Chicago is French [Chigagou] an Algonquian word meaning "onion field".

Late 1770's, Chicago's first permanent resident was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. 

"Windy City": term used for the constant lobbying by the city's lobbyists & politicians.

Chicago is the first for many:

- 1801: Fort Dearborn was built, the site is a Chicago landmark

- 1833, August 12: Chicago was incorporated with a population of 350

- 1871, October 8: Great Chicago Fire

- 1872: Montgomery Ward was the world's 1st mail-order catalog [ended in 2001]

- 1884: 1st skyscraper, 10-story Home Insurance Building @ LaSalle & Adams

- 1886, May 4: Haymarket Riot

- 1891: First elevated railway 'The El"

- 1893: World's Columbian Expo at the present location of Jackson Park [in celebration for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus]

- 1926: Start of "Route 66" which begins in Grant Park at Adams Street

- 1930: Founder Paul V. Galvin created 1st Motorola car radio

- 1942, Dec. 2: World's 1st nuclear chain reaction, leading in the Atomic Age [at U of C]

- 1945: US Steel was Chicago's largest single employer [18,000 workers]

- 1955: Zenith tv remote control was 1st invented in Chicago     

- 1974: 1,454 foot Sears Tower, is now the tallest in North America & 3rd in the world. Renamed Willis Tower July 16, 2009.