The Progressive Midwesterner

Ten score years ago, on December 3, 1818, Illinois became the 21st state to be admitted to the Union. Now, with the great State of Illinois celebrating its 200th birthday, here are 20 of the most defining moments in Illinois political history, one for each decade that Illinois has been a U.S. state (although not all decades are represented, and some are represented more than once) and presented in chronological order: Illinois's admission to the Union - During much of the year 1818, what was then the Illinois Territory went through a lengthy process to become what is now the State of Illinois . On April 18, 1818, the U.S. House of Representatives was officially notified that President James Monroe had signed an Act of Congress titled "An Act to Enable the People of Illinois Territory to form a constitution and state government and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states" into law. In July of 1818, delegates to a sta...

On December 3, 1818, Illinois was officially admitted as the 21st U.S. state to join the Union. Thus, December 3 of this year, 2018, will be the 200th anniversary of Illinois becoming a U.S. state, and 2018 is Illinois's bicentennial year. That reminds me that Illinois does have an official state state, which is titled Illinois , although very few Illinoisans know the words to it, and the song Illinois is probably the least recognizable state anthem to the point that songs like Yankee Doodle (Connecticut's official state song), Georgia On My Mind (Georgia's official state song) and Rocky Mountain High (one of Colorado's two official state songs) are more recognizable to many Illinoisans that our own state's official state song. In case you're wondering what the song Illinois sounds like, here is a performance of the song Illinois by the University of Illinois's Varsity Men's Glee Club. As far as I know, a new state song is not currently a prio...