For the first 100 years of Bloomington history, water was scarce. In 1929, the formation of Lake Bloomington began after periods of drought, contamination and scarcity of safe drinking water.

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Four airlines now fly in and out of the Central Illinois Regional Airport [CIRA]. They carried about 325,000 passengers last year. It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when the airport that served the Twin Cities had sod and gravel runways.

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To reduce water use in an ongoing severe drought, the City of Bloomington has asked residents to conserve water by a goal of 10%. Water shortages are not unheard of for the city. Even at its start, water was scarce in Bloomington.

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During the Great Depression, the federal government tried to stimulate the economy by funding a variety of buildings and programs. Among them was the post office in the Town of Normal put up through the Works Progress Administration [WPA]. Inside that post office is another salute to the community, to human achievement, and to the importance of beauty in public spaces. It's an oil on canvas artwork.

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It has been many decades since Downtown Bloomington was the premier destination for shoppers in the community. There was a time, though, when there were four large department stores downtown. One of them was My Store.

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There's a declaration of emergency over the number of unhoused people in Bloomington right now, and efforts to provide new housing and expanded space in shelters. The issue is not new, though the response today is perhaps more humane than it was in other eras.

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There's a declaration of emergency over the number of unhoused people in Bloomington right now and efforts to provide new housing and expanded space in shelters. The issue is not new. In this episode of WGLT's series McHistory, we find out the response today is perhaps a great deal more humane than it was in other eras.

McHistory is a co-production of WGLT and the McLean County Museum of History. Charlie Schlenker produced this episode.

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McLean County has one Nobel prize winner — but oh what a one! Modern electronics rests upon Clinton Davisson’s physics experiments bombarding a block of crystalized nickel with electrons. Davisson and his colleague at Bell labs, L.H. Germer, measured the angle at which the electrons were scattered by the nickel.

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Despite the reputation of Bloomington-Normal as a staid and quiet community with nicknames such as Borington Insuranceville, the Twin Cities has a long history of protests. And unlike today's peaceful observances, it was not always so. In today's episode of McHistory, we learn about the violent streetcar strike of 1917 which involved machine guns and the state militia.

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There have been a lot of political protests around Bloomington Normal lately. McHistory looks back at other protests, which weren't as peaceful as the ones today. Then, as now, the First Amendment right to free expression mattered, though sometimes it was not observed.

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