meritocracy's rise to prominence, determined by talent rather than familial heritage. Rockefeller's early fiscal emphasis on the physics department showed his pragmatic, yet deeply intellectual, desires for the school.

Although founded under Baptist auspices, the University of Chicago has never had a sectarian affiliation. The school's traditions of rigorous scholarship were established primarily by Presidents William Rainey Harper and Robert Maynard Hutchins. Chicago opened its door to women and minorities from the very beginning, a time when they seldom had access to other leading universities. It was the first major university to enroll women on an equal basis with men, as well as the first major, predominantly white university to offer a black professor a tenured position, in 1947.

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In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the present location of Jackson Park. The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered among the most influential world's fairs in history. The University of Chicago was founded in 1892 on the same South Side location. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance, a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects Washington and Jackson Parks.

The World's Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago World's Fair), a World's Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicago's self-image, and American industrial optimism. The Chicago Columbian Exposition was, in large part, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux Arts principles of design, namely, European Classical Architecture principles based on symmetry and balance.

The Exposition covered more than 600 acres (2.4 km2), featuring nearly 200 new buildings of classical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from around the world. Over 27 million people (equivalent to about half the U.S. population) attended the Exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world fairs, and it became a symbol of then-emerging American Exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.

Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the fair also served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871. On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 716,881 persons to the fair.

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The Field Museum was incorporated in the State of Illinois on September 16, 1893 as the Columbian Museum of Chicago with its purpose the "accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of artifacts illustrating art, archaeology, science and history." The museum was originally housed in the World's Columbian Exposition's Palace of Fine Arts, which was rebuilt to house the Museum of Science and Industry. In 1905, the museum's name was changed to Field Museum of Natural History to honor the museum's first major benefactor, Marshall Field, and to better reflect its focus on the natural sciences. In 1921, the museum moved from its original location to its present site on Chicago Park District property near downtown, where it is part of the lakefront Museum Campus that includes the John G. Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. These three institutions are regarded as among the finest of their kind in the world and together attract more visits annually than any comparable site in Chicago. In 2006, the Field Museum was the number one cultural attraction in Chicago but surrendered the title in 2007 to the Shedd Aquarium.

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Wrigley Building, Chicago 1930

The Wrigley Building (410 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) is a skyscraper located directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower on the Magnificent Mile. It was built to house the corporate headquarters of the Wrigley Company.

When ground was broken for the Wrigley Building in 1920, there were no major office buildings north of the Chicago River and the Michigan Avenue Bridge, which spans the river just south of the building was still under construction. The land was selected by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. to headquarter his gum company. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White using the shape of the Giralda tower of Seville's Cathedral combined with French Renaissance details. The 425-foot (130 m) south tower was completed in April 1921 and the north tower in May 1924. Walkways between the towers were added at the ground level and the third floor. In 1931, another walkway was added at the fourteenth floor to connect to offices of a bank in accordance with a Chicago statute concerning bank branch offices. The two towers, not including the levels below Michigan Avenue, have a combined area of 453,433 square feet (42,125.3 m2).

The two towers are of differing heights, with the south tower rising to 30 stories and the north tower to 21 stories. On the south tower is a clock with faces pointing in all directions. Each face is 19 feet 7 inches (6.0 m) in diameter. The building is clad in glazed terra-cotta, which provides its gleaming white façade. On occasion, the entire building is hand washed to preserve the terra cotta. At night, the building is brightly lit with floodlights.

The Wrigley Building was Chicago's first air-conditioned office building. If one walks through the center doors, he will find himself in a secluded park area overlooking the Chicago River. The Consulate-General of the United Kingdom in Chicago resides in this building.

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London Guarantee Insurance Company, Chicago, Illinois

One of the city's few and best examples of the Beaux Arts-style Classical Revival applied to the design of a tall office building. It is one of four structures that were constructed around the Michigan Avenue Bridge during the 1920s, a cluster of buildings that has helped define one of Chicago's most dramatic and important urban spaces. The other three buildings are 333 N. Michigan, Tribune Tower, and the Wrigley Building. Built by a British insurance company to be its American headquarters, the building's irregular-shaped site was part of the land once occupied by Fort Dearborn (1803-56).

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The old main Chicago Post Office is a nine story tall building designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, built in 1921. The original structure was a brick sided mail terminal building that still sits just east of the main building that engulf the then Eisenhower Expressway right before it turns into the Congress Parkway. It underwent a major expansion in 1932 which added a total of nine floors with more than 60 acres, or 2.5 million square feet (230,000 m²) of floorspace. Its building site was originally protested would have then blocked the proposed Congress Parkway extension. As a compromise, a hole for the Parkway was purposely designed in the base of the Post Office that would eventually be utilized twenty years later.

In 1966 the Main Chicago Post Office came to a virtual halt when a log jam of 10 million pieces of mail clogged the system for almost one whole week. When Chicago was rated worst in postal deliveries, a new Main Post Office was purposed for right across Harrison Street. Completed in 1997, the old building was vacated in favor of the new, modernized facility. The official address of the Old Post office is 404 W. Harrison, Chicago, IL. A February 2006 report by the General Accounting Office stated that it costs the government $2 million a year to maintain the retired building

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This design was the result of an international competition for "the most beautiful office building in the world," held in 1922 by the Chicago Tribune newspaper. The various competition entries proved extremely influential for the development of skyscraper architecture in the 1920s. The winning entry, with a crowning tower with flying buttresses, is derived from the design of the French cathedral of Rouen and gives the building its striking silhouette. The base of the building is studded with over 120 stones from famed sites and structures in all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries. They range from the Parthenon (Greece) and Taj Mahal (India) to Bunker Hill (Massachusetts) and Mark Twain's "Injun Joe Cave" (Missouri).

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Soldier Field (formerly Municipal Grant Park Stadium) is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, and is currently home to the NFL's Chicago Bears. It reopened on September 29, 2003 after a complete rebuild (the second in the stadium's history).

With the current stadium capacity of 61,500, Soldier Field became the smallest stadium in the NFL when the Indianapolis Colts moved out of the RCA Dome and into Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008.

The field serves as a memorial to American soldiers who died in wars, hence its name. It was designed in 1919 and completed in the 1920s. It officially opened on October 9, 1924 (the 53rd anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire), as Municipal Grant Park Stadium, changing its name to Soldier Field on November 11, 1925. Its design is modelled on the Greco-Roman architectural tradition, with doric columns rising above the stands. However, after being rebuilt, the modern stands now dwarf the columns. The new stadium seats 61,500 people-5,444 fewer than the old.

The field features many memorials to past Bears heroes. It is said that it has twice as many memorials than any other stadium.

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Buckingham Fountain is a Chicago landmark located at Columbus Drive and Congress Parkway in Grant Park. The fountain, which was designed with sculptures by Jacques Lambert and modeled after Latona Fountain at Versailles, was donated to the city by Kate Buckingham in memory of her brother, Clarence Buckingham. She also established the Buckingham Fountain Endowment Fund with an initial investment of $300,000 to pay for maintenance on the fountain. Buckingham Fountain was dedicated on August 26, 1927. The fountain runs from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day from mid-April to mid-October, depending on the weather. During a water display that runs for 20 minutes every hour on the hour, the center jet shoots up to 150 feet (46 m). in the air. At dusk, a light and music show coincides with the water display. The last show of the night begins at 10:00 p.m.

The fountain contains 1,500,000 U.S. gallons (5,700,000 L) of water. During a display, more than 14,000 U.S. gallons per minute (0.88 m³/s) are pushed through its 193 jets.

Buckingham Fountain is scheduled to receive extensive renovations beginning after Labor Day, 2008. This restoration project will be done in preparation of the International Olympic Committee's visit in spring 2009. A rehaul of the plumbing and the replacement of the leaky outer basin is expected to create better water pressure for the fountain's show, with hopes of surpassing the current jet of 150 feet (46 m). There are also plans to improve the lighting, treat the bronze statues as well as landscaping expansion.

Built for one of the world's leading soap manufacturers, this office building ("a monument to cleanliness") was the first commercial skyscraper built far from the Loop - at the northern end of Michigan Avenue. It is one of the country's premier Art Deco-style "set-back" skyscrapers, the design of which were influenced by municipal zoning laws and the dramatic renderings of New York architect Hugh Ferris. The building was designed by one of Chicago's oldest and most prestigious architectural firms, whose other significant buildings include the 333 North Michigan Building, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the former Chicago Daily News Building.

A navigational beacon operated atop the building from 1930-1981. It was known as the Playboy Building from 1965 to 1989, when it served as headquarters for Playboy magazine. It was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2000, as was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Today, the building is being converted for residential use by developer Draper and Kramer. The first two floors house upscale office and retail space. High-end condos make up the rest of the building. Perhaps its most famous residents are Vince Vaughn and Lou Piniella.

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The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries. It was the largest and most important economic depression in modern history, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world's economy can fall. The Great Depression originated in the United States; historians most often use as a starting date the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The end of the depression in the U.S is associated with the onset of the war economy of World War II, beginning around 1939.

The depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich or poor. International trade plunged by half to two-thirds, as did personal incomes, tax revenues, prices, and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by roughly 60 percent. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as farming, mining and logging suffered the most. However, even shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, optimism persisted; John D. Rockefeller said that "These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again."

The Great Depression ended at different times in different countries; for subsequent history see Home front during World War II. The majority of countries set up relief programs, and most underwent some sort of political upheaval, pushing them to the left or right. In some states, the desperate citizens turned toward nationalist demagogues - the most infamous being Adolf Hitler - setting the stage for World War II in 1939.

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One of the city's finest examples of Art Deco architecture, a style of the 1920s and early 1930s that attempted to express the modern, streamlined world by the use of cubic forms, geometric ornament, and sleek surface materials.

Built in 1930 and first designated a Chicago Landmark on May 4, 1977, the building was listed as a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 16, 1978. Originally built for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), it is now the primary trading venue for the CME Group, formed in 2007 by the merger of the CBOT and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The 141 W. Jackson address hosted the former tallest building in Chicago designed by William W. Boyington before the current Holabird & Root structure, which held the same title for over 35 years until being surpassed in 1965 by the Richard J. Daley Center. The current structure is known for its art deco architecture, sculptures and large-scale stone carving, as well as large trading floors. A three-story art deco statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture (particularly grain), caps the building. The building is a popular sightseeing attraction and location for shooting movies, and its owners and management have won awards for efforts to preserve the building and for office management.

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Wow! I remember the first time my parents took me to the Shedd Aquarium in the early 1960s. It was not as big as it is today with its beautiful Oceanarium and massive expansion. But to me it looked massive and seeing all the colorful fish was a very memorable experience. The history of Shedd Aquarium is part vision and part ingenuity. Founder, John G. Shedd, retired president of Marshall Field & Company, was a marketing genius and just as bold and ambitious as his city. He was determined to transform Chicago into a world-class metropolis.

Build It, and They Will Come
By the early 1920's, every true cosmopolitan city here and abroad had a fine aquarium. While Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo did have an impressive freshwater fish collection, what Shedd had in mind was a stand-alone aquarium. In the spirit of "build it, and they will come," he made a $2 million gift to get things going. He would add another $1 million to make sure his aquarium would be just as grand as the two museums already in Grant Park: the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum.

Shedd's civic and business colleagues rallied behind him. They formed the Shedd Aquarium Society in 1924 and asked the Chicago Park District for use of the area created by landfill at Roosevelt Road and the lakefront. This site was in keeping with architect Daniel Burnham's visionary Plan of Chicago, which called for the city's cultural institutions to be located in parks along the lake. Read more

(DN-0084291, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.)

Anton (Tony) Joseph Cermak, (May 9, 1873 - March 6, 1933) was the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1931 until his assassination by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933. Before Cermak, the Democratic party in Cook County was run by the "Lace Curtain" Irish, who generally despised everyone who wasn't "Lace Curtain," including the Irish from the Back of the Yards and Bridgeport neighborhoods, who were commonly referred to as "Pig Shit" Irish. As Cermak climbed the local political ladder, the resentment of the Lace Curtain group grew. When the bosses rejected his bid to become the mayoral candidate, Cermak swore revenge. That is when he formed his non-Irish political army and eventually wooed black politician William L. Dawson to switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party. Dawson would go on to become a US Congressman (from the 1st District) and soon the most powerful black politician in Illinois.

While shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt at Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida, on February 15, 1933, Cermak was shot in the lung and seriously wounded when Giuseppe Zangara, who attempted to assassinate Roosevelt, hit Cermak instead.

Later, rumors circulated that Cermak, not Roosevelt, had been the intended target, as his promise to clean up Chicago's rampant lawlessness posed a threat to Al Capone and the Chicago organized crime syndicate. According to Roosevelt biographer Jean Edward Smith, there is no proof for this theory. One of the first people to suggest the organized crime theory was reporter Walter Winchell, who happened to be in Miami the evening of the shooting. At the critical moment, Lilian Cross, a doctor's wife, hit Zangara's arm with her purse and spoiled his aim. In addition to Cermak, Zangara hit four other people, one of whom, a woman, also died of her injuries. Zangara told the police that he hated rich and powerful people, but not Roosevelt personally. Cermak was quoted as saying "I'm glad it was me instead of you" to Roosevelt while headed to the hospital.

Long-time Chicago newsman Len O'Connor offers a different view of the events surrounding Cermak's death. He has written that aldermen "Paddy" Bauler and Charlie Weber informed him that relations between Cermak and FDR were strained because Cermak fought FDR's nomination at the Democratic convention in Chicago, and the legend that his last words were "I'm glad it was me instead of you" was, according to O'Connor, totally fabricated by Weber and Bauler.

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On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was the project to develop the first nuclear weapon (atomic bomb) during World War II by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Formally designated as the Manhattan Engineer District (MED), it refers specifically to the period of the project from 1939-1946 under the control of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under the administration of General Leslie R. Groves. The scientific research was directed by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The project's roots lay in scientists' fears since the 1930s that Nazi Germany was also investigating nuclear weapons of its own. Born out of a small research program in 1939, the Manhattan Project eventually employed more than 130,000 people and cost nearly $2 billion USD ($24 billion in 2008 dollars based on CPI). It resulted in the creation of multiple production and research sites that operated in secret.

The three primary research and production sites of the project were the plutonium-production facility at what is now the Hanford Site, the uranium-enrichment facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the weapons research and design laboratory, now known as Los Alamos National Laboratory. Project research took place at over thirty sites across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The MED maintained control over U.S. weapons production until the formation of the Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947.

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One Prudential Plaza (formerly known as the Prudential Building) is a 44 story structure in Chicago completed in 1955 as the headquarters for Prudential's Mid-America company. At the time, the skyscraper was significant as the first new downtown skyscraper built in Chicago in 21 years (the last such building was the Field Building, now headquarters of LaSalle Bank, completed in 1934). It was the last building ever connected to the Chicago Tunnel Company's tunnel network.

When the Prudential was finished it had the highest roof in Chicago with only the statue of Ceres on the Chicago Board of Trade higher. Its mast served as a broadcasting antenna for Chicago's WGN-TV. The architect was Naess & Murphy, a precursor to C.F. Murphy & Associates and later Murphy/Jahn Architects. One Prudential Plaza, along with its sister property, Two Prudential Plaza, was sold in May 2006 for $470 million to BentleyForbes, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm, run by C. Frederick Wehba and his family.

The John Hancock Center at 875 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago, Illinois, is a 100-story, 1,127-foot (344 m) tall skyscraper designed by structural engineer Fazlur Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. When completed in 1969, it was the tallest building in the world outside New York City. It is the third-tallest skyscraper in Chicago and the fifth-tallest in the United States, after the Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower and the Aon Center. When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,500 feet (457 m). The building is home to offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums and contains the highest residences in the world. This skyscraper was named for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, a developer and original tenant of the building.

The 95th floor has long been home to a restaurant, the latest tenant being "The Signature Room on the 95th Floor." While patrons dine, they can look out at Chicago and Lake Michigan. The Hancock Center's observation facilities (called the Hancock Observatory) compete with the Sears Tower's Skydeck across town. The Hancock Center is in a commercial district, while the Sears Tower is in the financial district. The Hancock Center 94th floor observation deck displays exhibits about the city of Chicago. Maps explain the view in each direction and a special meshed-in area allows the visitors to feel the winds 1,030 feet (314 m) above ground level. The 44th-floor sky lobby features America's highest indoor swimming pool.

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The Aon Center (200 East Randolph Street, formerly Amoco Building) is a modern skyscraper in Chicago designed by architect firms Edward Durell Stone and The Perkins and Will partnership, and completed in 1973 as the Standard Oil Building. With 83 floors and a height of 1,136 feet (346 m), it is the third tallest building in Chicago, surpassed in height by the Sears Tower and the Trump Tower.

The building is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle. The Standard Oil Building was constructed as the new headquarters of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, which had previously been housed at South Michigan Avenue and East 9th Street. When it was completed in 1973 it was the tallest building in Chicago and the fourth-tallest in the world, earning it the nickname "Big Stan". (A year later, the Sears Tower took the title as Chicago's tallest.) The building employs a tubular steel-framed structural system with V-shaped perimeter columns to resist earthquakes, reduce sway, minimize column bending, and maximize column-free space. This construction method was also used for the World Trade Center towers in New York City.

Sears Tower, completed May 3, 1973, rises to a height of 1,450 feet and is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Chicago skyline and in the world. Sears Tower held the record for the world's tallest building for 25 years until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia were built in 1998. Then in the Fall of 2004 Taipei 101 took all but one title -- tallest to the tips of the antennas, which Sears Tower still owns. Including the Sears Tower antennas, the total height of Sears Tower increases to 1,725 feet. Designed by the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for Sears, Roebuck & Company, the world's largest retailer at the time, the 3.8 million RSF building is the preeminent office address in Chicago and one of the premier properties in the world. Visit Their Website

Smurfit-Stone Building is a 41 story, 582 foot (177 m) skyscraper located at 150 North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, Illinois. It was also known as the Stone Container Building and was formerly called the Associates Center. It is popularly referred to as the Diamond Building. Construction began in 1983 and was completed in 1984. The building, noted for its unusually slanted roof, was designed by Sheldon Schlegman of A. Epstein and Sons. The stated 41 floors do not actually include five unused levels in the building; they are located in the narrowest portion at the very peak of the diamond.

Although the building looks as though it is split down the middle, the two sides are only slightly disjointed until nearing the top, where there is a gap between them. At times, its slanted roof - which has been likened to a skyscraper slashed with a knife - displays local sports slogans on its face, such as "GO BEARS" and "GO SOX". It also displayed "VOTE 2008" during the 2008 election day rally at Grant Park.

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The silver Building in the background is the new Trump Hotel and Tower. White building on the right is the AON building ( former Amoco ). And lake Michigan in the background.

The Trump International Hotel and Tower, also known as Trump Tower Chicago and locally as the Trump Tower, is a skyscraper condo-hotel under construction in downtown Chicago, Illinois in the United States. Architect Adrian Smith, who worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill during the building's planning and design stages, designed the building, named after real estate developer Donald Trump.

Bovis Lend Lease is building the 92-story structure to a height of 1,362 feet (415 m) including its spire, with its roof topping out at 1,170 feet (360 m). It is adjacent to the main branch of the Chicago River with a view of the entry to Lake Michigan beyond a series of bridges that cross the river. The building received publicity when the winner of the first season of The Apprentice, Bill Rancic, chose to manage the construction of the tower.

Trump announced in 2001 that the skyscraper would become the tallest building in the world, but after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the building plans were scaled back, and its design has undergone several revisions. According to the current design, upon completion in 2009 it will be the second-tallest building in the United States after Chicago's Sears Tower, rising above the Empire State Building in New York City and Chicago's current second-tallest, the Aon Center, and third-tallest, the John Hancock Center. It is expected to be surpassed by the Freedom Tower in New York City in 2014 and by the Chicago Spire in 2012. Trump Tower will surpass the Hancock Center as the building with the world's highest residence above the ground until the Spire claims this title.

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McCormick Place is a convention center made up of four interconnected buildings sited on or near the shore of Lake Michigan, about 4 km south of downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA. McCormick Place hosts numerous trade shows, including the Chicago Auto Show, held every February.

As early as 1927, Robert R. McCormick and the newspaper he controlled, the Chicago Tribune, championed a purpose-built lakeside convention center for Chicago. In 1958, ground was broken for a $35 million facility that opened in November 1960, and was named after McCormick, who had died in 1955. The lead architect was Alfred Shaw, one of the architects of the Merchandise Mart. This building included the Arie Crown Theatre, designed by Edward Durrell Stone. It seated nearly 5,000 people and was the second largest theater (by seating capacity) in Chicago.

On August 2, 2007, McCormick Place officials opened yet another addition to the complex, the West Building, also designed by tvsdesign and costing $882 million and completed 8 months ahead of schedule. The publicly-financed West Building contains 470,000 square feet (44,000 m2) of exhibit space, bringing McCormick Place's total existing exhibition space to 2,670,000 square feet (248,000 m2). The West Building also has 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2) of meeting space, including 61 meeting rooms, as well as a 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) ballroom, the size of a football field and one of the largest ballrooms in the world.

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As far back as I can remember, this building formerly housed Freeman's Auto Parts in the early 60s to the 1980s. My dad used to buy his auto parts there and we lived not too far from here in the 1970s. It was one of Chicago's most popular auto parts stores on the north side, which also installed windshields in the back section. Everyone knew that if you needed a windshield, you went to Freeman's. Today it is converted to a 1940s-style nightclub and restaurant.

The Rock N Roll McDonald's (formerly The Original Rock 'N Roll McDonald's) is one of the most famous McDonald's locations in the world, and was once the busiest in the United States. It is a flagship location. The restaurant/museum, located in the Near North Side community area (neighborhood) of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States a few city blocks west of the Magnificent Mile, has been a tourist attraction since it opened in 1983.

The site has a Rock & Roll exhibit in a building adjacent to the restaurant and a small upstairs McDonald's museum display. The restaurant has a maximum occupancy of 300, which is about three times the standard patron capacity. The building features the first two-lane McDonald's drive-through, relatively luxurious decor, a cafe, plasma display flat screen televisions and a green roof.

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The Story on their website reads: In 1966 two Chicago cab drivers, Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli, became disgusted with the rush hour traffic and decided to quit hacking around. With the help of George Laverde, they went into the restaurant business. From the humble beginning on Superior St., pizza history was made and Gino's East became Chicago's most celebrated pizza. At last count, 847 other Chicago cab drivers have also tried to open restaurants....Visit Gino's

Harpo Productions is an incorporated US-based multimedia production company founded by media mogul Oprah Winfrey (the name 'Harpo' is 'Oprah' spelled backwards, and is not to be confused with Harpo Marx). It also includes Harpo Films. It is based in Chicago, and Harpo Studios is located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago.The land where the studio now sits once housed a cold storage warehouse that was used as a makeshift morgue for victims of the capsizing of the steamer SS Eastland. The 88,000-square-foot (8,200 m2) facility was renovated and opened in the late 1980s for use by The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The principal signature of Millennium Park is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a bandshell designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry with 4,000 fixed seats plus additional lawn seating for 7,000. A Pritzker Architecture Prize honoree and National Medal of Arts winner, Gehry designed such landmarks as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Der Neue Zollhof in Düsseldorf and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Characteristic of Gehry, the Pritzker Pavilion consists of curving planes of stainless steel resembling the graceful blooming of a flower or the unfurling sails of a massive ship.

The Pritzker Pavilion is the home of the Grant Park Music Festival, the nation's only remaining free, municipally-supported, outdoor, classical music series. The Festival is presented by the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Winding eastward from Pritzker Pavilion is the only bridge in the world designed by Frank Gehry. The 925-foot (282 m) pedestrian bridge, clad in the same type of steel sheet as the bandshell with a hardwood deck, winds like a fluttering ribbon across nearby Columbus Drive from the bandshell to a section of Grant Park along the lakefront.

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The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder bridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, it opened, along with the rest of Millennium Park, on July 16, 2004. Gehry had been courted by the city to design the bridge and the neighboring Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and eventually agreed to do so after the Pritzker family funded the Pavilion.

Named for BP, who donated $5 million to the Park's construction, the bridge is the first Gehry-designed bridge to have been completed.[5][6] Because of its curving form, the BP Bridge is described as snakelike. Designed to bear a heavy load without structural problems caused by its own weight, it has won awards for its use of sheet metal and is known for its aesthetics, especially a biomorphic one. Additionally, the bridge is a sound barrier as well as a connecting link between Millennium Park and eastward destinations, such as the nearby lakefront, parts of Grant Park and a parking garage.

The bridge, which is a footbridge, uses the concealed box girder design with a concrete base. It is designed without handrails. It makes extensive sculptural use of stainless steel plates, which express abstraction in the traditional Gehry style. The biomorphic allusions also are stylistic footprints of Gehry.

Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor. This is his first public outdoor work installed in the United States. Situated in beautiful Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, the Bean reflects many breath-taking views of the Chicago skyline. No matter what time of the year you visit the Bean, from the colors of a sunset to the reflections of the skyscrapers, the beauty of the Bean is ever changing.

In 2004, the post office was used in the filming of Batman Begins, and returned in late April 2007 for filming The Dark Knight, according to most of the local media outlets. The film crew has plenty of signs up for shooting of "Rory's First Kiss," a.k.a. RFK, but that title is simply a pseudonym for "The Dark Knight." Many websites include pictures of the outside of the Post Office which has been decorated as "Gotham National Bank" on the North side of the building, and "Gotham Police Department" on the East side. Set pictures can be found posted on fan sites.

Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot (1,010 m) long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million; it was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and city planner Daniel Burnham and his associates. As Municipal Pier #2 (Municipal Pier #1 was never built), Navy Pier was planned and built to serve as a mixed-purpose piece of public infrastructure. Its primary purpose was as a cargo facility for lake freighters, and warehouses were built up and down the pier.

However, the pier was also designed to provide docking space for passenger excursion steamers, and in the pre-air conditioning era parts of the pier, especially its outermost tip, were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment. The pier even had its own streetcar. It was known as a romantic spot for young lovers.

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The city is home to two Major League Baseball teams: the Chicago Cubs of the National League play on the city's North Side, in Wrigley Field, while the Chicago White Sox of the American League play in U.S. Cellular Field on the city's South Side. The White Sox recently won the Major League Baseball World Series in 2005. The Chicago Bears, one of the two remaining charter members of the NFL, have won nine NFL Championships. The Bears play their home games at Soldier Field on Chicago's lakefront.

Due in large part to Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls of the NBA are one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world. With Jordan leading them, the Bulls took six NBA championships in eight seasons during the 1990s. The Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL, who began play in 1926 have won three Stanley Cups. Both the Bulls and Blackhawks play at the United Center on the Near West Side. The Chicago Sky of the WNBA, began play in 2006. The Sky's home arena is the UIC Pavilion.

The Chicago Fire soccer club are members of the MLS. The Fire have won one league and four US Open Cups since their inaugural season in 1998. In 2006, the club moved to its current home, Toyota Park, in suburban Bridgeview after playing its first eight seasons downtown at Soldier Field and at Cardinal Stadium in Naperville. The club is now the third professional soccer team to call Chicago home, the first two being the Chicago Sting of the NASL (and later the indoor team of the MISL); and the Chicago Power of the NPSL-AISA. The Chicago Rush, of the Arena Football League, also plays in Chicago.

The Chicago Marathon has been held every October since 1977. This event is one of five World Marathon Majors.

Chicago was selected on April 14, 2007 to represent the United States internationally in the bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Chicago also hosted the 1959 Pan American Games, and Gay Games VII in 2006. Chicago was selected to host the 1904 Olympics, but they were transferred to St. Louis to coincide with the World's Fair.

Chicago is also the starting point for the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, a 330-mile (530 km) offshore sailboat race held each July that is the longest annual freshwater sailboat race in the world. 2008 marks the 100th running of the "Mac."

Barack Hussein Obama II born August 4, 1961, is an American politician and the President-Elect Of The United States. The first African American to be elected President of the United States, Obama was elected to be the junior United States Senator from Illinois in 2004 and served until his resignation on November 16, 2008, following his election to the Presidency. His term of office as the forty-fourth U.S. president will begin on January 20, 2009.

He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in Chicago before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama was elected to the Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama helped create legislation to control conventional weapons and to promote greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During the 110th Congress, he helped create legislation regarding lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for U.S. military personnel returning from combat assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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