Illinois State Facts – Part IV

76. The worst prison camp during the Civil War in terms of percentages of death was at Rock Island in Illinois.
77. Illinois boasts the highest number of personalized license plates, more than any other state.
78. The Chicago Public Library is the world’s largest public library, with a collection of more than 2 million books.
79. The Chicago Post Office at 433 West Van Buren is the only postal facility in the world you can drive a car through.
80. The world’s largest cookie and cracker factory, where Nabisco made 16 billion Oreo cookies in 1995, is located in Chicago.
81. Chicago is considered “the financial capital of the Midwest.”
82. One of Illinois’s nicknames, “The Land of Lincoln,” is due to the fact that Abraham Lincoln (16th U.S. President) began his political career in the state in 1832.
83. At one million square feet, the Art Institute of Chicago is the second largest art museum in the United States, behind only the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
84. The name “Illinois” comes from a Native American word meaning “tribe of superior men.”
85. The state slogan, “Land of Lincoln,” was adopted by the General Assembly in 1955. The State of Illinois has a copyright for the exclusive use of the slogan.
86. Evanston, Illinois is the home of the ice cream sundae.
87. Unlike most skyscrapers, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange building was built entirely without an internal steel skeleton; it depends on its thick walls to keep itself up.
88. Chicago’s Mercy Hospital was the first hospital in Illinois.
89. Chicago’s first African American mayor, Harold Washington, took office in 1983.
90. The four stars on the Chicago flag represent Fort Dearborn, the Chicago Fire, the World’s Columbian Exposition, and the Century of Progress Exposition.
91. Illinois generates more nuclear power than any other state.
92. John Dillinger, famous gangster and “Public Enemy Number One,” was shot and killed by FBI agents outside of Chicago’s Biograph Theatre on July 22, 1934.
93. A replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa stands in the town of Niles, Illinois.
94. The Chicago River is known as the river that flows backward because it flowed into Lake Michigan until 1900, when engineers reversed the flow by completing the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The river now flows from the lake. The flow of the Chicago River was reversed to control the waste waters entering Lake Michigan.
95. Illinois ranks third in the nation in the number of interstate highway miles.
96. The Chicago metropolitan area, also known as “Chicagoland,” has over 9 million residents over three states – Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
97. Chicago law prohibits eating in a place that is on fire.
98. On St. Patrick’s Day, the Chicago River is dyed green.
99. Des Plaines, Illinois is the home of the first McDonald’s restaurant as a corporation.
100. McKendree University, established in 1828 at the Lebanon Seminary, is the oldest college in Illinois.