Page 42 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guides - Chicago

40 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Moments in Chicago History

to negotiate with private property
owners). By 1893, the line was
extended to Jackson Park (see p46)
to transport visitors to the World’s
Columbian Exposition (see p23).
1900: Reversal of the
5
Chicago River
With sewage flowing downriver to
Lake Michigan, the source of the
city’s drinking water, thousands of
Chicagoans were dying from the
contamination. To solve the problem,
engineers created a canal that forced
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 the river to flow away from the lake:
an extraordinary feat of engineering.
1871: Great Chicago Fire
1 1919: Chicago Black
Over 250 people died and
Sox Scandal
17,000 buildings were destroyed in 6
this fire, allegedly started by a cow The Chicago White Sox was a
kicking over a lantern. Just a few winning baseball team but poorly
buildings survived, including the paid, so players sometimes fixed
Historic Water Tower and Pumping games, pocketing money from
Station (see p80). gamblers. After a group of players
conspired to lose the 1919 World
1885: First Skyscraper
2 Series, eight of them were indicted,
Though just a measly – by
acquitted for insufficient evidence,
today’s standards – nine stories, but banned for life from baseball –
the Home Insurance Building (now and nicknamed the “Black Sox.”
demolished) was the tallest of its
time. William Le Baron Jenney
achieved this architectural feat by
designing the first weight-bearing
steel frame. From then on, the
only way to go was up.
1886: Haymarket Riot
3
Wealthy industrialists funded
amazing Chicago arts institutions,
but their workers toiled long hours in
abominable conditions. In May 1886,
a labor protest ended in an explosion Chicago White Sox baseball team
at Haymarket Square that killed
1929: Valentine’s Day
eight policemen and two bystanders. 7
Eight anarchists were convicted of Massacre
murder, though three were later This brutal murder of seven of
pardoned for lack of evidence. Al Capone’s rival gangsters is one
of US history’s most notorious
1892: First Elevated
4 massacres. Capone set up a sting
Train
that sent George “Bugs” Moran’s
The first train traveled just 3.6 miles main men to a nearby garage. There,
(5.8 km) along tracks built above Capone’s henchmen, dressed as
city-owned alleys (avoiding the need police officers, lined them up and

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