The city of the big shoulders is also a city of firsts. From First Ladies, to beer brannigans, Chicago’s colorful history is filled with unique first-timers that have changed popular culture and even created some hair raising thought. Here are a few “firsts” to amaze your friends with:
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 1st First Lady elected to the U.S. Senate, was born in Chicago, though she now lives in and represents New York.
Speaking of the Clintons, Chicago is reported to be the city where the Twinkie was invented by Continental Baking Chicago Manager, James Dewar, though some reports suggest it was introduced for sales in Indianapolis. More than fifty years later, President Bill Clinton reportedly put one in The Millennium Time Capsule for future generations to enjoy.
The first planetarium, The Adler Planetarium in Chicago, was the first in the Western Hemisphere.
The University of Chicago became the site of the world’s first nuclear chain reaction.
Love it or hate it, fast food was born in the Chicago area. Ray Kroc first opened for business in Des Plaines on April 15, 1955. The first McDonald’s has been restored and now stands as The McDonald’s Museum.
The zipper, or clasp locker, as it was known, was invented in Chicago by Whitcomb Judson. Inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Howe, had earlier filed a patent for the zipper he invented, but failed to pursue it due to the success of the machine. Little did he know that forty-four years later, Judson would earn the title “Father of the Zipper.” It was later improved upon by Gideon Sundback who spent hours in 1917 grieving the death of his wife locked in his office working on a new design that is now known as the modern zipper.
There have been many since—of various origin—but the first beer riot occurred in Chicago in 1855 after Mayor Levi Boone (great-nephew of Daniel) proposed an ordinance which would close taverns on Sundays and raise the cost of a liquor license from $50 per year to $300 quarterly. German immigrants saw the move as targeting them and didn’t like it much. On April 21, after several tavern-owners were arrested for selling beer on Sunday, protesters clashed with police near the Cook County Court House. The next year the law was repealed and Boone was booted out of office.
Be a first of your own and be first in line for Web Content 2007, at Chicago’s USB Tower Conference Center, June 18 and 19.
