http://www.frommers.com/destinations/print-narrative.cfm?destID=6&catID=0006010012 Frommer's Chicago 2005 * 1673 French explorers Marquette and Joliet discover portage at Chicago linking the Great Lakes region with the Mississippi River valley. * 1779 Afro-French-Canadian trapper Jean Baptiste Point du Sable establishes a trading post on the north bank of the Chicago River. A settlement follows 2 years later. * 1794 Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne defeats the British in the Battle of Fallen Timbers; disputed Illinois Territory is finally ceded to the young American Republic by treaty a year later. * 1803 Garrison of Fort Dearborn is established in Chicago, commanded by the grandfather of artist James McNeill Whistler. * 1812 Incited by the British in the War of 1812, Potawatomi Indians destroy Fort Dearborn and slay its residents. * 1816 Fort Dearborn is rebuilt. * 1818 Illinois is admitted to the Union as the 21st state. * 1833 Town of Chicago is officially incorporated, with little more than 300 residents. * 1837 Chicago is incorporated as a city, with about 4,000 residents. * 1847 Chicago Tribune begins publishing. * 1848 The 96-mile Illinois and Michigan Canal is opened, linking the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River. * 1850 Chicago's population is roughly 30,000. * 1856 Chicago is chief railroad center in the United States. * 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominates Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. * 1865 After Lincoln's assassination, his body lies in state at the Chicago Courthouse before burial in Springfield. More than 125,000 mourners pay their respects. * 1865 Chicago stockyards are founded. * 1870 City's population numbers almost 300,000, making it perhaps the fastest-growing metropolis in history. * 1871 Great Chicago Fire burns large sections of the city; rebuilding begins while the ashes are still warm. * 1882 The 10-story Montauk Building, the world's first skyscraper, is erected. * 1885 William Le Baron Jenney's nine-story Home Insurance Building, the world's first steel-frame skyscraper, is built. * 1886 Dynamite bomb explodes during a political rally near Haymarket Square, causing a riot in which eight policemen and four civilians are killed, and almost 100 are wounded. Eight labor leaders and socialist-anarchists, demanding an 8-hour day, are later convicted in one of the country's most controversial trials. Four are eventually hanged. * 1892 The city's first elevated train goes into operation. * 1893 Completely recovered from the Great Fire, Chicago hosts its first World's Fair, the World's Columbian Exposition. The world's first Ferris wheel is a big draw. * 1894 Led by Eugene V. Debs, members of the American Railway Union hold a massive strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company; President Grover Cleveland calls in federal troops after 2 months, ending the strike. * 1900 The flow of the Chicago River is reversed to end the dumping of sewage into Lake Michigan. * 1905 Wobblies, or Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), is founded in Chicago. * 1905 Robert S. Abbott founds the Chicago Defender, which becomes the nation's premier African-American newspaper and later plays a major role in encouraging Southern blacks to move north during the "Great Migration" years. * 1908 The Chicago Cubs win their second World Series. They haven't won one since! * 1917 The Chicago White Sox win the World Series. They haven't won one since! * 1919 "Black Sox" bribery scandal perpetrated by eight Chicago White Sox players stuns baseball. * 1920-33 During Prohibition, Chicago becomes a "wide-open town"; rival mobs battle violently throughout the city for control of distribution and sale of illegal alcohol. * 1924 University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks. They are defended by famed attorney Clarence Darrow and are found guilty, but spared the death penalty, in the "Trial of the Century." * 1929 On St. Valentine's Day, Al Capone's gang murders seven members of rival George "Bugs" Moran's crew in a Clark Street garage. * 1931 Al Capone finally goes to jail, not for bootlegging or murder, but for tax evasion. * 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is nominated for the presidency by the Democratic National Convention, held at Chicago Stadium (since demolished). * 1933 Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, on a political trip to Miami, is shot and killed during an attempt on president-elect FDR's life. * 1933-34 Chicago hosts its second World's Fair, "A Century of Progress." The biggest attraction is fan dancer Sally Rand, who wears only two large ostrich feathers. * 1934 Bank robber and "Public Enemy Number One" John Dillinger is gunned down by police outside the Biograph Theater. * 1942 Scientists, led by Enrico Fermi, create the world's first nuclear chain reaction under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. * 1945 The Chicago Cubs make their last appearance in the World Series -- and lose to Detroit. * 1953 Chicago native Hugh Hefner starts publishing Playboy (the original Playboy Mansion was located in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood). * 1955 Richard J. Daley begins term as mayor; he is widely regarded as the "last of the big-city bosses." * 1959 Chicago White Sox make their last World Series appearance, losing to Los Angeles. * 1960 John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon hold the first televised presidential debate in WBBM-TV's studios. * 1966 Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., moves to Chicago to lead a fair housing campaign. * 1968 After King's assassination, much of the West Side burns during heavy rioting. Anti-Vietnam War protests in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention end in police riot and a "shoot to kill" order by Mayor Richard J. Daley. * 1969 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are killed in a police raid on the West Side headquarters of the radical Black Panther party. * 1974 The 1,454-foot Sears Tower is completed, becoming the tallest building in the world. * 1976 Mayor Daley dies in office. * 1979 Jane Byrne becomes the first woman elected mayor of Chicago. * 1983 Harold Washington becomes the first African-American mayor of Chicago. * 1986 The Chicago Bears win their only Super Bowl. * 1987 Mayor Washington dies in office. * 1989 Richard M. Daley, the son of the long-serving mayor, is elected mayor. * 1992 A freight tunnel ruptures; the Loop is flooded underground by water from the Chicago River. * 1994 Chicago hosts portions of soccer's World Cup, including the opening ceremonies. * 1996 The city patches up its turbulent political history by hosting the Democratic National Convention, its first national political gathering in 3 decades. William Jefferson Clinton is nominated for a second term. * 1999 Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player ever, retires (for the second time) after leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA Championships in the previous 8 years. * 2000 The Goodman Theatre opens its new $46-million theater complex in the Loop, completing the revitalization of a downtown theater district. * 2001 Chicago's second airport, Midway, opens a new $800-million terminal, attracting new airlines and giving travelers more options for Chicago flights. * 2004 Millennium Park, Chicago's largest public works project in decades, opens at the north end of Grant Park. The centerpiece of the development is a modern, steel-sheathed band shell designed by famed architect Frank Gehry.