Part of a roof lays in front of a home, destroyed by a powerful tornado in Defiance, Missouri on Sunday, December 12, 2021. A tornado hit the small town west of St. Louis on Friday, December 10, 2021, destroying 25 homes and killing one.
Credit: © Bill Greenblatt, UPI/Alamy Images

Devastating tornadoes tore through Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. At least 22 tornadoes were reported throughout the 6 states. The storm started with a powerful thunderstorm, which meteorologists believe generated the tornadoes. The largest of the tornadoes broke United States history as the longest tornado. From touch down to the point where the tornado picked back up, the tornado measured 227 miles (365 kilometers).

Most of the destruction occurred in western Kentucky. Although tornadoes can occur any time of the year, they are more common in spring and summer. Tornadoes rarely form in Kentucky in the month of December. In Mayfield, Kentucky, a tornado hit a candle factory where 110 people were working the night shift. The building collapsed in the storm. Reports show eight people from the factory were killed in the storm and six people are still missing. At least 64 people have been confirmed dead in Kentucky with more than 105 people still missing. Rescue efforts are still underway to locate missing people. On Sunday, President Joe Biden approved Kentucky’s request for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

More than a dozen people were killed from the storms in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri. The storms hit an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, killing six people. One tornado tore through a nursing home in Arkansas, killing one resident. Rescue workers and family members are still searching for missing people throughout the wreckage. Thousands of businesses, houses, and schools have been damaged. Across the affected states, more than 50,000 people have been without electricity since the storm Friday night. Rescue efforts have been complicated because many power lines and cell towers were damaged in the storms.

December 3, 2018

Today, December 3, is the bicentenary of the Midwestern state of Illinois. Throughout 2018, bicentennial celebrations and events commemorated Illinois’s entrance to the Union as the 21st state in 1818.

The official Illinois state flag was adopted in 1915. Credit: © Lickomicko/Shutterstock

A special Illinois bicentennial flag flew throughout the state in the later months of 2018. On August 26, the state’s Constitution Day, a new Bicentennial Plaza was dedicated in Springfield, the state capital, and a bicentennial motorcycle ride took participants to Illinois sites along the famous Route 66 highway, which begins in Chicago. Today, December 3, the Illinois Bicentennial Commission is hosting an official 200th birthday party at Chicago’s United Center. 

The skyscrapers of downtown Chicago form a spectacular reflection in Lake Michigan. Chicago is the largest city in Illinois and the third largest city in the United States. © Shutterstock

The Illinois region was the home of Native Americans for thousands of years before French explorers first arrived in the late 1600’s. In 1717, Illinois became part of the French colony of Louisiana. In 1763, the British  won control of Illinois along with the rest of France’s North American empire. The United States gained control of Illinois during the American Revolution (1775-1783), and in 1787 the region became part of the Northwest Territory. In 1800, Illinois became part of the Indiana Territory. In 1809, the Illinois Territory was created from what is now Illinois and the state of Wisconsin. After statehood in 1818, Illinois voters elected Shadrach Bond, a downstate landowner, as the state’s first governor. The south-central town of Vandalia served as the capital of Illinois until Springfield, just a short distance north, was designated the state capital in 1837.

The Illinois quarter includes images of farmland, Abraham Lincoln, and Chicago. Illinois became the nation’s 21st state 200 years ago on Dec. 3, 1818. Credit: U.S. Mint

Let’s start at the beginning. The first federal holiday honoring an individual–the father of the country and first U.S. president, George Washington–was enacted by Congress in 1879. It gave federal employees in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., the day off on Washington’s birthday, February 22. In 1885, the holiday was extended to all federal employees, including postal employees. Businesses highly dependent on the mail followed suit, closing on February 22 as well.

                George Washington           (Oil painting on canvas (1796) by Gilbert Stuart; The Granger Collection))

                Abraham Lincoln                  (Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (1908), oil on canvas by Douglas Volk (Granger Collection))

A Buffalo, New York, druggist named Julius Francis made it his life’s mission to honor Abraham Lincoln, the martyred 16th president who had led the nation through the Civil War (1861-1865). Francis repeatedly petitioned Congress to establish a national holiday on Lincoln’s birthday–February 12. He also organized the first known observance of the day, which took place in Buffalo in 1874. Congress never established Lincoln’s birthday as a national holiday. However, several northern states, including Lincoln’s home state of Illinois, did enact legislation giving school children a holiday on February 12. The observance was usually reinforced by special lessons on Lincoln’s achievements and place in history.

Celebrations surrounding February 12 and February 22 remained unchanged until 1971. About this time, Congress moved around some federal holidays, including Washington’s Birthday, to create three-day weekends. Instead of celebrating the holiday on Washington’s actual birthday, the holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February. At the same time, Illinois’ congressional delegation proposed honoring Lincoln by calling the holiday “presidents’ day.” However, representatives from Virginia blocked the move “to protect the prerogatives of ‘The Father of Our Country’.” The passage of 106 years had failed to soften the attitude of some toward “the great emancipator.”

Led by Illinois, some states did adopt the term “Presidents’ Day” for the third Monday in February. Although people of certain age seem to recall that President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation turning Washington’s Birthday into a holiday honoring all presidents–including himself–this never happened. His proclamation clearly referred only to Washington.

So, the third Monday of February is, officially, Washington’s Birthday.

November 18, 2013

Yesterday, a powerful storm over the U.S. Midwest produced damaging winds, large hail, and at least 77 tornadoes. In Illinois, the state hardest hit by the storm, tornadoes were sighted in a 370-mile (595-kilometer) swath from the southern tip of the state to near Joliet, outside Chicago, at the state’s northern end. Six people were killed, and nearly 80 others were injured in Illinois. In Chicago, the storm forced thousands of Bears football fans to evacuate the lakefront stadium, Soldier Field. The Chicago Weather Center reported that 101 tornado warnings were issued across the state.

More than 100 tornado warnings were issued in Illinois on November 17. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

In central Illinois, the town of Washington, east of Peoria, was hit by an EF-4 tornado with winds of 170 to 190 miles (274 to 306 kilometers) per hour. The twister flattened whole blocks of the town, shattering trees and leveling hundreds of homes. Hundreds more were destroyed or severely damaged in nearby Roanoke, East Peoria, and Pekin. Falling trees pulled down power lines over a wide area, leaving thousands of households without electric power.

”Storm chasers” try to get close to tornadoes to study them with special equipment. (© Byron Turk, Center for Severe Weather Research)

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has declared 7 counties disaster areas. In Indiana, tornadoes and storm damage were reported in 12 counties.

Additional World Book articles:

• The Forecast: Better Weather Prediction Ahead (a special report)
• Twisted: More Terrible Tornadoes (a special report)
• Weather 1925 (a Back in Time article)

March 21, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won the March 20 Illinois Republican primary for the nomination for president of the United States. The former Massachusetts governor won decisively, taking 46.7 percent of the vote. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum came in second with 35 percent. Texas Representative Ron Paul came in third with 9.3 percent of the vote, while Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, took fourth place with only 8 percent. A voter turnout of only 24 percent made this Illinois’s lowest turnout for a presidential primary in 70 years.

The win follows Romney’s overwhelming victory in the Puerto Rico primary on March 18, in which he took all of the territory’s 20 delegates. Romney had 522 delegates going into the Illinois primary and will take at least 41 of that state’s 54 delegates. He thus widened his lead over Santorum (who will take at least 10 of the Illinois delegates, adding to his previous total of 252) as the candidates head into the Louisiana primary on March 24.

Mitt Romney won the Puerto Rico and Illinois Republican primary elections, putting him well ahead of former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in the delegate count. (Courtesy of Abby Brack, Romney for President, Inc.)