Located 36 miles (58 km) north of Chicago, Waukegan is a satellite city within the greater Chicagoland area.

Unlike nearby wealthy North Shore suburbs, Waukegan has long been classified by the Illinois state government as overall "socioeconomically distressed" despite having some middle class inhabitants.

Potawatomi wakaigin "fort" or "fortress") was created by John H. Kinzie and Solomon Juneau, and the new name was adopted on March 31, 1849.

Industries included ship and wagon building, flour milling, sheep raising, pork packing, and dairying.

[12] Waukegan's development began in many ways with the arrival of industries such as United States Sugar Refinery, which opened in 1890,[13] Washburn & Moen, a barbed-wire manufacturer that prompted both labor migration and land speculation beginning in 1891,[14] U.S. Starch Works, and Thomas Brass and Iron Works.

[17][18] One member of this community, Monoog Curezhin, even became embroiled in an aborted plot to assassinate Sultan Abdul Hamid II, reviled for his involvement in massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

The Sherman House residents fled for their lives as the military members carried torches, gasoline, and the American flag.

The chief of police and the state's attorney in the 1920s, for example, were avowed members of the Ku Klux Klan, facts that came to light when a wrongfully convicted African-American war veteran was released from prison on appeal after 25 years.

In 1919, a strike at the US Steel and Wire Company – which had acquired Washburn & Moen – led to a call for intervention from the state militia.

[27][28] Noted organized crime boss Johnny Torrio served time in Waukegan's Lake County jail in 1925.

This inclusion took place as a result of suburban sprawl, effectively dissolving the region's identity as self-standing.

Despite this, Waukegan has retained a distinct industrial character in contrast to many of the residential suburbs along Chicago's North Shore.

[16] The financial disparity created by the disappearance of manufacturing from the city in part contributed to the Waukegan riot of 1966.

[30] On Sunday, May 31, 2020, a peaceful protest in reaction to the George Floyd police shooting in Minneapolis turned violent when a portion of the protesters looted and damaged local businesses along Lewis Avenue from Glen Flora Street north into the Village of Beach Park.

According to local activist Ralph Peterson, who organized the earlier peaceful march moving east along Grand Avenue into the downtown area, two intoxicated locals and about five "professional provocateurs" not recognized by attendees attempted to incite to violence 50-75 protesters gathered at the corner of Glen Flora and North Lewis Avenue.

[31] Businesses from Glen Flora Avenue north to Yorkhouse Road in Beach Park suffered looting of merchandise, property damage and vandalism.

Five county squad cars were damaged during the confrontations, and over twenty people were arrested[31] with no injuries reported.

[33] On Tuesday, local faith leaders organized a vigil to denounce looting as counterproductive while demanding justice for the shooting of George Floyd.

[38] The OMC plants were subsequently added to the National Priorities List, and was designated as one of 43 Great Lakes Areas of Concern.

During the OMC cleanup, additional soil contaminants were found at the location of the former Waukegan Manufactured Gas and Coke Company.

In 1970, it was discovered that the lack of a bottom liner in the landfill had allowed leachate to enter groundwater, contaminating the water with volatile organic compounds and PCBs, and releasing gases that presented an explosion hazard.

[54] The lakefront and harbor plan calls for most industrial activity to be removed, except for the Midwest Generation power plant and North Shore wastewater treatment facilities.

Any new membera are sworn on the first Monday in May of their respective election year, as it coincides with the first city council meeting of the month.

[61] A statue of Benny, dedicated in 2002, stands in downtown facing the Genesee Theater, which hosted the world premiere of his film Man about Town in 1939, with wife Mary, Dorothy Lamour, Phil Harris, Andy Devine, Don Wilson and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson appearing onstage.

Benny's family lived in several places in Waukegan during his formative years there, but the house at 518 West Clayton Street is the only one of them still standing.

For the history see Arthur Zilversmit, Changing schools: Progressive education theory and practice, 1930-1960 (University of Chicago Press, 1993).

Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep, is private Catholic high school, located within a former Kmart in Waukegan.

Pace provides bus service on numerous routes throughout the city with a hub in downtown Waukegan.

Separated from downtown by the Amstutz Expressway, the Waukegan station provides Metra commuter rail service along the Union Pacific North Line.

Trains travel south to Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago, and north to Kenosha, Wisconsin.