|country =United States
|state =Illinois
|region =Cook County
|settled =1630
|charter =
[[File:Sears Tower.jpg|thumb|260px|left|Looking north on the Chicago River south of Harrison Street. The tall black building is the Willis (née Sears) Tower; the building in the foreground is 311 South Wacker.]]
'''Chicago''' is a city located in the northeastern corner of the state of [[Illinois]] at on the shore of the southwestern tip of [[Lake Michigan]]. Chicago is located mostly within [[Cook County]], but a corner of its O'Hare Airport is in [[DuPage County]]. It is the largest city in Illinois and the third-largest city in the [[United States]], with 2.8 million residents, after New York City and Los Angeles.<ref>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/17/1714000.html</ref>. The Chicago metropolitan area, which extends from southern [[Wisconsin]] to northeastern [[Indiana]] and is often called "Chicagoland", contains 9.3 million people. <ref>http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro_general/2006/CSA-EST2006-alldata.csv</ref> It is the dominant city of the Midwest for transportation, trade, finance and high culture, and only reluctantly gave up the "second city" title to [[Los Angeles]] in the 1970s.
The name "Chicago" originated in 1630, when the Miami-Illinois Indians arrived in the region, and called it after a type of wild garlic that grew in the area.
The current mayor of Chicago is [[Richard M. Daley]] (b. 1942), who was elected in 1989. His father, [[Richard J. Daley]] (1902-1976), was mayor from 1955-1976, and controlled the powerful Cook County Democratic organization, called "the machine." <ref>http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Daley2.html</ref> Current President [[Barack Obama]] spent his politically formative years as a city planner "foot soldier" for the Democratic machine, an experience that deeply affected his political methods and radical beliefs later in life.
Chicago is home to the [[Sears Tower|Willis Tower]], which at 1,450 feet is the tallest building in the United States, and was once the tallest building in the world. The building, more commonly known locally and internationally as the "Sears Tower", was originally the headquarters of Sears when constructed. In the late 2000s, London-based Willis Insurance bought the naming rights to the tower upon leasing a significant amount of space.<ref>http://www.thesearstower.com/buildinginfo.axis?type=n&name=Property Profile </ref>
The city hosted the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] when [[Richard J. Daley]] was mayor. The convention was disrupted by radicals such as [[Abbie Hoffman]].
The world-renowned ''Art Institute of Chicago'' houses both a museum and a school. <ref> [http://www.artic.edu/ The Art Institute of Chicago] </ref>
==Demography==
Although originally settled by Yankees, the railroads, stockyards , and other heavy industry of the late 19th century attracted a variety of skilled workers from Europe, especially Germans, English, Swedish and Dutch, as well as unskilled Irish Catholics. From 1890-1914 migrations swelled, attracting especially unskilled workers from Eastern and Southern Europe, including Poles, Lithuanians, Croatians, Czechs, Greeks, Italians and Jews among others. World War I cut off immigrations from Europe, and restrictions in the 1920s slowed the European influx to a trickle, apart from refugees after World War II. During both world wars poor Americans arrived from the South--whites from Appalachia and blacks from the cotton fields due south. The near south side was the first Black area, and it continued to expand, as did the black neighborhoods on the near west side. These were segregated areas (few blacks were tolerated in white neighborhoods), and after 1950 public housing high rises anchored poor black neighborhoods south and west of the Loop.
Old stock Americans who relocated to Chicago after 1900 preferred the outlying areas and suburbs, making Oak Park and Evanston enclaves of the upper middle class. The lakefront north of the Loop saw construction of high-rise luxury apartments starting in the 1910s, and continuing into the 21st century. The high-rises had wealthy residents but few children, since the city had an abysmal public school system, a large parochial system of middling quality for the Catholics, and few upscale private schools. The northern and western suburbs boasted some of the best public schools in the nation. The suburban trend accelerated after 1945, with middle class Chicagoans headed to the outlying areas of the city, and then pouring into the Cook County and Dupage County suburbs. Jews and Irish in particular rose sharply in status, leaving slums and heading north. Well educated migrants from around the country moved to the far suburbs.
===Since 1940===
====Politics====
Many recent [[mayor]]s of Chicago belonged to the [[Democratic Party]]. The current mayor of Chicago is [[Rahm Emanuel]]. Before him, [[Richard M. Daley]] (b. 1942), who was elected in 1989, was mayor until 2011. His father, [[Richard J. Daley]] (1902-1976), was mayor from 1955-1976, and controlled the powerful Cook County Democratic organization, called "the machine." <ref>http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Daley2.html</ref> Current President [[Barack Obama]] spent his politically formative years as a city planner "foot soldier" for the Democratic machine, an experience that deeply affected his political methods and radical beliefs later in life.
The city hosted the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] when [[Richard J. Daley]] was mayor. The convention was disrupted by radicals such as [[Abbie Hoffman]].
Holli (1999) argues that the political regime of Chicago Mayor [[Richard J. Daley]] during 1955-76 was unusually stable during an era of national instability because Daley kept firm control of the governmental machinery, which slowed change to a manageable pace and had a deep and profound appeal to Chicagoans. Ethnic and racial squabbling erupted after Daley's death in 1976 and continued through the tenures of four mayors, even as the rest of the nation entered a period of greater political stability. After the transitory tenure of interim mayor Eugene Sawyer, the years of political instability ended with the 1989 election of the former boss's son, [[Richard M. Daley]]. Young Daley's election marked a return to political calm seen, in the light of equilibrium theory, as inevitable after the tumultuous years that preceded it.<ref> Melvin G. Holli, "Political Equilibrium and the Daley Eras in Chicago." ''Continuity'' 1999 (23): 83-96. Issn: 0277-1446 </ref>