1. On January 22, 1943, the University of Illinois held the first demonstration of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), one of the earliest general-purpose electronic computers.
2. In 1870, the Illinois State Legislature passed the Public Act 100, which established the Illinois Industrial University (now known as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
3. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, a landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide. The defendant in the case, Henry Wade, was the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, but the plaintiff, Norma McCorvey (using the pseudonym Jane Roe), was a resident of Illinois at the time.
4. On January 22, 1901, future Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne was born in Chicago. Byrne was the first woman to be elected mayor of a city with more than 1 million residents in the United States.
5. In 1863, the first chartered African American church in Illinois, Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was founded in Chicago. The church played an important role in the Underground Railroad and the Civil Rights Movement.