On today

in 1773,

Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable founded the settlement now known as Chicago, Illinois.

A black man of Haitian and French descent, he settled on the banks of the Chicago River in about 1773, when the land that would become Illinois was still a part of the British Empire. Married to an Indian woman, DuSable operated a thriving trading post and farm near where present-day Michigan Avenue crosses the Chicago River. DuSable's post served Native Americans, British, and American explorers, as well as Frenchmen who stayed on in the territory even after their armies' defeat in the French and Indian War. Sometime around 1800 DuSable left his settlement for Missouri. Historians do not know why he departed the Illinois country. Nonetheless, DuSable's pioneering effort made him the first non-Native American to settle the area that would become the metropolis of Chicago, Illinois.

The intrepid frontiersman had the foresight to recognize the economic potential of the Great Lakes site. He also had diplomacy necessary to befriend the area Native-Americans who considered him one of their own. Du Sable spoke several Indian dialects, as well as English, French, and Spanish. He and his family were detained by the British for five years during the American Revolution because of their American and French sympathies. Despite this, the British spoke highly of du Sable's character, as did many others. In 1784, du Sable reclaimed his Chicago property and he and his family lived there until 1800. In 1796, du Sable's granddaughter was the first child born in Chicago.

In 1800, du Sable sold his Chicago property and returned to Peoria where he lived for a decade. Du Sable moved to St. Charles, Missouri in 1813, where his granddaughter lived. He died on August 28, 1818, the year Illinois became a state, and is buried in a small Catholic cemetary in St. Charles.