On this date in 1816, the state of Illinois was admitted to the Union as the 21st state. The Illinois state flag was adopted in 1915, from 35 designs submitted as a part of a contest. In 1969 the design was updated to include the state’s name.
The Illinois Flag Commission has a great history of the state flag on its web page, just after the listing of commissioners. The commission was established by Public Act 103-0513 “…to develop new State flag designs and to make recommendations to the General Assembly concerning whether the current State flag ought to be replaced with a redesigned State flag.” After receiving over 4,800 entries, the commission put twelve to a public vote. 43% of the 385,000 votes favored keeping the existing state flag.
Also flying today is the flag of the City of Chicago.
Cruesbreck Flags 