Chicago native John Grunsfeld will join an elite group of less than 90 astronauts when he is inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in May.

Grunsfeld has traveled on five space shuttle missions, performed eight spacewalks and worked on the Hubble Space Telescope on three different repair missions. He has spent time on the Endeavour, Atlantis, Discovery and Columbia space shuttles. 

The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame is located in Titusville, Fla., and is part of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Grunsfled is being inducted with fellow astronauts Steven Lindsey, Kent Rominger and Dr. M. Rhea Seddon.

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Chicago native to join Astronaut Hall of Fame (Chicago Tribune)

Thirty years ago this week, The Breakfast Club hit theaters across the country, becoming an instant hit at the box office and resonating with almost everyone who remembers their time in high school. 

The movie was set in the fictional Illinois town of Shermer, which was used as the backdrop of many of John Hughes’ movies. The film was shot at three suburban Chicago high schools: Maine North High School and Maine West High School in Des Plaines and Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook.

In honor of the thirty-year anniversary of the release of the film, select theaters across the country will show the movie on March 26 and March 31.

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The Breakfast Club - IMDb

Clyde Tombaugh was born in Streator in 1906. His interest in astronomy developed from looking through his uncle’s telescope as a child. Unsatisfied with store-bought telescopes, Tombaugh began building his own telescopes, one of which helped him accurately describe Jupiter and Mars.

Tombaugh earned a job at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona where he was tasked with photographing the night sky over several months and examining the photographs to try and find an unidentified moving point of light. After ten months of detailed research, Tombaugh discovered the planet on February 18, 1930 and named it Pluto. It was determined that Pluto was the ninth planet in our solar system and was classified so until 2006 when the plant was re-classified as a dwarf planet. 

In addition to discovering Pluto, Tombaugh also discovered 15 different asteroids and named them after himself, his wife, his children and grandchildren.

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Clyde Tombaugh
Academy of Achievement: Clyde Tombaugh

An Illinois farmer named Joseph Glidden patented barbed wire on November 24, 1876.

Joseph Farwell Glidden, a New Hampshire native who moved to Illinois in 1843, is credited with patenting barbed wire in DeKalb.  Using a coffee mill to help construct his model, Glidden was able to fixate pointed barbs onto metal wire and twist another wire around it to keep the barbs in place.

Glidden created the Barb Fence Company, which wound up making him one of the wealthiest men in America before he died. The versatile material has had numerous historical uses such as fencing in cattle and livestock, defending borders during times of war and as fence topping on prison grounds.

Glidden’s original patent has remained largely unaltered as contemporary versions of barbed wire continue to follow his model.

Learn more:
The History of Barbed Wire
View the original patent picture here

Abraham Lincoln, one of the most recognizable Presidents in U.S. history, migrated to Illinois with his family in his early twenties, living several places before settling in New Salem. Lincoln was elected to the Illinois state legislature in 1834 and moved to Springfield a short time later to begin practicing law.

Ulysses S. Grant, America’s 18th President, served after President Johnson during Reconstruction after the Civil War. A well-known Union Army hero, Grant was living in Galena when the war broke out, leaving to command the Union army.

Ronald Reagan was the only president born in Illinois. Reagan was raised in Dixon and attended Eureka College before leaving Illinois. Reagan spent most of his adult life in California, however, and considered that state home. 

President Obama moved to Chicago in his mid-twenties, working as a community organizer on the South Side before entering law school in 1988. Obama taught law at the University of Chicago and was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996. The rest, as they say, is history.

Learn more:
Abraham Lincoln's Biography
Ulysses S. Grant's Biography
Ronald Reagan's Biography
President Obama's Biography