First Female Mayor of Chicago

Did you know Chicago’s first female mayor was elected in April 46 years ago? On April 3, 1979, Democrat Jane Byrne defeated Republican Wallace D. Johnson. She was sworn in on April 16, 1979.

Byrne got her start as a volunteer on John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign for president, where she met infamous Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Eyeing Byrne’s enthusiasm and talent, Daley asked Byrne to several positions culminating in chairperson of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee.

She entered the race for Chicago mayor in 1979, challenging incumbent mayor Michael A. Bilandic. Byrne defeated Bilandic 51% to 49% and winning to general election with 82.1% of the vote, the largest in Chicago mayoral election history.

As mayor, Byrne appointed the city’s first African American and female school superintendent, Ruth B. Love and was the first mayor to recognize the gay community. She ended the police’s practice of raiding gay bars and created the first Chicago “Gay Pride Parade Day” in 1981. Byne was a supporter of the arts and funded art institutions around the city and came up with the idea for a unified lakefront museum campus, renovating Navy Pier and expansion of O’Hare International Airport.

110 years ago today, the Chicago Municipal Flag Commission was created to design a flag for the city. The commission introduced a competition to the public as a way to generate ideas, and more than 1,000 applications were received. In the end, it was Wallace Rice, a writer and poet from the city and the competition’s creator, whose design was chosen. The flag was officially adopted by the state in 1917, yet it was not quite the same Chicago flag that flies today.

Though everyone today associates March Madness with the mania of the March NCAA tournament, did you know March Madness was originally the name of an Illinois high school basketball tournament over a century ago?

The original tournament was a high school boys’ basketball tournament sponsored by the IHSA beginning in 1908. By the 1930s, over 900 schools were competing in the tournament. The term ‘March Madness’ was first used in an article of the IHSA magazine, “Illinois Interscholastic,” by the assistant executive secretary of the IHSA. The term ‘Sweet Sixteen’ was used to describe the field of teams participating in the University of Illinois’ Huff Gymnasium tournament.

The term began being used by the IHSA on official merchandise and for the next several decades, March Madness was the common phrase for the tournament. By the 1980s, the IHSA had acquired ‘March Madness’ and ‘America’s Original March Madness’ as registered trademarks. Use of the phrase is now subject to licensing fees to the IHSA, of which a significant portion goes to scholarships for Illinois boys and girls.

You can read more about the origins of March Madness here.

Did you know Illinois has the seventh largest Irish population in the U.S.?

The rich history of Irish Heritage and culture in America began in the 18^th century, but grew largely in the 1820s, when more than half a million Irish Immigrants first arrived, many coming to Illinois. Besides Chicago, the early 19^th century wave of Irish immigrants settled largely in Randolph County, Gallatin County and Cairo. In the 1850s, the number of Irish in Illinois grew from around 20,000, to over 80,000.