Chi-Town's Anything but Shy

Chicago goes by many names, from the Windy City, Second City and Chi-town, to the decidedly pessimistic "Chi-beria" come wintertime. Whatever you call it, it's got an extraordinary history, fascinating people and a flourishing culture. Test your knowledge of "Sweet Home" Chicago with these factoids:

• The tiles of Chicago's famous Wrigley building are on a gradient of six shades of white—from off-white at the bottom to blue-white at the top, lending it a brighter and brighter appearance as it rises. We're not sure if the tiles looking like chewing gum is a strange coincidence or not. Probably not.
• Where does the name Chicago come from? The Native Americans called the area "Shikaakwa," which means onion field in the Miami-Illinois language. It's only fitting, then, that it's hard not to catch a whiff of oniony vapors from all the hot dog and Italian beef stands downtown at noon.
• Between 1933 and 2011, there were only 10 years when Chicago didn't have a mayor from the Bridgeport neighborhood. That said, two Mayor Daleys comprised 43 of those years but STILL. Evidently the blocks between Pershing, the tracks and the South Branch produce really vote-worthy politicians...?
• Something that sucks...literally (thankfully—especially if you've got kids AND carpet in your house) was invented in Chi-town in 1869—yep, it's the vacuum cleaner. We'd love to get a look at the broom sales figures from the following years. Probably pretty sad.
• Until 2012, Chicago had the largest Polish population of any city in the world, besides Warsaw, of course. That distinction now belongs to NYC, but Chicago still has a much greater concentration. So there!
• Chicago was actually pretty ill-suited for human occupation back in the day. The land that settlers chose was low-lying and quite prone to flooding, so cholera, typhoid, dysentery and the dreaded soggy foot could all thrive to the detriment of pretty much everyone who lived there. To combat the problem, buildings were raised by hydraulics, new foundations were laid and the streets were re-constructed for proper drainage—all in the 1850s and '60s.
• In 1942, Enrico Fermi and a team of scientists pulled off the world's first self-sustaining atomic fission reaction at the University of Chicago. Yeah, the atom had been split before, but this sustained reaction is what led directly to the creation of the first atomic bomb. Perhaps even more astounding is the apparent lack of concern for public safety—Enrico performed the experiment in U. of C.'s football stadium, in a squash court under the stands.
• From the 103rd-floor Skydeck atop Willis Tower, you can see four states: Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin—great if you wanna feel really, really small. But you can also stand in a glass box that extends from the face of the building and see straight down 1,350 feet to the street below—great if you wanna feel really, really sick.
• If there's one thing Chicago knows how to do, it's complicate a hot dog. If there are two things, the second one is definitely celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. The Chicago River famously runs bright kelly green for a day—but not from green dye. It's actually orange, and plumbers originally used it to detect sewage leaks, which caused the color to change...yep...to kelly green. Probably best to avoid swimming in it.