History of Chicago and south branches of the Chicago River, which flows through the city's downtown. The three white stripes represent the North, West and South sides of the city, Lake Michigan being the east side. The most famous and serious disaster was the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. On December 30, 1903 the "absolutely fireproof", five-week-old Iroquois Theater was engulfed by fire. The fire lasted less than thirty minutes; 602 people died as a result of being burned, asphyxiated, or trampled. The S.S. "Eastland" was a cruise ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On 24 July 1915—a calm, sunny day—the
Chicago Shakespeare Theater Theater, which is the primary production venue for CST, features state-of-the-art technology and acoustics together with a versatile thrust stage and deep proscenium, that create a flexible performance space. A second theater, the 200-seat black box "Upstairs" space, is devoted to smaller but still-popular productions such as The Second City's smash hit, "Romeo and Juliet Musical: The People Vs. Friar Laurence, The Man Who Killed Romeo and Juliet". Chicago Shakespeare Theater's "Team Shakespeare" program is the largest arts-in-education program in the state of Illinois. The program reaches 40,000 students annually through student matinée performances of its full-length production, an abridged