Illinois

The Willis Tower is a 108-story, 1,451-foot skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of its completion in 1973, it was the tallest building in... the world, surpassing the World Trade Center towers in New York, and it held this rank for nearly 25 years. The Willis Tower is the tallest building in the United States and the seventh-tallest freestanding structure in the world. Although Sears' naming rights expired in 2003, the building continued to be called the Sears Tower for several years. In March 2009, London-based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings agreed to lease a portion of the building, and obtained the building's naming rights. On July 16, 2009, the building was officially renamed the Willis Tower. In 1969, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was the largest retailer in the world, with approximately 350,000 employees. Sears executives decided to consolidate the thousands of employees in offices distributed throughout the Chicago area into one building on the western edge of Chicago's Loop.
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The John G. Shedd Aquarium is an indoor public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois in the United States that opened on May 30, 1930. The aquarium contains... over 25,000 fish, and was for some time the largest indoor aquarium in the world with 5,000,000 US gallons of water. The Shedd Aquarium was the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater fish collection. It is surrounded by Museum Campus Chicago, which it shares with the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum of Natural History. The aquarium has 2 million annual visitors; it was the most visited aquarium in the U.S. in 2005, and in 2007, it surpassed the Field Museum as the most popular cultural attraction in Chicago. It contains 1500 species including fish, marine mammals, birds, snakes, amphibians, and insects. The aquarium received awards for best exhibit from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for Seahorse Symphony in 1999, Amazon Rising in 2001, and Wild Reef in 2004. The Shedd Aquarium was the gift of retail leader John G. Shedd, a protégé of Marshall Field , to the city of Chicago.
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The Frank Lloyd Wright/Prairie School of Architecture Historic District is a residential neighborhood in the Cook County, Illinois village of Oak... Park, United States. The Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District is both a federally designated historic district listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and a local historic district within the village of Oak Park. The districts have differing boundaries and contributing properties, over 80 of which were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, widely regarded as the greatest American architect to have ever lived. Oak Park, Illinois was first settled in 1835 and incorporated as a village in 1901. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright came there in 1889 and designed his home which was built in 1889, in 1897 he added the studio along Chicago Avenue. Wright brought international attention to the village, designing 25 structures there in all; most of them within the historic district. The Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District provides a look at a cross section of Wright's work which spans several decades over his career.
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John Hancock Center at 875 North Michigan Avenue in the Streeterville area of Chicago, Illinois, is a 100-story, 1,127-foot tall skyscraper,... constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with chief designer Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan. When the building topped out on May 6, 1968, it was the tallest building in the world outside New York City. It is currently the fourth-tallest building in Chicago and the sixth-tallest in the United States, after the Willis Tower, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower, the Trump Tower Chicago, and the Aon Center. When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,506 feet . The building is home to offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums and contains the third highest residence in the world, after the Trump Tower also in Chicago and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. This skyscraper was named for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, a developer and original tenant of the building. The 95th floor has long been home to a restaurant, the latest tenant being "The Signature Room on the 95th Floor.
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William Anthony Perry is a former American college and professional football player who was a defensive lineman in the National Football League for ten seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Perry played college football for Clemson University, and was recognized as an All-American. He was selected... in the first round of the 1985 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL. In reference to his large size, he was popularly known as "The Refrigerator" or, abbreviated, "The Fridge". Perry was born in Aiken, South Carolina. He has stated in an interview that "Even when I was little, I was big." He attended Aiken High School, where he was a standout high school football player. Perry attended Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, where he played for coach Danny Ford's Clemson Tigers football team from 1981 to 1984. He was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American as a junior in 1983. In 1985, he was selected in the first round of the 1985 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears.
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David Michael Hasselhoff is an American actor, singer, producer and businessman. He is best known for his lead roles as Michael Knight in the popular 1980s US series Knight Rider and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the series Baywatch. Hasselhoff also produced Baywatch for a number of... seasons in the 1990s up until 2001, when the series ended with Baywatch Hawaii. Hasselhoff also crossed over to a music career during the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s. He was noted for his performance at the Berlin Wall at New Year's Eve 1989; he enjoyed a short-lived success as a singer primarily in German-speaking Europe. More recently, Hasselhoff has been involved with talent shows. He was the first celebrity eliminated from the eleventh season of Dancing with the Stars on September 21, 2010. He was also a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent from 2006 to 2009. In 2011, he joined the Britain's Got Talent judging panel, alongside Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Michael McIntyre. He appeared as himself in the 2011 film Hop. Hasselhoff was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to homemaker Dolores and business executive Joe Hasselhoff.
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Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer known for her role as Carmen in The Color of Money, as well as for her roles as Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss, Gina Montana in Scarface, and Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Mastrantonio was born in Lombard, Illinois of... Italian descent, the daughter of Mary D. and Frank A. Mastrantonio, who owned a bronze foundry. She was raised in Oak Park, Illinois and attended the University of Illinois. Mastrantonio has been married to director Pat O'Connor, who helmed The January Man, since 1990. The couple live in London with their sons Jack O'Connor and Declan O'Connor . Mastrantonio first appeared on screen in Brian De Palma's Scarface as Gina, sister of Al Pacino's Tony Montana. She achieved prominence for her Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated role in The Color of Money opposite Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. Her other featured roles of the 1980s include Slam Dance, opposite Tom Hulce and The January Man with Kevin Kline.
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Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers. He has since appeared in a number of films, including The Lost... World: Jurassic Park, Old School, Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Couples Retreat, The Break Up, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Wedding Crashers. Vince Vaughn was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His mother, Sharon Eileen , a native of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is a real-estate agent and stock broker who was once ranked as one of the United States' top money managers by Bloomberg Wealth Manager magazine. His father, Vernon Lindsay Vaughn, worked as a salesman for a toy company. His parents divorced in 1991. Vaughn is their only son and the youngest of their three children; he has two older sisters, Victoria and Valeri. As a child he was raised "both Protestant and Catholic" by his Catholic mother and Protestant father, and has English, Irish, German, Lebanese, and Italian ancestry.
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Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and... Nebraska. Missouri is the 21st most extensive and the 18th most populous of the 50 United States. Missouri comprises 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. The four largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. Missouri's capital is Jefferson City. The land that is now Missouri was acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase and became known as the Missouri Territory. Part of the Territory was admitted into the union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821. Missouri mirrors the demographic, economic and political makeup of the nation with a mix of urban and rural culture. It has long been considered a political bellwether state. With the exceptions of 1956 and 2008, Missouri's results in U.S. presidential elections have accurately predicted the next President of the United States in every election since 1904. It has both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences, reflecting its history as a border state.
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Kentucky , officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United... States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth . Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States. Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the fact that bluegrass is present in many of the pastures throughout the state, because of the fertile soil. It made possible the breeding of high-quality livestock, especially thoroughbred racing horses. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources, including the world's longest cave system, Mammoth Cave National Park; the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States; and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River.
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Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota... to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd most extensive and the 20th most populous of the 50 United States. Wisconsin's capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee. The state comprises 72 counties. The word Wisconsin originates from the name given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian speaking American Indian groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River and record its name, arriving in 1673 and calling the river Meskousing in his journal. This spelling was later corrupted to Ouisconsin by other French explorers, and over time this version became the French name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling to its modern form when they began to arrive in greater numbers during the early 19th Century.
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Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of... North America. Indiana is the 38th most extensive and the 15th most populous of the 50 United States. Indiana is the least extensive state in the continental US west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis, the second largest of any state capital and largest state capital east of the Mississippi River. Before it became a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best preserved ancient earthwork mound sites in the United States, can be found in Southwestern Indiana near Evansville. Residents of Indiana are known as Hoosiers. The derivation of the term is disputed, but one hypothesis has "Hoosier" originating from a frontier greeting, a corruption of "Who's here?" The state's name means "Land of the Indians," or simply "Indian Land.
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