Stories by Daniel Hautzinger

“[Leon] Despres has been told to shut up – in one form or another – more than any grown man in Chicago," Mike Royko once wrote. "Throughout his career, he has been in the forefront of just about every decent, worthwhile effort to improve life in this city."

An incident in Athens leads to an international crisis that threatens to end Palmerston's political career, while Albert undertakes an ambitious project to host a grand exhibition in London, despite public disapproval and the possibility of failure.

While serving as a porter on a Pullman Palace car was one of the better jobs available to African American men, it still had its indignities. Frustrated that they did not share in the gains of their white colleagues, the porters formed the first successful black union in the country. 

The "King of Soul" grew up in Bronzeville and cut his teeth performing in churches and on streets in the city, striving to be the next Nat "King" Cole, who had attended the same high school as Cooke. 

Watch Sammy Davis, Jr. on the pioneering show "Our People," the first televised weekly forum for black issues, discuss the ongoing empowerment of African Americans in 1968. "Don't let 'em pigeonhole me, man, cuz I will not allow myself as a black individual to be pigeonholed," he says.

The collection includes iconic episodes that feature such moments as Ernie singing "Rubber Duckie, You're the One;" Kermit the Frog's "It's Not Easy Being Green;" Big Bird's reckoning with the death of a friend in "Farewell, Mr. Hooper;" and other classics.

When private sketches of Victoria and Albert at home are leaked to the public, Victoria suffers an image crisis. Things finally come to a head between Victoria and Feo, widening the rift between Victoria and Albert.

Food halls are proliferating in Chicago – why are they suddenly so popular, and how are they any different from food courts, markets, or old-school cafeterias? The answer lies in their clever adaptation to a millennial age.

Instead of buying chocolates for Valentine's Day (whether for a loved one or for yourself!), why not try making some delectable chocolate hearts studded with cranberries, with a recipe from Chicago's Bittersweet in Lakeview?

She went from being a young mother from Texas to becoming one of the first black women to appear onscreen not as a stereotype and the first to sing at the White House. Gershwin wanted her for Porgy and Bess – and later she became a liasion to Africa and a Chicago cultural patron.

Victoria decides to visit Ireland, becoming the first English monarch to do so in centuries. Albert, of course, doubts that the trip will be effective, given that calls for Irish independence are increasing – and the disagreement affects their marriage.

He has already explored the history of jazz, and now Ken Burns turns his lens towards America's other great homegrown music in an eight-part, sixteen-hour documentary series coming this fall that explores country's history and people in Burns's trademark exhaustive manner.

Baldwin Ice Cream began as a parlor opened by seven African American postal workers on the South Side and eventually grew to offering ice cream in major Midwestern grocery stores and at O'Hare, thanks in part to Jolyn Robichaux, its president for more than two decades.

How accurate are the historical events depicted in Victoria? Learn about the real people who appear in this season, from Lord Palmerston to the father of contemporary epidemiology to the "Swedish Nightingale," and discover what the revolutions in the show were about.

It has been sweeping the clouds away for decades, and now Sesame Street is turning 50. To celebrate the anniversary, the beloved children's show has some big plans, from a prime-time special to a ten-city tour that includes a stop in Chicago.