The name “Illinois” comes from the French, who first colonized the area around it, who in turn borrowed the name the natives called themselves. The land of Illini men or Illini warriors had gone through a boom-and-bust population cycle before the French arrived. By 1778 Virginia claimed control over the Illinois territory, replacing the alternating French and British rule. By 1809 the territory of Illinois, more or less in its current shape was carved out of the larger parcel of land, and soon after began its drive to statehood.

On this day, August 26, 1818, Illinois became the 21st state of the Union. The move was highly controversial at the time: the requirement for statehood was a population of at least 60,000, and Illinois at the time of its application had only 40,000. Moreover, to accept the city of Chicago as part of the state, its borders had to be revised northward significantly.

The driving force behind Illinois statehood goes was a young man named Daniel Pope Cook, who at the age of 20 launched the first newspaper in Illinois Territory, the Western Intelligencer. Cook used his paper to crusade for statehood: the first meeting on the subject of statehood, in the Illinois territory capital of Kaskaskia, was prompted by an Intelligencer article.