Chicago. You may know it as the Windy City, or the City of Big Shoulders. The city is synonymous with pizza, comedy, the blues and the Cubbies. No matter how familiar you are with the second city, I bet you didn’t know this…

A Well Read City
After the Chicago fire in 1871, Queen Victoria of England sent books to help restart the library. Today Harold Washington library in Chicago is the largest public library in the world.

All That Jazz
While the words Chicago and the blues go hand-in-hand, you might be surprised to learn that the word “jazz” was coined in Chicago.

That’s Entertainment
Walt Disney, imaginator extraordinaire, was born in Chicago. Also, Frank Baum wrote a little political satire while living at 1667 N. Humboldt that you may have heard of. It’s called The Wizard of Oz. Among Chicago’s born and bred celebrities you’ll find Quincy Jones, Harrison Ford, John and Joan Cusack, Pat Sajak, John Mahoney, Dorothy Hamill, Benny Goodman, Jeremy Piven and The Smashing Pumpkins. To award those writers, creators and actors, R.S. Owens company in Chicago manufacturers the coveted Oscar statues.

Around the World in a day
How’s this for historical buildings: the Tribune Tower has pieces of Westminster Abbey, the Alamo, Hamlet’s castle, the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal, Fort Sumter and the Arc de Triomphe embedded in exterior walls.

The Long way Home
Did you know that the longest street in the world is Western Avenue in Chicago?

Reach for the Stars
The Sears Tower, Amoco and John Hancock buildings are three of the tallest in the world. Speaking of heights, did you know that the first commercial air passenger (a Chicago reporter) flew from Chicago to San Francisco in 1927 and thus air travel was born in Chicago?

Round and Round
The Ferris wheel was introduced at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Short Cuts
If you needed to drive your car through a post office, the only one in the world you could do that at is 433 W. Van Buren Street.

Mother of an Attitude
Among the powerful women who have called Chicago home include
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jane Addams who was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Sweet Tooth
The world’s largest cookie and cracker (Nabisco), ice cream cone (Keebler) and gum (Wrigley) factories are in Chicago.

What else was invented in the Chicago-area you ask? Let me but name a few: the steel frame skyscraper, elevated railways, soap operas, zippers, softballs, the first McDonald’s restaurant, electric iron, cooking range, Twinkie, barbed wire, and the grain reaper.

By Christina Bultinck