On this day, April 30, 1939, the New York World's Fair opened.

[CrispyQ]

1. Loved The Twilight Zone clip.

That was one of my favorite episodes!

I'm writing a novel where the 1933 Chicago World's Fair is part of the story. That fair was called The Century of Progress & I wondered, what happened to the World's Fairs?

How the 'World of Tomorrow' Became a Thing of the Past
BY HARRY SWARTOUT APRIL 29, 2014 7:00 AM EDT

https://time.com/79600/the-fall-of-the-fair/

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What happened to the World’s Fair? On April 30th, which marks the 75th anniversary of the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, the question becomes especially poignant. How did the global cultural events that inaugurated broadcast television (New York 1939), built the Eiffel Tower (Paris 1889), and introduced the world to the Ferris Wheel (Chicago 1893) disappear?

Actually, they haven’t: World’s Fairs haven’t gone anywhere, it’s just America that has moved on.

The next World’s Fair is scheduled for Spring 2015 in Milan Italy, but expo-goers who are looking to catch the latest glimpse at the “world of tomorrow,” will be disappointed. “A lot of Americans imagine World’s Fairs as they were in the 1930s and the 1960s, but the medium has changed,” says World’s Fair consultant Urso Chappell. “Whereas the focus was on progress or the space age and things like that at one time, the themes tend to be more environmental now,” he adds.

With smaller scope and a concentration on solving problems rather than trumpeting triumphs, World’s Fairs just don’t capture the imagination like they used to. Milan’s theme — Feeding the planet, energy for life — focuses on ending hunger and developing food sustainability. By contrast, the 1939 World’s Fair’s Dawn of a New Day slogan exuded aspirational wonder and 1964’s (which had its 50th anniversary last week), centered on Peace Through Understanding.

Building rocket ships is more exciting than feeding people.