One hundred and sixty-two years ago Nov. 19, Abraham Lincoln delivered his incomparable Gettysburg Address at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery. In the years before, the designer of the cemetery had left his imprint on Illinois.

It’s impossible to enter any cemetery in Kendall County and not find the graves of veterans of virtually every war in the nation’s history, from the American Revolutionary Warright up through modern Mideast wars.

When it was established in 1963, the Lincoln Heritage Trail was intended to link historic sites across three states. Today, only remnants remain, a relic of a not-so-distant era of travel.

Record stories that captured people's attention in years passed.

In 2015, there were nearly 113 million registered cars in the United States, mostly powered by gasoline. A pair of Illinois brothers is credited with building the first gas-powered automobile in American history.

Virtually every day, the effects of the big lake to our east are brought home to us, even though for those of us out here in the Fox River Valley it is often only through news videos and weather maps on our television screens that we realize what’s happening.

As the United States Navy celebrates its 250th anniversary on Oct. 13, it’s a time to commemorate the Liberty ships, which were used for cargo and other utility purposes in WWII.

German ancestry is the most prevalent ancestry in the state, and the culture of the German homeland has been a mainstay in Illinois for a century and a half.

The Oswegoland Park District was created in a March referendum 75 years ago. The landmark Little White School Museum was completed on its present site at Jackson and Polk streets 175 years ago last spring.