Chicago is a city in USA, which comes under the state of Illinois. Situated adjacent to Lake Michigan, it was incorporated as a city only in the year 1837. However, its strategic location, at the site of a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, contributed a lot to its development and the city saw great progress in the coming years. Today, Chicago has transformed into a leading global city as well as a major transportation hub. In fact, it is now recognized as the business, financial and even cultural capital of the American Midwest. In case you want to learn more about Chicago, feel free to explore the fun and interesting facts given below.
Fun & Interesting Facts about Chicago
- Chicago is the third largest city in United States, apart from being its third largest metropolitan area.
- Chicago is the largest city located on the Great Lakes, along with being the 22nd largest urban area in the world, by population.
- Chicago has been classified as an Alpha World City for its economic and cultural influence throughout the world.
- The name ‘Chicago’ is the French interpretation of the Miami-Illinois name ‘Shikaakwa’, which means ‘wild leek’.
- Chicago was founded in 1772, when Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a man from Haiti, established a settlement on the north bank of the Chicago River, calling it Eschikagou.
- The town of Chicago was integrated in the year 1833, with a minuscule population of 350.
- Chicago is home to over 40 museums, more than 150 theaters and over 6,000 restaurants.
- Chicago boasts of housing three of the world's tallest buildings, Sears Tower, Amoco Building and John Hancock.
- The world's largest public library, Harold Washington Library Center, with a collection of more than 2 million books, is in Chicago.
- Chicago is home to the largest population of Poles in the world, outside of Warsaw.
- Roller skates, steel frame skyscraper, elevated railway, cracker jacks, zipper, window envelope, hostess Twinkie, pinball game and spray paint were invented in Chicago.
- More than 200 annual parades take place in the city of Chicago every year.
- Chicago is home to the largest building in America (excluding Pentagon), The Merchandise Mart, with 90 acres of floor space.
- Oceanarium, in Chicago, is the largest indoor marine mammal pavilion in the world.
- Chicago is home to one of the last free zoos in the world, the Lincoln Park Zoo.
- Chicago River is the only river in the world that flows backwards.
- Chicago is known as the ‘Candy Capital of the World’.
- Chicago is the home to the world’s first mail-order business - Montgomery Ward.
- The first American Nobel Prize for science was received by Albert Michalson, Head of the Physics Department of the University of Chicago.
- The Chicago Cultural Center is the first free municipal cultural center in the US. It is also home to the largest Tiffany Dome in the world.
- The Art Institute of Chicago is home to the largest collection of Impressionist paintings in the world, apart from the Louvre (Paris).
