New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is coming to Chicago

For the first time since 1972, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve will broadcast live from downtown Chicago, putting the city on a national stage as viewers across the U.S. ring in 2026.

Traditionally set in Times Square in New York City, the beloved New Year’s Eve special has become a cultural institution. Celebrating its 55^th year, the broadcast is taking on a historic expansion with Chicago hosting the Central Time Zone live countdown and a Spanish-language live broadcast from Puerto Rico.

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Chicago’s very own: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

When most of us think about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, we picture a beloved holiday icon leading Santa’s sleigh through winter skies, but few realize this famous character actually originated in Chicago.

In 1939, Chicago was home to one of America’s biggest retailers – Montgomery Ward. Trying to boost interest in its toy department and compete with rival Sears, the company turned to a catalog copywriter named Robert Lewis May. May was asked to create a children’s Christmas story to hand out at Montgomery Ward stores during the holiday season.

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Illinois athletes have won big at Winter Olympics

With the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan scheduled to start in just under two months, all eyes are on Team USA as America anticipates a strong performance bringing home many medals. Though the team rosters won’t be finalized until early 2026, the past several Winter Games have seen plenty of Illinois natives win big. Among them are hockey forward Abbey Murphy, ski jumper Kevin Bickner, and figure skater Alexa Knierim — each of them a story of extreme dedication, determination, and intense passion for the sports they love.

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Universal Human Rights Month: Diane Judith Nash

In honor of Universal Human Rights Month this December, we honor Diane Judith Nash, a key activist throughout the Civil Rights Movement from Illinois. Nash was one of the founders and most influential organizers in the Civil Rights Movement. Born in Chicago in 1938, Nash attended Howard University before transferring to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In Nashville, Nash experienced a society fully engulfed in Jim Crow segregation for the first time. She began to take classes from James Lawson on nonviolent resistance. It didn’t take long for Nash to become a central figure in the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, including becoming leader of the Student Central Committee, which staged sit-ins in segregated diners across downtown Nashville. In 1960, Nashville became the first segregated city in the South to integrate lunch counters.

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