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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Dec. 6, according to the Tribune’s archives.

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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago )

High temperature: 65 degrees (1980)

Low temperature: Zero degrees (2007)

Precipitation: 1.12 inches (1998)

Snowfall: 5.6 inches (1950)

In response to White Chicagoans mocking the first Black fire crew in 1872, they wanted to prove themselves as good, if not better

1872: The Tribune reported a Black fire company — Engine 21 — would be stationed on May Street. Just six years later the station’s “sliding pole” was invented and would later be adopted worldwide.

1924: Stateville prison in Joliet was ded

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