Essentials: Chicago

1) The Brownie was invented in Chicago. Bertha Palmer, the wife of millionaire hotelier Potter Palmer, mixed the batter – just in time for a debut at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

2) The 156-meter-long Chicago River flows backward! In 1900, the course of the river was changed to avoid waterborne pathogens. Today, it flows into the Mississippi River and not into Lake Michigan.

3) The very first skyscraper, the office building of the Home Insurance Company, was designed by Mayor William Le Baron Jenney and built in 1885.

4) Chigaco-born Daniel Hale Williams was the first doctor to successfully perform open-heart surgery, making history in 1893. The patient was completely healed two months later.

5) The Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park is one of the largest fountains in the world and spouts more than 53,000 liters of water per minute.