Gadgets. New products. Outlandish seeming inventions. The 1939 World’s Fair was focused on the marvels of the future and tourists were visiting in droves. But within just six months of its opening, Europe erupted in war when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. And though the United ...read more
If you headed to Coney Island at the turn of the century, you might wade in the water, eat some ice cream, or try out a rollercoaster at the newly opened amusement park, Luna Park. But your boardwalk promenade might also include a visit to the equivalent of a fully functional ...read more
History Flashback takes a look at historical “found footage” of all kinds—newsreels, instructional films, even cartoons—to give us a glimpse into how much things have changed, and how much has remained the same. Nearly 80 years ago this month, President Roosevelt took the dais in ...read more
1. Ford assembly line For three hours each day inside the Palace of Transportation, the Ford Motor Company operated an assembly line that produced a new automobile every 10 minutes. Fairgoers watched as workers added axles, wheels, engines and interiors to the vehicles, which ...read more
1. Videoconferencing Visitors to the Bell System Pavilion were awed by demonstrations of the company’s Picturephones, which allowed callers to see each other on small television monitors. Decades before FaceTime and Skype made videoconferencing commonplace, Bell’s experimental ...read more
1. Chicago had to beat out a number of other cities to get the fair. In the late 1880s, Chicago, St. Louis, New York and Washington, D.C. all submitted bids to host the 1893 fair, but the race was soon narrowed to New York and Chicago. Big Apple financial titans including ...read more
From pie-eating contests to funnel cake, food has always been a central part of fairs. This was especially true of the first World’s Fairs, which provided hungry patrons with a thrilling introduction to “authentic” delicacies from exotic locales like China, Turkey and Morocco. ...read more
On April 30, 1939, the New York World’s Fair opens in New York City. The opening ceremony, which featured speeches by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and New York Governor Herbert Lehman, ushered in the first day of television broadcasting in New York. Spanning 1,200 acres at ...read more
On November 11, 1978, a stuntman on the Georgia set of “The Dukes of Hazzard” launches the show’s iconic automobile, a 1969 Dodge Charger named the General Lee, off a makeshift dirt ramp and over a police car. That jump, 16 feet high and 82 feet long (its landing totaled the ...read more
On this day in 2007, Beijing, China, the capital city of the planet’s most populous nation, gets its first drive-through McDonald’s restaurant. The opening ceremony for the new two-story fast-food eatery, located next to a gas station, included traditional Chinese lion dancers ...read more
