The Friday Flashback: Illinois Joins the Union

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 3, 2010 9:20PM

Sometime tonight raise a glass and make a toast to the state of Illinois. On this date in 1818 Illinois became the 21st state in the union. What originally was a French colony has now become the fifth-most populous state in the nation; sixty-five percent of that population is concentrated here in the greater Chicago area.

We've often marveled at the difference in attitudes simply by leaving the city limits, not to mention the farmland bustling just outside the city limits. The state outside of Chicago has its own rich history. There's the town of Nauvoo, founded by Mormon prophet Joesph Smith in 1839 as a utopian settlement for the Latter Day Saints, which went into deep decline after Smith was murdered in jail in 1844. The far southern reaches of the state, centered by Cairo near the Illinois-Kentucky border, was once known as "Little Egypt" and was settled by Southern migrants shortly after statehood. Illinois provided over 250,000 men to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Three Presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Barack Obama) called Illinois home while in office, while Tampico-born Ronald Reagan was the only native born Illinoisan to become President. Illinois has given us Carl Sandburg, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright, Nelson Algren, Roger Ebert, Lorraine Hansberry, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Mike Royko. Oprah Winfrey became a cottage industry-cum-cult leader in Illinois. And, as of Wednesday, Illinois became the sixth state to recognize civil unions for same-sex couples, which years from now we'll recognize as a pretty damn cool thing.

Today, Illinois is home to nearly 13 million people. From Cairo to Chicago, we should all be proud to call ourselves Illinoisans today.