Dupage Policy Journal

Sept. 10, 1890 - Chicago. The University of Chicago is established by charter. Taking inspiration from institutions of higher education in Germany, John D. Rockefeller encouraged the American Baptist Education Society to launch the university, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago. Others were involved in opening the school two years later: Marshall Field provided 10 acres of land, and Henry Ives Cobb “designed the Gothic revival campus in the image of Oxford and Cambridge.” Today, the university boasts “a large number of faculty who have won Nobel Prizes.”

Sept. 11, 1877 - Alton. Illinois gains another city with the incorporation of Alton. This former trading settlement dates to 1783, and was named after Col. Rufus Easton’s son, as the website U.S. History reports. It has entertained presidential hopefuls (a Lincoln-Douglas debate occurred there in1858) and hosts the Alton Museum of History and Art, where perhaps the city’s most famous resident is honored: Robert Wadlow, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest man at 8 feet, 11 inches.

Sept. 12, 1981 - Chicago. Grammy and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson was born. Not only has the American Idol alumna and Dreamgirls star excelled on stage and screen, Hudson also wrote a best-selling memoir and founded the Julian D. King Gift Foundation with her sibling, as IMDB.com reports. The foundation “exists to provide stability, support and positive experiences for children,” the site says. She has also portrayed Winnie Mandela in a biopic of the civil rights icon.

Phineas Wilcox

Sept. 13, 2008 - Northeastern Illinois. Severe flooding forced the Des Plaines River and six other waterways out of their banks. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike helped end a statewide draught in August of that year, but as the Illinois State Climatologist Office reports, it left the state ill-prepared for the rains of September. The region received 4 to 10 inches of precipitation, flooding the North Branch Chicago River, West Branch Du Page River, East Branch Du Page River, Du Page River, Johnny Run and Illinois River, as recorded on the Illinois Historical Society website.

Sept. 14, 1878 - Millstadt. German settlers rename their town Millstadt after four decades as Centreville. In 1837, Centreville seemed like the best name for a town located equidistant from Belleville, Columbia and Pittsburg Lake. But as the Digital Research Library of the Illinois History Journal reports, conflict with another town’s Centerville post office inspired the new moniker Millstadt. It was supposed to be Middlestadt, but a clerical error gave us the current name.

Sept. 15, 1972 - Lee County. A magnitude 4.5 earthquake shook Northern Illinois. The day after what The Rockford Register Star called a “tremor,” the paper was quick to allay public fears with its report from an area seismologist. Northern Illinois University Professor Lawrence Porter blamed the area’s “thin crust of sedimentary rock layers,” but denied claims that recent heavy rains spurred the quake.

Sept. 16, 1845 - Nauvoo. Phineas Wilcox was executed by fellow Mormons. Once Missouri Gov. Lilburn Boggs banished the religious sect from his state, fleeing Mormons settled in Nauvoo, according to History.com. Once locals executed Joseph Smith for retaliating against the town’s newspaper, his successor “tried to stifle any dissent and banish his rivals.” Unfortunately for Wilcox, who was a suspected infiltrator, the paranoia that gripped his fellow Mormons caused his demise.