Snapshot of world’s fairs past

World’s fair snapshot

A world’s fair snapshot:

PARIS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1889

More than 30 million visitors over six months. Produced the Eiffel Tower, perhaps the most famous world’s fair structure ever, according to historian John E. Findling, who wrote the “Encyclopedia of World’s Fairs and Expositions.” One of the few fairs to make a profit.

CHICAGO WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, 1893

First Ferris wheel introduced. Nearby, one of nation’s first serial killers built a hotel for fair guests with a gas chamber, dissection table and crematorium. Herman Webster Mudgett, aka Dr. H.H. Holmes, confessed to 27 murders. His story is part of Erik Larson’s book “The Devil in the White City.”

BUFFALO, N.Y., PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, 1901

On Sept. 6, during a visit to the fair, President William McKinley was shaking hands in a receiving line at the Temple of Music when a self-avowed “anarchist,” Leon Czolgosz, made his way through security. Standing before the president with a handkerchief hiding a gun, he shot the president twice in the stomach, Findling wrote. McKinley died eight days later.

NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR, 1939-40

Gershwin brothers wrote “Dawn of a New Day” in keeping with the theme “Building the World of Tomorrow with the Tools of Today.” Along with GM’s Futurama, a ride through dioramas set in 1960, and AT&T’s groundbreaking voice-synthesizing computer, there was a popular parachute jump from a 262-foot steel structure that was moved in 1941 to Coney Island’s boardwalk. It remains a landmark there today.

NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR, 1964-65

A spat between the city’s veteran builder and dealmaker, Robert Moses, and the Bureau of International Expositions, which refused to sanction the fair, severely curtailed foreign participation. The sanctioning body had already given its blessing to Seattle’s 1962 exposition. Moses had hoped to crown his 50-year career with the fair and refused BIE restrictions. The fair lost $20 million the first year and another $1 million the next.