It’s seems plenty of advancements and acheivements have come out of world fairs…but I don’t think I’ve ever been to one.
when was the last one? How often? What was the last great invention debuted at a world’s fair?
World’s Fairs are still going on; Expomuseum gives a list. The most recent was in 2000 in Hanover, Germany; and one is scheduled for Seto, Japan in 2005.
First is usually credited to the Great Exposition in London in 1851.
As far as inventions; TV debuted (to the public) in the New York World’s Fair of 1939-40, but there may have been something important debuting at one of the later fairs.
TV had been shown to the public in various forms in various countries (USA, UK, Germany, and Japan) before 1939.
A lot of people credit the 1939 broadcast from New York as the first public demonstration because it was NBC’s broadcast and David Sarnoff liked to think of television starting with him.
But TV, like the automobile, started in different places with different inventors contributing many different aspects to it.
How about the hot dog and the ice cream cone?! St. Louis, 1904 IIRC.