I Like Illinois

April 6, 1862: Mary Safford, nicknamed the “Cairo angel” for her volunteer work nursing Union soldiers in Cairo, Illinois, during the Civil War, accompanies General Ulysses S. Grant’s army during the Battle of Shiloh to comfort and minister to the wounded

April 5, 1955: Richard J. Daley is first elected mayor of Chicago, beginning a record-setting 21-year reign until his death in 1976

April 4, 1983: Chicago-born actress Gloria Swanson, best known for her role as Norma Desmond in the 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard,” dies

April 3, 1866: A year after the repeal of Illinois’ discriminatory “black laws,” abolitionist Frederick Douglass embarks on a Midwestern speaking tour and becomes the first African American to deliver a speech at the Illinois Capitol

April 2, 1908: Actor Buddy Ebsen, perhaps best known for his role as patriarch Jed Clampett on TV’s “The Beverly Hillbillies,” is born in Belleville

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  5. On This Day - March 29, 1859
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