1. In 1818, Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the United States. The state was originally part of the Northwest Territory and was named after the Illinois River.

2. On December 3, 1875, the first indoor ice hockey game in the United States was played in Chicago. The game took place at the Victoria Skating Rink and featured the Carleton Place Hockey Club from Canada against the Chicago Hockey Club.

3. In 1936, the first drive-in movie theater in Illinois opened in Galva. The theater was called the "Park-In" and could accommodate up to 400 cars.

4. On December 3, 1967, the first coronary artery bypass surgery was performed by Dr. Rene Favaloro at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio. Favaloro was born in La Plata, Argentina, and went on to become a renowned cardiac surgeon, founding the Favaloro Foundation in Buenos Aires.

5. In 1979, 11 people died and 100 were injured in a stampede at a rock concert at the Cincinnati Coliseum in Ohio. The incident prompted the Illinois State Fire Marshal to introduce new safety regulations for concert venues, including restrictions on the number of people allowed in a building and the amount of alcohol that could be sold.