PHOTO: MARTHA WILLIAMS

Last U.S. baseball stadium to introduce night games
North Siders’ worst nightmares about annoying bright lights and big noisy crowds finally came true when Wrigley Field installed lights to illuminate night games in 1988. To be fair, onetime owner Philip Wrigley intended to light up the field in time for the 1942 season. But after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he donated the materials to the war effort instead. Even in Wrigleyville, some things take precedence over baseball.

Last horse slaughterhouse in the country
Americans don’t have much of a taste for horse meat, but that didn’t stop one plant outside of Chicago from slaughtering the animals and selling the meat to foreign countries. In 2007, the feds forced the Cavel plant in DeKalb, which was butchering nearly 1,000 horses a week, to shut down.

Last little person to play in the American League
Standing tall at 3’7” and weighing in at 65 pounds, Chicago native Edward “one-eighth Eddie” Gaedel received a one-day contract with the St. Louis Browns as a publicity stunt on August 19, 1951. With Gaedel’s 11.5-inch strike zone, the opposing Detroit pitcher inevitably walked the bantam batter. Number one-eighth is laid to rest at St. Mary Cemetery in Evergreen Park.