Published on November 26 2018 10:38 am
Last Updated on November 26 2018 10:39 am
Events of deep sorrow and tremendous joy – the funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chicago Cubs’ 2016 World Series victory – top the list of unforgettable moments chosen by voters in the final Illinois Top 200 category.
They were followed by Illinois becoming the first state to ratify the constitutional amendment ending slavery and by Lewis and Clark starting their famous expedition to the west. The historic debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas came in at No. 5 in the online voting.
Lincoln’s 1865 assassination shocked the whole country, but the loss was especially painful in his home state. Hundreds of thousands of people filed by his casket when he lay in state in Chicago and Springfield. Others lined up alongside railroad tracks to see the car carrying his body to its final resting place in Springfield.
The second spot on the list goes to the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series after a record-breaking 108 years of disappointment and frustration. The celebration afterward brought millions of people together.
“The range of events on this list is incredible. It includes expanded civil rights, exploration of the continent and the atom, and two great moments in Lincoln’s life,” said Alan Lowe, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “Of course, it also includes tragedies like Lincoln’s death, but all of it is part of the state’s fascinating history.”
The Top 200 project allowed Illinoisans to vote on the state’s most inspiring leaders, greatest inventions, top businesses and much more. By choosing a top 10 in 20 different categories, voters produced a list of the 200 most amazing things about Illinois, just in time for the state’s 200th birthday on Dec. 3.
Here are the most unforgettable moments chosen in online voting:
(tie) Native Americans Leave – Unable to stop a flood of settlers, the Ottawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi gave up all their Illinois land in the 1833 Treaty of Chicago. They performed one last war dance two years later, then left for good.
The nominees who did not make the top 10 were the 1968 Democratic National Convention; Al Capone being convicted of tax evasion; the “Black Sox” scandal; the 1894 Pullman strike; Mormons being driven out of Illinois in 1846; Illinois voters rejecting slavery; the “Liberty Bell of the West” ringing in Kaskaskia; the strange flood in downtown Chicago; and Harold Washington being elected mayor of Chicago.
The Illinois Top 200 is a joint initiative of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, The (Springfield) State Journal-Register and the Illinois Bicentennial Commission.
The presidential library and museum uses a combination of rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship to immerse visitors in Lincoln’s life and times. For more information, visit www.PresidentLincoln.illinois.gov. You can follow the ALPLM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.