[5] Originally, Cicero Township occupied an area six times the size of its current territory.

[6] By 1911, an aerodrome called the Cicero Flying Field had been established as the town's first aircraft facility of any type,[7] located on a roughly square plot of land about 800 meters (1/2-mile) per side, on then-open ground at 41°51′19″N 87°44′56″W / 41.85528°N 87.74889°W / 41.85528; -87.74889 by the Aero Club of Illinois, founded on February 10, 1910.

[8] 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.

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.

Cicero had a sundown town policy prohibiting African Americans from living in the city.

[13] The American Friends Service Committee, Martin Luther King Jr., and many affiliated organizations, including churches, were conducting marches against housing and school de facto segregation and inequality in Chicago and several suburbs, but the leaders feared too violent a response in Chicago Lawn and Cicero.

[15] The marches in the Chicago suburbs helped galvanize support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, extending federal prohibitions against discrimination to private housing.

Once considered mainly a Czech or Bohemian town, most of the European-style restaurants and shops on 22nd Street (now Cermak Road) have been replaced by Spanish-titled businesses.

In 2002, Republican Town President Betty Loren-Maltese was sent to federal prison in California for misappropriating $12 million in funds.

[18] According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Cicero has a total area of 5.87 square miles (15.20 km2), all land.

There were more than 150 factories in 1.7 mi (2.8 km), producing communications and electronic equipment, sugar, printing presses, steel castings, tool and die makers' supplies, forging and rubber goods.

[27] The United States Postal Service operates the Cicero Post Office at 2440 South Laramie Avenue.

Elementary students attend the following schools, depending on residency: Burnham (K-6), Cicero East (4-6), Cicero West (PK-4), Columbus East (4-6), Columbus West (PK-4), Drexel (K-6), Early Childhood Center (PK), Goodwin (PK-6), Liberty (K-3), Lincoln (PK-6), Roosevelt (5-6), Sherlock (PK-6), Warren Park (PK-6), Wilson (K-6), and Unity Junior High (7-8), which is separated into East/West sections.

Multiple Pace and Chicago Transit Authority bus routes cover portions of Cicero.

The Cicero Fire Department (CFD) has a staff of 97 professional full time firefighters.