05/12/2026
A star 37 light-years away once flipped a switch in Chicago — and 80,000 people watched it happen.
→ On opening night of the 1933 World's Fair, the Adler's telescopes captured light from the star Arcturus, converted it into an electrical signal, and used it to illuminate the fairgrounds. In 1933. The cosmos literally turned on the lights.
→ The Adler opened in 1930 as the first planetarium in the entire Western Hemisphere. Chicago didn't just host it first — no one in this half of the world had ever built one before.
→ From 1937 to 1945, Maude Bennot ran the place — almost certainly the first woman to lead a major science museum anywhere on Earth. The Chicago Park District refused to give her the official title of Director. She ran it anyway.
This isn't a building you walk past. It's one worth walking into.
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