Home > Cairo, Illinois
Cairo is a city located in Alexander County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 3,632. It is the county seat of Alexander County. The city's name is pronounced differently from the English name for the Egyptian city of the same name: IPA /ˈkeɪɹoʊ/ . Cairo is located about an hour south of Carbondale, the site of the main campus of Southern Illinois University.Cairo is located by the juncture of the Mississippi River and the Ohio River; it is the southernmost town in the state of Illinois. The rivers converge at a point at what is the southernmost point in Illinois at Fort Defiance Park , a Civil War fort which was commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant. Cairo was founded as a town in 1818 and incorporated as a city in 1858. Cairo was an important steamboat port in the nineteenth century; it even had its own Customs House which has since been converted into a museum. The town has a number of fine examples of prosperous nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century architecture, much of it abandoned and in a bad state of decay. The population of Cairo has been in decline every decade since the 1920sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Events and trends Technology John Logie Baird invents the first working t—in 19201920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) Events January January 7 Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. January 9 Britain announces it will build 100,000 homes for war veterans. January 10 Leagu: 15,203; in 1940Events January-February January 5 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. January 6 World War II: Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the Poznan, Warthegau. January 12 World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland. February 2 F: 14,407; 1950Events January January 5 US Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the USA January 6 The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with: 12,123. At the Cairo High School graduation in 1990Events January January 3 Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces. January 7 The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns. January 9 Lt Gen Bazilio Olara Okello The man who led the coup aginst Dr Apo, the school principal advised the graduating class to leave town, as Cairo had nothing to offer them.
In 1969For other uses, see Number 1969. For the movie, see 1969 (movie). Events January January 1 Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News Of The World January 5 The Derry Riots leave over 100 people i, Cairo, the only segregated town in the state of Illinois, was the site of an intense civil rights struggleThe civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. It has been made up of many movements, though it is often used to refer to the struggles. The threat of violence resulted in the National Guard being called in to restore order. Businesses were also the subject of a boycott organized by the United Front civil rights movement as a form of protest. Despite the eventual desegregation of the town, the racial tension were never truly resolved and the subject is still a source of contention within the town.
Cairo today faces a number of serious issues, including poverty, teenage pregnancy, education, a lack of jobs, and poor access to health services.
