Chicago: a fire, a fair, a blameless cow and a river run backward

Chicago grew from a few log houses by a muddy river into one of the largest cities on earth within a single lifetime, and almost every chapter of that rise hides a surprise. This quiz invites you to test what you know in 20 questions with pictures.

What really happened with Mrs. O'Leary's cow, and who came clean about it decades later? Where does the city's name come from, who built the first house by the river mouth, and whose name did the old fort bear? Why was half the downtown jacked up on screws, which visitor mocked the castle-like survivor of the flames, and where did the free library first open?

Why do people call one office block the first skyscraper, and why does the river now run the wrong way? What was the fair in Jackson Park really celebrating, what were its gleaming palaces built from, which landmark did its giant wheel set out to beat, and which famous song did it inspire? Which of its buildings still stands, what drove the first elevated trains, and where did the man behind the Loop take his money next?

And what does the nickname «Windy City» really go back to, who called the city a butcher in verse, what happened to a crowded lake ship in 1915, and what do the stars on the city flag stand for? The pictures are old photographs, photochroms, lithographs, engravings and artworks in the public domain.