Short answers, pulled from the story.
In 1865, following the end of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the park's name was changed from "Lake Park" to "Lincoln Park." The surrounding neighborhood eventually took the same name, as was common with many Chicago areas named after their adjacent parks.
Lincoln Park was originally a cemetery. In 1837 the State of Illinois granted permission for residents to use the area north of North Avenue as a burial ground. By 1860, physicians and citizens petitioned the Chicago Common Council to repurpose the land as a public park due to concerns about a burial ground adjacent to a growing residential area.
In 1968 a violent confrontation between demonstrators and police took place in Lincoln Park during the week of the Democratic National Convention. Demonstrators gathered in the park, which was roughly ten miles from the Convention hall. The Church of Our Saviour opened its doors during the conflict to shelter young people fleeing the violence.
The deadliest porch collapse in United States history occurred on the 29th of June, 2003, at 713 W. Wrightwood Ave. in Lincoln Park, Chicago. The collapse, which happened during a party, killed 13 people and seriously injured 57 others.
The Young Lords were originally a local gang whose founder, Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, transformed them into human rights activists for Latinos and the poor. In 1969 they mounted large demonstrations against the displacement of Puerto Ricans from Lincoln Park, including an occupation of buildings at McCormick Theological Seminary. Their history is archived at DePaul University's Richardson Library.
From 1896 to 1903 the original Ferris Wheel was located at a small amusement park near Clark Street and Wrightwood Avenue in Lincoln Park, at a site running from 2619 to 2665 N. Clark Street. That address is now the location of a McDonald's and a high-rise residential building.