Julius Rosenwald was born on August 12, 1862. At the young age of 18, he was already involved in the fashion world. In 1895, Rosenwald became vice president and owner of one-third of Sears’ stock, then a mail-order-only business. Fourteen years later, Rosenwald would succeed Richard Warren Sears as president of the company.

As president, Rosenwald stressed administration, system and order. Naturally, he also looked for any opportunities that could improve the business, such as looking for long-term merchandising deals with other companies. Rosenwald retained an astute business mind, which led the tycoon to have his store enter the retail store business.

Rosenwald was president of Sears until 1924, when he became chairman of the board of directors. He eventually stepped away from the Sears business to focus on social welfare philanthropy efforts.  

Learn more:
Read more about Julius Rosenwald’s life and his generous philanthropy
Read more about the history of Sears

Unless someone printed this article on paper and handed it to you, you’re probably reading it on a Web browser.

Web browsers are our windows into the Internet. We use Web browsers to search, read articles and watch videos. Without a Web browser, the Internet is just endless lines of code.

The first true Web browser was invented at the University of Illinois in 1993. Its name was Mosaic, created by Marc Andreessen and his team. For the first time, Internet users could view text and pictures on the same page, and they could access the World Wide Web using a Windows personal computer.

Most people probably don’t remember Mosaic. But what about Netscape? For a decade beginning in 1994, it was one of the world’s dominant Web browsers at a time when individuals and institutions were finding their way online. The same team that invented Mosaic went on to create Netscape, which evolved into Mozilla’s Firefox. They shaped the way we view the Internet forever.

Learn more:
See this cool (and abundantly nerdy) timeline of the evolution of the Web.
Watch this PC World slide show on the history of Web browsers.
Read our story about the University of Illinois – one of the nation’s top engineering and tech schools.

A recent report by Forbes magazine ranks Illinois fifth nationwide this year in total startup funding applications. Illinois is neck-and-neck with Texas, with 3.4 percent of the nation’s funding applications and is followed by Washington, Georgia and Colorado.

The report sees a bright future for Illinois startups, with activity “centered on both Chicago and the University of Illinois tech ecosystem” as a sign of significant growth in the future.

Learn more:
Need funding? 2015 Is A Strong Year For Startups

The Bud Billiken Day Parade has been held on Chicago’s South Side since 1929. Held on the second Saturday in August, the parade’s focus is on educating Chicago youth and the upcoming school year.

Robert S. Abbott, the founder of the Chicago Defender newspaper, came up with the idea for the parade, which is now the second largest annual parade in the country. Over the years, a host of celebrities have participated in the parade, including President Harry Truman, Michael Jordan, Duke Ellington, Oprah Winfrey, Diana Ross and Billie Holiday.

Learn more:
Information on the Bud Billiken Parade
Can’t attend in person? Watch the Bud Billiken Parade live on ABC 7 Chicago

For better or worse, cell phones are a cornerstone of our current lifestyle. But they haven’t always been. Martin Cooper of Motorola, a Fortune 500 technology company still headquartered in the Chicago suburbs, invented the cell phone.

Cooper’s 1973 prototype cell phone weighed 2.5 pounds and took 10 hours to charge. All it did was place and receive calls, and Cooper could only talk on it for 35 minutes before the battery died.

Five years later, AT&T launched the nation’s first trial cell service in Chicago.

In 1984, Motorola started selling the first publicly available cell phone. Their size and weight decreased over the years, and the rest is history.

Learn more:
Want to know more about Motorola? Visit the company’s website for a cool timeline of its biggest innovations.
Curious about Martin Cooper? Click here to read the story of the cell phone.