Cicero

History

Originally, Cicero Township occupied an area six times the size of its current territory. The cities of Oak Park and Berwyn were incorporated from portions of Cicero Township, and other portions, such as Austin, were annexed into the city of Chicago. By 1911, an aerodrome called the Cicero Flying Field had been established as the town's first aircraft facility of any type, located on a roughly square plot of land about per side, on then-open ground at by the Aero Club of Illinois, founded on February 10, 1910. Famous pilots like Hans-Joachim Buddecke, Lincoln Beachey, Chance M. Vought and others flew from there at various times during the "pioneer era" of aviation in the United States shortly before the nation's involvement in World War I; the field closed in mid-April 1916. After building his criminal empire in Chicago, Al Capone moved to Cicero to escape the reach of Chicago police. The 1924 Cicero municipal elections were particularly violent due to gang-related efforts to secure a favorable election result. On July 11–12, 1951, a race riot erupted in Cicero when a white mob of around 4,000 attacked and burned an apartment building at 6139 W. 19th Street that housed the African-American family of Harvey Clark Jr., a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver who had relocated to the all-white city. Governor Adlai E. Stevenson was forced to call out the Illinois National Guard. The Clarks moved away and the building had to be boarded up. The Cicero riot received worldwide condemnation. Cicero was taken up and abandoned several times as site for a civil rights march in the mid-1960s. Cicero had a sundown town policy prohibiting African Americans from living in the city. The American Friends Service Committee, Martin Luther King Jr., and many affiliated organizations,…

Geography

According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Cicero has an area of , all land. Cicero formerly ran from Harlem Avenue to Western Avenue and Pershing Road to North Avenue, but Chicago annexed much of that area. Cicero is in the Hot-summer humid continental climate, or Köppen Dfa zone. The zone includes four distinct seasons. Winter is cold with snow. Spring warms up with precipitation and storms. Summer has high precipitation and storms. Fall cools down. {| |- | |}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  123,691
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  119,674
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  108,280
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  96,258
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  84,935
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  81,989
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  72,245
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  71,986

Largest nearby schools

• Lane Technical High School
  High · Chicago · 4,496 students · 17.4:1 ratio
• Taft High School
  High · Chicago · 4,464 students · 16.6:1 ratio
• Lyons Twp High Sch
  High · La Grange · 3,842 students · 15:1 ratio
• J Sterling Morton West High Sch
  High · Berwyn · 3,533 students · 17.2:1 ratio
• J Sterling Morton East High Sch
  High · Cicero · 3,445 students · 20.4:1 ratio
• Oak Park & River Forest High Sch
  High · Oak Park · 3,304 students · 14.1:1 ratio
• Curie Metropolitan High School
  High · Chicago · 3,178 students · 16.5:1 ratio
• Kenwood Academy High School
  High · Chicago · 2,338 students · 19.2:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2026-07-08
  21 km ENE of Kenilworth, Illinois
• M 3.1 — 2024-07-15
  2 km WNW of Somonauk, Illinois
• M 2.9 — 2015-03-25
  3 km WNW of Lake in the Hills, Illinois
• M 3.2 — 2013-11-04
  1 km SSW of Lyons, Illinois
• M 2.6 — 2013-06-10
  4 km NNE of Virgil, Illinois
• M 3.8 — 2010-02-10
  2 km NW of Lily Lake, Illinois