Colleen Connolly

From the Midway: A podcast miniseries about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

May 12, 2019 at 6:11 p.m.

It's been 125 years since the 1893 Chicago World's Fair drew millions to Chicago — and its impact persists today. In "From the Midway," host Colleen Connolly dives into the...

The Columbian Exposition's cold storage plant, which held refrigerated food for vendors, caught fire in July 1893, killing 12 firefighters who were trapped by a collapsing tower. Editors note: This historic print is partially hand painted near the tower.

Tragedy at the 1893 World’s Fair: Fire killed 16 while crowds watched

May 31, 2019 at 9:19 p.m.

“In a funeral pyre … imprisoned by flames,” read the headline of a front-page story of the Chicago Daily Tribune on July 11, 1893. A day earlier, 16 people, including...

This one-day admission ticket to the World's Columbian Exposition cost 50 cents.

How Chicago beat New York to get the 1893 World’s Fair

June 24, 2019 at 3:43 p.m.

On the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in February 1890, the merits of Chicago, then only 53 years old, were debated against the merits of the much older...

<p>Earle T. Cook and wife, Jeanne, in the Federal Building on Feb. 5, 1968, as they await a decision from the jury on government charges that Cook placed a bomb in her luggage aboard the airplane in an attempt to kill her.</p>

50 years ago, a Naperville executive plotted to murder his wife — and almost blew up a plane

May 12, 2019 at 6:11 p.m.

“He has shown a wicked, depraved and abandoned heart.” These were the words of federal judge Richard B. Austin on Feb. 6, 1968, as he sentenced a Naperville executive to...

No está claro si la comunidad de habla q'anjob'al en Champaign-Urbana continuará creciendo bajo la administración de Trump y si los que ya están allí podrán quedarse.

Escasez de traductores de maya, un dolor de cabeza en las cortes de Inmigración

December 17, 2018 at 11:10 p.m.

En junio de 2016, Lucia cruzó la frontera con su hija de 3 años en Texas. Su viaje desde Santa Eulalia, Guatemala, a pie y en autobús, le tomó casi...

A man in a t-shirt with a large image of Jesus Christ kneels in prayer. Parishioners, many of them from Guatemala who only speak their native Mayan language of Q'anjob'al attend mass at St. Mary Catholic Church in Champaign on Nov. 5, 2017, where the service is in Mayan, Spanish and English, but primarily in Mayan.

Mayan language survives in Champaign, poses challenge in immigration court

May 11, 2019 at 11:30 a.m.

In June 2016, Lucia crossed the border with her 3-year-old daughter into Texas. Their journey from Santa Eulalia, Guatemala — on foot and by bus — took nearly a month...

Explorer Francis Brenton in the harbor at Waukegan after completing a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa on Oct. 11, 1968. Brenton brought back a sculpture from Africa.

50 years ago, Francis Brenton sailed a canoe from Lake Michigan to Senegal

May 12, 2019 at 6:11 p.m.

In November 1967, Francis Brenton was feared lost at sea. "I don't know what to do — say prayers or what," Lois Lundy, an official at the Field Museum, responded...

Chicago Marathon map: A journey through neighborhoods

May 12, 2019 at 6:17 p.m.

Since its inception in 1977 as the Mayor Daley Marathon, the now-named Bank of America Chicago Marathon has grown exponentially, becoming an international race with more than 40,000 runners. The...

John Kinzie was one of Chicago's first settlers as well as the assailant in Chicago's first documented slaying. He is buried in Graceland Cemetery in the Uptown neighborhood.

Did ‘bad blood’ on the American frontier lead to Chicago’s first murder?

August 22, 2019 at 4:47 a.m.

In 1812, Chicago was not a city, but rather a frontier settlement occupied mostly by French-Canadian and American traders as well as soldiers and Native Americans. It was the home...

The town of Aguas Calientes, in the valley below the mountains, is the main jumping-off point for visits to Machu Picchu.

‘Lost City’ no more, Machu Picchu feels the strain of booming tourism

May 11, 2019 at 10:26 p.m.

Peru's Machu Picchu — heralded as the "Lost City of the Incas" by American explorer Hiram Bingham, who rediscovered the largely forgotten site more than 100 years ago — has...

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