11 Reasons Illinois Is Better Than Your State

Evanston used to be very religious, and leaders of the town banned selling ice cream sodas on Sundays due to the "immorality" of soda fountains. In response, snarky drugstore operators served ice cream with the syrup but sans soda, which they called "Sundays." These same smart alecks then changed the name to "sundae" when the religious objected.

Commercial air travel was first made possible in Illinois. Jane Eads, a reporter from the Chicago Herald, was the first-ever commercial passenger. She flew from Maywood to Iowa City on July 1, 1927, on a Boeing biplane and freaked out the whole time.

What's the most important staple of every arcade? Pinball, which is based on the French billiard game of bagatelle. But the modern, coin-operated pinball machines with the flashing lights and dinging bells were created in Chicago during the Great Depression to pick up spirits of the unemployed.

On April 15, 1956, Chicago added a little color to cable when WNBQ became the first all-color television station. Most stations around the U.S. were still showing mostly black-and-white programming.

In 1881, Aurora became the first city in America to use fully electric street lighting, earning the city the nickname of the City of Lights.

The second woman ever to receive the Peace Prize, Jane Addams was the founder of the Hull House to aid immigrants and the founder of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was awarded the Peace Prize in 1931. You go, girl!

With that amount of water, the Shedd can hold a whole lot of fish. In fact, the aquarium, which was opened in 1930, houses over 20,000 specimens.

Lawrence, an Air Force pilot with a Ph.D. in Chemistry, was selected as an astronaut in the Manned Orbital Laboratory, a precursor to the Shuttle Program. Unfortunately, he never made it into space.

Cochran was a wealthy socialite who was frustrated that her family's antique china would often get chipped during hand-washing. Her invention was unveiled at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and dry hands have been a worry of the past ever since.

The Home Insurance Building, once located at Adams Street and LaSalle Street in Chicago, was the world’s first modern skyscraper. William Le Baron Jenney engineered the revolutionary steel frame, which made this and all other skyscrapers possible. It was knocked down and replaced in 1931.