Illinois drew early French exploration when Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette traveled the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in 1673, and France held the region until the Treaty of Paris in 1763 transferred it to Great Britain. During the American Revolution, George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia without bloodshed for Virginia, and Illinois became a Virginia county. The area was ceded to the United States in 1784, then formed part of the Northwest Territory and later the Indiana and Illinois Territories before entering the Union as the twenty-first state on December 3, 1818. In the twentieth century, Illinois National Guard units formed the 33d Division in August 1917; it became noted in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and by November 11, 1918 stood ready for a break through the Hindenburg Line, and in World War II it fought in the Pacific and liberated Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines. U.S. Highway 36 crosses places tied to major Illinois figures: Pittsfield, where John Nicolay and John Hay formed their friendship; Winchester, where Stephen A. Douglas studied law and taught; Jacksonville, where he held his first elective office; Springfield, where Lincoln's home, tomb, and the Old State Capitol are located; and Mount Pulaski, where a courthouse stands in which Lincoln practiced law.