The city of Chicago take its name from the earlier indigenous inhabitants Potawatomis word ‘checagou’. These inhabitants was joined by a Haitian in the 1770’s by Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable of African origin and settled by marrying a Potawatomi woman and with him came the first trading post. Soon early nineteenth century saw the arrival of U.S army and year 1816 saw the Fort Dearborn massacre, following which a treaty was signed whereby the tribes of Potawatomi, Ojibwa and Ottowa ceded their land to United States. By 1837, Chicago was officially incorporated under the  State of Illinois.

            Chicago’s amazing growth seem to lie in its strategic location, its surrounded by many major rivers and lakes that made trading and navigation very easy. No wonder its also referred to as the transportation gateway and it continued to expand very rapidly with the coming of railroad and interstate highways. Especially in 1848 Illinois and Michigan Canal and the first railway line led to a great shipping and transportation business, leading to the further rise of the population. With these developments, already by 1890’s Chicago was next only to New York in population growth. This very rapid growth ultimately resulted in some major disasters. The great Chicago fire took place in 1871 that nearly burnt down the entire city. As such, there rose the architectural planners of Chicago who would go on to become one of the most well known in the world. There then was the construction of the worlds first ever skyscraper built in steel, and citizens started addressing the  sewage problems which was notorious in Chicago. Also the Lake Michigan was polluted badly with the rapid rise of industries, and so inorder to procure clean drinking water the city  started building tunnels below the lake to newly made water cribs. However the spring rains would pollute the water from the Chicago river and this problem was solved only in 1900 with the construction of Chicago sanitary and ship canal that led to the Illinois river.

            Chicago also became a haven for notorious gangsters in the 20’s. Still the city grew and the period saw a huge rise of migration, especially the southern blacks, as the industries started advancing and job offer grew. In fact, Chicago is again known for conducting the worlds first controlled nuclear reaction, has one of the worlds busiest convention hall called McCormick Place, the world tallest building Sears Tower and O’Hare airport reputed to be one of the busiest airports in the world; all of these amazing achievements were started in the 60’s.

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