Post-Civil War Dixon, 103 miles west of Chicago, was a growing city split by the formidable Rock River. On May 4, 1873, the 4-year-old bridge twisted, splintered and rolled over. Forty-six people perished, many immured by the unrelenting gridiron just below the water’s surface.
Chicago History
A band of young women — most in their 20s, some in college, some married with children — banded together in Chicago to create an underground abortion network. The group was officially created in 1969 as the “Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation.”
Many of the flags waving from civic buildings aren’t just representing Chicago, they’re made in the city’s South Shore neighborhood, by Chicago residents, who work for a company known as W.G.N.
Saturday marks the 186th anniversary of Chicago’s founding as a city. As the candles on its birthday cake have grown with the passing years, so too have Chicago’s borders. Here’s a look at how a once small-but-mighty city gobbled up surrounding land.
The curators, both working on the Art Institute of Chicago’s first show dedicated to Salvador Dalí, were researching his painting “Visions of Eternity,” which was dated to 1936 and had been held in the museum since the late 1980s. But red flags were mounting.
A look back at former President Jimmy Carter’s 2006 appearance on “Chicago Tonight” with John Callaway.
When Chicagoans go to the polls to vote for mayor, there’s a crucial piece of information missing from their ballots: the candidates’ political parties. WTTW News Explains tells you the reasons why.
A South Side community is getting up to $15 million to ensure it continues to tell the story of the Great Migration in the early 1900s. The Bronzeville-Black Metropolis National Heritage Area stretches from the South Loop to Woodlawn and is home to natural, historic and cultural resources.
How exactly are streets organized in Chicago? WTTW News gives you a guided tour of the grid system that organizes the city’s streets and addresses.
For the first time in two dozen years, Illinois will get a new secretary of state. Former state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat, will be sworn Jan. 9 in to replace Secretary Jesse White, who did not run for reelection this year.
What do you get when you put two of Chicago’s preeminent architecture critics together? A thought-provoking book about the city’s storied architecture.
In his book “Latinos in Chicago: Quest for a Political Voice” author Wilfredo Cruz plumbs the history of Chicago’s Latino communities as they carved out a place for themselves in the city’s rough and tumble political climate.
A bur oak has towered over the zoo’s south lawn, opposite the primate house, since before there even was a zoo. It even predates the founding of the United States of America.
A local blues legend is receiving her flowers in a new documentary exploring her life. Now 86 years old, Mary Lane says she’s loved singing since she was 12 years old.
Through interviews with his grandfather and others who lived through the neighborhood’s rise and fall, filmmaker Steven Walsh shows what he says is the forgotten story of the area in his documentary “Southeast: a City Within a City.”
Michael Kutza was just 22 years old when he launched the Chicago International Film Festival. Decades later, he looks back on a life among the movie stars.
