Betcha didn't know...

Okay, so this post was planned to go up yesterday, but my boss lady was in a mood and I didn't get a spare second to do it.

Sorry. But here it is a day late. So what was so special about yesterday, April 30? The year was 1939 in New York City... Any guesses?

On April 30, 1939, a very hot Sunday, The 1939-40 New York World's Fair had its grand opening, with 200,000 people in attendance. Located on the current site of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (also the location of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair), the fair was one of the largest world's fairs of all time. Many different countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons.

The April 30 grand opening date coincided with George Washington's inauguration as President in New York City. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the opening day address, and as a reflection of the wide range of technological innovation on parade at the fair, his speech was not only broadcast over the various radio networks but also was televised on NBC - a presidential and TV braodcast first.

So you ask, what went on at the fair?

According to Wikipedia, one of the first exhibits to receive attention was a time capsule, which was not to be opened till 6939 A.D. The time capsule was a tube containing writings by Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann, copies of Life Magazine, a kewpie doll, a dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes, millions of pages of text on microfilm, and much more. The seeds contained in the time capsule (wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, cotton, flax, rice, soy beans, alfalfa, sugar beets, carrots and barley, all sealed in glass tubes) are probably the only ones on earth never exposed to radiation from nuclear explosions. The time capsule is located at 40°44′34.089″N, 73°50′43.842″W, at a depth of 50 feet. A small stone plaque marks the position.

Other exhibits included a streamlined pencil sharpener, a futuristic car based city by GM (see postcard below) and one of the first televisions. There was also a huge globe/planetarium located near the center of the fair. Bell Labs' Voder, a keyboard-operated speech synthesizer, was demonstrated at the Fair.

The copy of Magna Carta belonging to Lincoln Cathedral also left Britain in 1939 for the first time to be in the British Pavilion at the fair. Within months Britain joined World War Two and it was deemed safer for it to remain in America until the end of hostilities. It therefore remained in Fort Knox, next to the original copy of the American constitution, until 1947.

The fair's "Theme Center" consisted of two all-white, landmark monumental buildings named the Trylon (over 700 feet tall) and the Perisphere which one entered by moving stairway and exited via a grand curved walkway named the Helicline. Only the Trylon and Perisphere were all white; avenues stretching out into the zones from the Theme Center were designed with rich colors that changed the further one walked from the center of the grounds. At night, with the latest in lighting technology switched on, the effect was magical.

Among the many unique exhibits was the Borden's exhibit, that featured 150 pedigreed cows (including the original Elsie) on a "rotolactor" that mechanically bathed them, dried them, and milked them.

Despite the high-minded educational tone that was attempted, the "Amusements Area" was the most popular part of the Fair and included roller coaster, the Life Savers parachute jump (which was later moved to Coney Island where it still stands), and carnival acts such as a collection of performing midgets.

The fair was open for two seasons, from April to October each year, and was officially closed forever on October 27, 1940. The great fair attracted over 45 million visitors and generated roughly $48 million in revenue. Since the Fair Corporation had invested 67 million dollars (in addition to nearly a hundred million dollars from other sources), it was an economic failure, and the corporation declared bankruptcy.

So, that's what I had for you yesterday. And now you can say you've learned something new.