125 Fun Facts About Chicago

Which restaurant is often credited with inventing Chicago-style deep-dish pizza?

Pizzeria Uno, founded by Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo in 1943, is widely credited as the birthplace of Chicago-style deep-dish pizza.

In what year did the Great Chicago Fire occur?

The Great Chicago Fire began on October 8, 1871, in a barn on DeKoven Street and burned for two days; the cow-kicking-a-lantern story was later admitted to be a reporter's invention.

Which Major League Baseball team plays its home games at Wrigley Field?

Wrigley Field, famous for its ivy-covered outfield walls, has been the iconic home stadium for the Chicago Cubs baseball team since 1916.

What is the official name of the 'Bean' sculpture in Millennium Park?

Cloud Gate is Anish Kapoor's official title for the sculpture; its 168 welded stainless-steel plates were polished so no seams show, and Kapoor initially disliked the Bean nickname.

Which Chicago institution is home to Sue, one of the most complete T. rex skeletons?

The Field Museum has displayed Sue, a roughly 90-percent-complete Tyrannosaurus rex unearthed in South Dakota in 1990, since 2000.

Under what name did the 110-storey Loop skyscraper now called Willis open in 1973?

Completed in 1973, the Willis Tower was originally known as the Sears Tower and held the title of the world's tallest building for nearly 25 years.

Which director of teen comedies like 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' often set his films in Chicago and its suburbs?

Filmmaker John Hughes frequently used Chicago and its surrounding suburbs as the backdrop for his iconic 1980s teen films, including 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'

How many NBA championships did the Chicago Bulls win with Michael Jordan in the 1990s, all of them between 1991 and 1998?

6 titles came as two three-peats, 1991-93 and 1996-98, split by Jordan's brief retirement to play minor-league baseball.

Chicago is the hub of an electrified, urban form of which genre, carried north by the Great Migration?

Blues is the genre: Chicago blues, the amplified urban form, was defined by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon at Chess Records after the Great Migration brought Delta musicians north.

Which trader of African descent is recognised as the first permanent non-indigenous settler of what became Chicago?

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a trader of African descent from Haiti, built the first permanent settlement at Chicago in the late 18th century.

Which famous American highway, nicknamed 'The Mother Road' in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, historically begins in Chicago?

Route 66 was established in 1926 and runs from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles; Steinbeck's 1939 novel popularised the Mother Road nickname.

The city's Mercantile Exchange started life in 1898 under what agricultural name?

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was originally founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, trading agricultural commodities.

Which NFL team moved its home games to Soldier Field in 1971?

The Chicago Bears made Soldier Field their full-time home in 1971 after fifty seasons at Wrigley Field; they had played occasional games there as early as 1926.

What is the approximate average elevation of Chicago above sea level?

Chicago sits on a relatively flat plain, with an average elevation of approximately 579 feet (176 meters) above sea level, though some areas like Blue Island reach higher points.

In 2025 Chicago Fire FC announced a privately funded soccer stadium as the anchor of which riverside development just south of Roosevelt Road?

The 78 is Related Midwest's 62-acre riverside site; in June 2025 owner Joe Mansueto unveiled a privately funded 22,000-seat stadium there, ending the club's moves between Soldier Field and suburban Bridgeview.

On what date was the City of Chicago incorporated?

March 4, 1837 was a Saturday, and for several decades afterwards Chicago was the fastest-growing city in the world.

According to the 2020 census, roughly what was Chicago's population?

The 2020 census counted 2,746,388 Chicagoans, roughly 2.7 million, a slight rise from 2,695,598 in 2010.

Which indigenous people inhabited the Chicago area in the mid-18th century?

The Potawatomi held the Chicago area by the mid-18th century, having succeeded the Miami, Sauk and Meskwaki peoples; they ceded the land in the 1833 Treaty of Chicago.

The Great Chicago Fire of October 1871 killed roughly how many people?

About 300 people are thought to have died; the fire destroyed some 17,000 structures across 3.3 square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless.

In 1997, the Chicago City Council formally exonerated whom of blame for the Great Chicago Fire?

Catherine O'Leary and her cow were cleared by a 1997 City Council resolution; reporter Michael Ahern admitted in 1893 that he had invented the lantern-kicking story.

A donation from which country after the Great Chicago Fire spurred the founding of Chicago Public Library?

The United Kingdom: after the 1871 fire Thomas Hughes organised a British donation of some 8,000 books, and Chicago Public Library opened in 1873 inside a former iron water tank.

A statue of which Roman goddess crowns the Chicago Board of Trade Building?

Ceres, Roman goddess of grain, tops the 1930 Art Deco tower as a 31-foot faceless aluminum statue by John Storrs, fitting an exchange built on wheat and corn futures.

Which engineer of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill worked with architect Bruce Graham on the Willis Tower?

More than 1.7 million people a year visit its Skydeck, the highest observation deck in the US.

The Sanitary and Ship Canal permanently reversed the Chicago River's flow in which year?

1900: the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal opened that January, sending the city's sewage toward the Mississippi watershed instead of its Lake Michigan drinking water.

Chicago's Y-shaped civic symbol, seen on buildings across the city, represents what?

The three branches of the river: the Municipal Device's Y stands for the North and South Branches meeting the main stem at Wolf Point; it came out of an 1892 Chicago Tribune contest.

Which talk-show host taped her syndicated daytime show in Chicago from 1986 to 2011?

Oprah Winfrey took her show national from Chicago in September 1986 and ended its 25-season run there in May 2011; her production company built its West Loop studios in 1990.

Which substance inspired the mirror-like form of Millennium Park's sculpture nicknamed 'The Bean'?

Liquid mercury was Kapoor's inspiration; the surface reflects and distorts the skyline and the clouds overhead, and the whole thing weighs 110 short tons.

Wrigley Field opened in 1914 under what name?

Weeghman Park, named for Whales owner Charles Weeghman, was built for the Federal League's Chicago Whales in 1914; it is the second-oldest major-league park after Fenway.

In what year did Wrigley Field become the last MLB park to install lights for night games?

1988: Wrigley Field's first scheduled night game, on August 8, 1988, was rained out and the first complete one played the next night, making it the last MLB park to add lights.

The 1893 Chicago world's fair marked the 400th anniversary of what?

Columbus's landing in the Americas was in 1492, yet the World's Columbian Exposition ran from May 1 to October 30, 1893, and drew more than 27 million visitors.

The 1893 Chicago fairgrounds earned what nickname from the pale staff material covering the buildings?

The White City: the fair's neoclassical buildings were clad in white-painted staff, a plaster-and-fibre mix, and lit by electricity; Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted led the design.

The world's first Ferris wheel, built for the 1893 fair, was designed to rival which structure?

The Eiffel Tower, centrepiece of the 1889 Paris fair, was the target: George Ferris's 264-foot wheel carried 36 cars holding up to 60 passengers each.

The Home Insurance Building, often called the world's first skyscraper, was designed by whom?

William Le Baron Jenney's Home Insurance Building, ten storeys and 138 feet tall, carried its walls on a metal skeleton frame; it stood from 1885 until demolition in 1931.

How long was the Chicago Cubs' World Series drought that ended in 2016?

108 years: the Cubs' 1908 title was followed by nothing until 2016, the longest championship drought in North American major professional sports.

Which team beat the Chicago White Sox in the fixed 1919 World Series?

The Cincinnati Reds won the best-of-nine 1919 World Series five games to three; eight White Sox players, Shoeless Joe Jackson among them, were later banned for life for throwing it.

The Chicago Bears franchise was founded in 1919 in which Illinois city?

Decatur: the club began in 1919 as the Decatur Staleys, a starch company's works team, moved to Chicago in 1921 and became the Bears in 1922.

How many NFL championships had the Chicago Bears won by the end of the 20th century?

Nine: eight pre-merger NFL titles between 1921 and 1963, plus Super Bowl XX after the 1985 season.

Al Capone was finally convicted in 1931 on charges of what?

Tax evasion: Capone was found guilty in October 1931 on five of 22 counts, sentenced to 11 years, and served about seven and a half before his 1939 release.

How many North Side Gang members and associates were killed in the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre?

Seven men were lined up against a garage wall on North Clark Street and shot; two gunmen wore police uniforms, and the intended target, Bugs Moran, had not yet arrived.

In which year did the Chicago 'L' begin operations?

1892: the South Side Rapid Transit line opened on June 6, 1892, making the 'L' the second-oldest rapid-transit system in the Americas after New York's elevated lines.

Navy Pier opened in 1916 under a two-word name that began with which word?

Municipal Pier was the 1916 name; it became Navy Pier in 1927 to honour naval veterans of World War I and served as a Navy training centre in World War II.

In which year did Chicago elect Jane Byrne, its first female mayor?

1979: Jane Byrne beat incumbent Michael Bilandic in the Democratic primary after the city's botched response to the January blizzard, then won the April general election.

Which Chicago mayor was fatally wounded in the 1933 Miami attempt on FDR?

Anton Cermak, mayor since 1931, was hit by Giuseppe Zangara's bullets at a Miami rally for Roosevelt on February 15, 1933 and died three weeks later.

Under what name did the White Sox franchise begin in the Western League in 1894?

Sioux City Cornhuskers was the 1894 Western League club Charles Comiskey bought and moved to St. Paul as the Saints in 1895, then to Chicago in 1900.

Under what name were the Chicago Cubs founded in 1870?

White Stockings was the 1870 name; the club was a National League charter member in 1876, and the Cubs nickname, first used by the press in 1902, became official in 1907.

How many games did the record-setting 1906 Cubs win?

116 wins: the 1906 Cubs went 116-36, a .763 winning percentage no modern-era team has matched, yet they lost the World Series to the crosstown White Sox.

In what year were the Chicago Bulls founded?

1966: the Bulls entered the NBA as an expansion team that October, the city's third NBA franchise after the Stags and the Packers/Zephyrs.

In which year did the Chicago Sky win their first WNBA championship?

2021: the Chicago Sky beat the Phoenix Mercury 3-1 in the Finals, with Kahleah Copper named Finals MVP; the franchise had begun play in 2006.

Which arena did the United Center replace in 1994?

Chicago Stadium, the original 'Madhouse on Madison', stood across Madison Street from 1929 until 1994; the United Center opened that August and seats up to about 23,500.

Which two families own the United Center?

Reinsdorf and Wirtz: Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and the Wirtz family, owners of the Blackhawks, built the arena as a joint venture and opened it in 1994.

Soldier Field opened in which year?

1924: Soldier Field opened on October 9, 1924 and took its present name in 1925 to honour American soldiers; it is the oldest stadium in the NFL.

The first MLB All-Star Game was played in 1933 at which Chicago ballpark?

Comiskey Park hosted the first All-Star Game on July 6, 1933, staged alongside the Century of Progress fair; Babe Ruth hit the game's first home run.

Millennium Park opened to the public in which month and year?

July 2004: Millennium Park opened on July 16, 2004, four years late and far over budget, covering 24.5 acres of northwestern Grant Park built over rail yards and parking.

Lincoln Park Zoo, founded in 1868, is unusual among major US zoos for what?

Free admission: Lincoln Park Zoo is one of the few major US zoos that charges nothing to enter; the 35-acre zoo houses about 1,100 animals and began with a pair of swans in 1868.

Which Grant Wood painting hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago?

American Gothic, Grant Wood's 1930 portrait of a farmer with a pitchfork, has hung at the Art Institute of Chicago since it won a bronze medal in the museum's exhibition that year.

The Museum of Science and Industry occupies which surviving building from the 1893 fair?

The Palace of Fine Arts, built with a brick core to protect the art it showed in 1893, was rebuilt in limestone and reopened as the Museum of Science and Industry in 1933 with Julius Rosenwald's endowment.

Which captured German submarine is a star exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry?

U-505, a Type IXC boat, was captured off West Africa on June 4, 1944 by a US Navy task group and hauled across Hyde Park to the museum in 1954.

Roughly how many animals does Shedd Aquarium hold?

About 32,000 animals: Shedd opened in 1930 as the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater collection, its seawater shipped north from Florida in rail tank cars.

Buckingham Fountain was inspired by the Latona Fountain at which palace?

Versailles: Edward Bennett modelled the 1927 fountain on the Latona Fountain in the palace gardens; Kate S. Buckingham donated it, and its four sea horses stand for the states bordering Lake Michigan.

Why is the Chicago Water Tower famous?

It survived the 1871 fire: the 1869 limestone tower was one of the few structures in the burn zone left standing, and it later became home to a city art gallery.

Who won the 1922 competition to design the Tribune Tower?

Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells won the Chicago Tribune's $100,000 competition with a neo-Gothic design; Eliel Saarinen's second-place entry proved more influential on later skyscrapers.

The Wrigley Building's bright white facade is covered in what material?

Terra cotta: the facade is clad in glazed terra-cotta tiles in six graduated shades of white; when ground was broken in 1920 there were no major office buildings north of the river.

On topping out in 1968, the John Hancock Center was the world's second-tallest building after what?

The Empire State Building, at 1,250 feet, was the only building taller than the 1,127-foot Hancock when it topped out in 1968; the tower was renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.

Marina City's twin towers are often compared to what?

Corncobs: Bertrand Goldberg's scalloped twin towers on the Chicago River, opened in 1963, stack apartments with petal-shaped balconies above a spiral parking ramp.

Which retailer built the Merchandise Mart, the world's largest building when it opened in 1930?

Marshall Field & Co. built the 4-million-square-foot Art Deco Mart to house its wholesale business; Joseph P. Kennedy bought it in 1945 and the family held it until 1998.

Which 1888 Burnham and Root building is considered Chicago's oldest standing high-rise?

The Rookery, finished in 1888 by Burnham and Root, wraps a glass-roofed light court whose two-storey lobby Frank Lloyd Wright remodelled in 1905.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, completed in 1910, sits on which school's campus?

University of Chicago: the Robie House stands on Woodlawn Avenue in Hyde Park; it was among the last designs from Wright's Oak Park studio and a Prairie-style masterpiece.

Which phrase is attributed to Chicago architect Louis Sullivan?

Form follows function: Sullivan wrote 'form ever follows function' in an 1896 essay on the tall office building; called a father of skyscrapers, he mentored Frank Lloyd Wright.

Daniel Burnham served as Director of Works for which event?

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition: Burnham oversaw construction of the fairgrounds as Director of Works, and later drew plans for Manila, Baguio and Washington, D.C., plus the 1909 Plan of Chicago.

Which company acquired the Chicago Theatre in 2007?

Built in 1921 as the Balaban and Katz flagship, it seats 3,600; Madison Square Garden, Inc. bought it in 2007.

Which actor co-founded Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1974?

Gary Sinise founded Steppenwolf in 1974 with Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in Chicago's north suburbs; John Malkovich, Joan Allen and Laurie Metcalf joined the ensemble in 1976. The name comes from a Hermann Hesse novel.

Who founded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1891?

Theodore Thomas led the orchestra from its 1891 founding until his death in January 1905, weeks after Orchestra Hall opened; it is one of America's 'Big Five' orchestras.

Which conductor led the Chicago Symphony from 2010 to 2023?

Riccardo Muti was music director from 2010 to 2023, the orchestra's tenth, then became music director emeritus for life; Klaus Mäkelä was named his successor in 2024, to begin in 2027.

A fully loaded Chicago-style hot dog is said to be "dragged through" what?

The garden: the phrase covers the mustard, neon relish, chopped onion, tomato wedges, pickle spear, sport peppers and celery salt piled on top, and never ketchup.

Which type of bun is a Chicago-style hot dog typically served on?

Poppy seed: the steamed poppy-seed bun, classically from Chicago's S. Rosen's bakery, holds an all-beef frankfurter, most often Vienna Beef.

An Italian beef ordered "hot" is topped with what?

Giardiniera, the oil-packed hot-pepper relish, makes it 'hot'; 'sweet' means roasted green bell peppers, and 'dipped' means the whole sandwich is dunked in its jus.

Jeppson's Malört is flavoured with which bitter herb?

Malört is Swedish for wormwood; the liqueur was introduced in Chicago in the 1930s.

Garrett Popcorn Shops' parent company also owns which chocolate brand?

Frango: Garrett Brands bought the mint-chocolate brand long tied to Marshall Field's from Macy's in 2017; Garrett opened its first popcorn shop on Madison Street in 1949.

Cracker Jack's name and slogan were registered in which year?

1896: the Rueckheim brothers registered the Cracker Jack name and the slogan 'The More You Eat, The More You Want' that year; food historian Andrew F. Smith called it the first junk food.

What is the combined length of the Chicago River system?

156 miles: the Chicago River system of rivers and canals totals 156 miles; the Illinois legislature voted in 1887 to reverse its flow toward the Mississippi watershed.

Which intersection is the zero point of Chicago's street-address grid?

State and Madison: since the 1909 grid reform, State Street divides east from west and Madison Street north from south, with eight blocks to a mile.

Which developer nicknamed Michigan Avenue's shopping stretch the Magnificent Mile in 1947?

Arthur Rubloff, the real-estate developer, coined 'Magnificent Mile' in 1947 to promote the stretch from the Chicago River to Oak Street that divides Streeterville from River North.

O'Hare Airport has how many runways, the most in the world?

Eight runways, six parallel east-west and two diagonal, since a 2021 expansion; the field began as a Douglas plant for C-54 transports and was briefly Orchard Field, hence the code ORD.

Which airline carries over 90% of the passengers at Midway Airport?

Southwest carries more than 90 percent of Midway's passengers; the airport opened in 1927 as Chicago Municipal and was the city's main airport until airlines moved to O'Hare in 1962.

The Haymarket affair of May 4, 1886 grew from a rally supporting what demand?

An eight-hour work day: the rally backed the nationwide eight-hour strike that began May 1, 1886; a dynamite bomb and the ensuing gunfire killed seven police officers.

Outside which Michigan Avenue hotel did police and protesters clash during the 1968 Democratic convention?

The Conrad Hilton, the Democrats' convention headquarters across from Grant Park, fronted the televised August 28, 1968 clash where crowds chanted 'the whole world is watching'.

How many people died when the SS Eastland capsized in the Chicago River in 1915?

844 people, mostly Western Electric employees bound for a company picnic, died on July 24, 1915 when the Eastland rolled over while tied to its dock; the hull was later salvaged as the gunboat USS Wilmette.

The 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire, the worst US theatre fire, killed how many people?

602 people died on December 30, 1903, in a theatre billed as 'absolutely fireproof'; the disaster led to outward-opening exit doors and panic bars nationwide.

The 1958 Our Lady of the Angels School fire killed 92 pupils and how many nuns?

Three nuns died alongside 92 pupils on December 1, 1958; smoke and heat cut off corridors, and many children jumped from second-floor windows of the West Side school.

Richard J. Daley became mayor of Chicago in which year?

1955: Daley won the first of six mayoral elections that April and served until his death in December 1976; his son Richard M. held the office from 1989 to 2011.

Which Daley son served as White House Chief of Staff?

William Daley was Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff in 2011-12 after serving as Bill Clinton's Secretary of Commerce from 1997 to 2000.

Whom did Harold Washington defeat in the 1983 Democratic mayoral primary?

Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley split the vote in the February 1983 primary, letting Harold Washington win with about 36 percent; he then beat Republican Bernard Epton to become the city's first Black mayor.

How many people died in the Chicago race riot of 1919?

38 people died, 23 Black and 15 white, in the week of violence that began on July 27, 1919 after a Black teenager drowned at a segregated beach; 1,000 to 2,000 residents lost their homes.

Which soul legend performs a musical number in The Blues Brothers?

Aretha Franklin is one of five: James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker also get musical numbers in the 1980 film shot in Chicago.

Who wrote the screenplay for Brian De Palma's The Untouchables?

David Mamet wrote the 1987 screenplay, in which Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness pursues Robert De Niro's Al Capone in Prohibition-era Chicago.

Who made his feature directorial debut with the 2002 film Chicago?

Rob Marshall, a Broadway choreographer, made Chicago his first feature and choreographed it too; the film, with Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere, won Best Picture.

Whose 1926 play inspired the musical Chicago?

Maurine Dallas Watkins, a Chicago Tribune reporter, based her 1926 play on two 1924 murder trials she covered; Kander and Ebb's musical opened on Broadway in June 1975 and ran 936 performances.

In The Bear, Carmy Berzatto takes over what kind of restaurant?

An Italian beef shop: Carmy inherits The Original Beef of Chicagoland from his late brother Mikey; Jeremy Allen White plays the chef, and the FX series debuted in June 2022.

Chicago Pile-1, the first artificial nuclear reactor, was built under the stands of what?

Stagg Field: the reactor sat in a disused rackets court under the west stands of the University of Chicago's abandoned football stadium, where Enrico Fermi's team achieved the first self-sustaining chain reaction on 2 December 1942.

Jane Addams co-founded Hull House in 1889 with whom?

Ellen Gates Starr, Addams's college friend, co-founded the settlement in Charles J. Hull's 1856 mansion on Halsted Street; the complex grew to 13 buildings by 1911.

John Dillinger's gang was accused of robbing how many banks?

24 banks and four police stations were laid to the gang's account; Dillinger was shot dead by federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934.

Which 2003 Erik Larson bestseller pairs H. H. Holmes with the 1893 fair's builder Daniel Burnham?

The Devil in the White City interweaves Burnham's building of the fair with Holmes's murders at his nearby 'castle' hotel; born Herman Webster Mudgett, Holmes was hanged in 1896.

What was the motto of the 1933-34 Century of Progress fair?

'Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms' was the motto; the fair's landmark was the Sky Ride, whose rocket cars crossed the lagoon between two 628-foot towers.

Which Loop artwork's creator refused a $100,000 fee, gifting it to the city in 1967?

Picasso's untitled sculpture: the artist turned down a $100,000 fee for the 50-foot COR-TEN steel work, which was dedicated in Daley Plaza on August 15, 1967.

Which Spanish artist designed Millennium Park's Crown Fountain?

Jaume Plensa, the Barcelona-born sculptor, designed the 2004 fountain; its two 50-foot glass-brick towers show the video faces of about 1,000 Chicagoans who appear to spit water.

For how many years did the Union Stock Yards operate?

106 years: opened on Christmas Day 1865 and closed in July 1971, the yards made Chicago Sandburg's 'hog butcher for the world' and inspired Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

Which organisation led the 1894 Pullman boycott of trains?

The American Railway Union under Eugene V. Debs refused to handle Pullman cars; President Cleveland sent federal troops, and Debs was jailed for defying an injunction.

Fort Dearborn, built in 1803, was named after which US official?

The Secretary of War: Henry Dearborn held the post under Jefferson when Captain John Whistler's troops built the fort beside the Chicago River in 1803.

Which French explorers were guided to the Chicago Portage in 1673?

Jolliet and Marquette: returning up the Illinois River in 1673, Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette were shown the portage by Kaskaskia Illinois people, a short link between the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds.

The Illinois and Michigan Canal, opened in 1848, ran how many miles?

96 miles: the canal ran from the Chicago River at Bridgeport to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru, opening in 1848 and giving Chicago its first water link to the Mississippi.

The Chicago Manual of Style has been published since which year?

1906: the University of Chicago Press issued the first edition that year, grown from a style sheet for its proofreaders; the guide reached its 18th edition in 2024.

How many red stars appear on the flag of Chicago?

Four six-pointed red stars stand for Fort Dearborn, the Great Fire and the city's two world's fairs; the light-blue bars stand for Lake Michigan and the river branches.

Which bout launched Joe Louis's heavyweight title reign at Comiskey Park in 1937?

His defeat of James J. Braddock: Louis knocked out the champion in the eighth round at Comiskey Park on June 22, 1937, beginning a reign of nearly 12 years.

The Big Thing renamed itself what in 1968, before shortening the name?

Chicago Transit Authority: the band took the name in 1968 and shortened it to Chicago after the real transit agency objected; the 'rock and roll band with horns' formed in 1967.

Which three Wrigley gum brands were all on sale from 1914 into the 21st century?

Spearmint, Doublemint and Juicy Fruit: Juicy Fruit and Spearmint date to 1893 and Doublemint to 1914; founded in 1891, Wrigley became a Mars subsidiary in 2008.

Playboy was founded in Chicago in 1953 partly with a $1,000 loan from whom?

Hugh Hefner's mother Grace lent $1,000 of the roughly $8,000 Hefner raised from 45 investors; the first issue, with Marilyn Monroe, appeared in December 1953 without a date on the cover.

Which Chicago inventor patented the 'clasp locker', forerunner of the zipper, in 1893?

Whitcomb L. Judson's 'clasp locker', shown at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, was the zipper's forerunner; the name came from B.F. Goodrich's 1923 rubber galoshes.

Which Chicago mayor is the namesake of the city's central library, opened in 1991?

Harold Washington Library Center, named for the mayor who died in office in 1987, opened at State and Congress in October 1991 as the system's central library.

The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, originally served as what?

The main library: the 1897 Beaux-Arts building housed Chicago's central public library for decades before becoming a free arts venue; its Tiffany glass dome is one of the largest in the world.

The Second City, Chicago's famed improv enterprise, debuted in which year?

1959 makes it the oldest improv troupe continuously based in Chicago; it spawned SCTV, and private equity firm ZMC bought it in 2021.

Grant Park's Lollapalooza began in 1991 as a farewell tour for which band?

Singer Perry Farrell conceived it; the touring festival settled permanently in Chicago in 2005 and by 2016 had grown to four days drawing about 400,000 people.

Which mayor's name was on the first race of the modern Chicago Marathon series in 1977?

Daley: the September 1977 race was billed as the Mayor Daley Marathon in memory of Richard J. Daley, who had died the previous December; it drew 4,200 runners.

Chicago's Deep Tunnel Project, commissioned in the mid-1970s, is formally abbreviated as what?

TARP diverts storm water and sewage into holding reservoirs to cut flooding and keep raw sewage out of Lake Michigan.

Which Near West Side market is called the birthplace of Chicago blues and of a namesake Polish sausage sandwich?

Maxwell Street: the open-air market where Delta migrants plugged in amplifiers and the Maxwell Street Polish was born; much of the old neighbourhood is now part of the University of Illinois Chicago campus.

The Chicago Pedway, a network of tunnels and bridges linking downtown buildings, spans more than how many blocks?

More than 40 blocks: the Pedway's roughly five miles of tunnels and bridges link Loop skyscrapers, stores, hotels and train stations so pedestrians can avoid bad weather.