Use these links to find books and other resources on each topic.
Prior to 1850
- 1673: Marquette and Joliet explore site of Chicago; Chicago's written history begins
- 1696: Mission of the Guardian Angel
- Before 1784: DuSable first arrives in Chicago
- 1795: Treaty of Greenville
- 1803: Fort Dearborn established
- 1812: Battle of Fort Dearborn
- 1818: State of Illinois admitted into the Union
- 1830: Thompson draws first plat map of Chicago
- 1832: Black Hawk War
- 1832, 1849-55, 1866-67: Cholera epidemics hit Chicago
- 1833: Chicago incorporated as a town
- 1833: Chicago’s first newspaper, The Chicago Weekly Democrat, published
- 1837: Chicago incorporated as a city
- 1837: Chicago’s first local theater company established
- 1837: Chicago's oldest business, C.D. Peacock Jewelers, founded
- 1840: Free schools established
- 1847: First issue of Chicago Tribune published
- 1848: Chicago Board of Trade founded
- 1848: First City Hall completed
- 1848: Chicago's first railroad, the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, completed
- 1848: Illinois and Michigan Canal completed
- 1848: Telegraph reaches Chicago
1850 to 1899
- 1855: Chicago Police Department formed
- 1855: Lager Beer Riots
- 1855: Street grade raised
- 1856: Chicago Historical Society founded
- 1857: Academy of Sciences founded
- 1860: Abraham Lincoln nominated at Chicago's first national convention
- 1862: Camp Douglas became a Confederate prisoner of war camp
- 1864: U.S. Colored Infantry fights in the Battle of the Crater (Petersburg, Va.)
- 1865: Chicago Union Stockyards completed
- 1868: Field and Leiter open a store (later Marshall Fields) at State Street and Washington Avenue
- 1868: Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens founded
- 1869: Chicago Water Tower built
- 1871: The Great Fire
- 1872: Montgomery Ward publishes the first mail-order catalog
- 1873: Chicago Public Library opens
- 1876: John W.E. Thomas becomes the first African American elected to the Illinois General Assembly
- 1877: Railroad strike
- 1878: Telephone service begins in Chicago
- 1879: Art Institute of Chicago founded
- 1880: Town of Pullman built
- 1886: Haymarket Riot
- 1889: Auditorium Building dedicated
- 1889: Jane Addams founds Hull House
- 1891: Inaugural concert of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
- 1891: Provident Hospital begins service to African Americans in Chicago
- 1893: Columbian Museum of Chicago (Field Museum of Natural History) founded
- 1893: Mayor Carter Harrison assassinated
- 1893: World's Columbian Exposition
- 1894: Pullman Strike
- 1897: John Crerar Library opens
- 1898: Chicago Butter and Egg Board (later Chicago Mercantile Exchange) founded
1900 to 1949
- 1900: Flow of the Chicago River reversed
- 1901: Chicago freight tunnels
- 1902: First trunnion bascule bridge opens
- 1903: Iroquois Theater fire
- 1904: Ravinia Park opens
- 1905: Chicago Defender debuts
- 1906-08: Chicago's baseball dynasty
- 1907: Albert Michelson becomes the first American Nobel Prize winner in science
- 1908: Garfield Park Conservatory opens
- 1908: House numbers change
- 1909: Burnham's Plan of Chicago
- 1909: Grant Park declared “Forever Open, Clear and Free"
- 1910: Comiskey Park opens
- 1910: Union Stock Yards fire
- 1911: City Hall dedicated
- 1914: Wrigley Field opens
- 1915: Eastland Disaster
- 1915: Oscar DePriest elected the first African American alderman
- 1916: Balaban and Katz movie theaters founded
- 1916: Municipal Pier (later Navy Pier) completed
- 1917: Chicago White Sox win the World Series
- 1919: Black Sox Scandal
- 1919: Race Riots
- 1925: Chicago Cardinals awarded the NFL championship
- 1925: Grant Park Stadium (Soldier Field) opens
- 1925: Union Station completed
- 1927: Buckingham Fountain dedicated
- 1927: Municipal Airport (Midway) opens
- 1928: Chicago River straightened
- 1929: Chicago Stadium opens
- 1929: St. Valentine's Day Massacre
- 1930: Adler Planetarium and Astronomical Museum dedicated
- 1930: Merchandise Mart opens, becoming the world's largest building
- 1930: Shedd Aquarium opens
- 1931: Jane Addams wins Nobel Peace Prize
- 1932: Chicago Bears win the NFL championship
- 1933: First major league baseball All-Star Game
- 1933: Mayor Anton Cermak assassinated
- 1933: Museum of Science and Industry opens
- 1933-34: A Century of Progress
- 1934: Brookfield Zoo opens
- 1934: Chicago Blackhawks win Stanley Cup
- 1934: 22 local park districts merge to become the Chicago Park District
- 1937: Chicago Housing Authority established
- 1937: Memorial Day Incident at Republic Steel
- 1942: First self-sustaining controlled nuclear chain reaction
- 1945: Chicago Transit Authority created
- 1948: First issue of Chicago Sun-Times published
1950 to present
- 1950: Chess Records founded
- 1954: Lyric Theatre of Chicago (Lyric Opera) founded
- 1955: First section of Congress Expressway (Dwight D. Eisenhower) opens
- 1955: WTTW's first broadcast airs
- 1958: Our Lady of the Angels School Fire
- 1959: St. Lawrence Seaway opens; Queen Elizabeth visits
- 1961: DuSable Museum of African American History established
- 1963: O'Hare Airport opens
- 1964: Southwest Expressway (Adlai E. Stevenson) completed
- 1966: Martin Luther King Jr. marches in Chicago
- 1966-67: Civic Center dedicated; Picasso sculpture unveiled
- 1967: McCormick Place Fire
- 1968: Democratic National Convention
- 1972: United Airlines Flight 553 crashes
- 1972: Shakman Agreement signed
- 1973: Sears Tower (later Willis Tower) completed, becoming world’s tallest building
- 1975: Deep Tunnel Project begins
- 1979: American Airlines Flight 191 crashes
- 1979: Jane Byrne elected first female mayor
- 1983: Harold Washington elected first African American mayor
- 1984: Rapid Transit Line extended to O’Hare Airport
- 1985: State of Illinois Center (later James R. Thompson Center) opens
- 1987: Mayor Harold Washington dies at 65
- 1993: Orange Line opens to Midway Airport
- 1995: Deadly heat wave
- 2008: President-elect Barack Obama delivers his acceptance speech in Grant Park
