True Tales from the Windy City's PastFrom the building of the first permanent settlement on the site of present-day Chicago in 1779 to Oprah Winfrey's television debut in1984, It Happened in Chicago tells the stories of intriguing people and events from the history of the Windy City. Find out how the 1893 Chicago World's Fair turned out to be a glorious emblem of late-nineteenth-century American progress, despite predictions by some New Yorkers that it would be little more than a "cattle show." Read all about America's first automobile race, which set out from Chicago in 1895. Learn how the paths of two very different Hoffmans-federal judge Julius Jennings Hoffman and Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman-collided in 1969. And discover that there really isn't much that didn't happen in Chicago!

ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPutting Down Roots 1779Ordered to Evacuate 1812Farewell to Eshegago 1835Up, Up, and Hooray! 1856A Party in the Great Wigwam 1860"The City of the West is Dead!" 1871Confined Against Her Will 1875Atrocious Acts 1886"The Very Essence of American Progress" 1893"Sewed Up His Heart" 1893The Race of the Century 1895The Fall of the Sausage King 1897A Genuine Refuge 1890The Captain's War 1900His New Job 1915A Terrible Time 1915"Say it Ain't So!" 1919Truth, Justice, and the Daily News 1924"We Must Have Tickets!" 1925"My Son Was Not a Gangster" 1929Journey to a New World 1942The $5,000 Reward 1944No Curses in Baseball? 1945A Tale of Two Hoffmans 1969A New Face 1984Launching a Career 1990Spitting Images 2004Chicago Facts and TriviaBibliographyAbout the Author

Scotti McAuliff Cohn is a writer and freelance editor specializing in history and young-adult fiction. Her other books include It Happened in North Carolina and More than Petticoats: Remarkable North Carolina Women. After living for more than twenty years in North Carolina, she now makes her home in Bloomington, Illinois.