Throughout the remainder of the 19th century, and into the early 20th Century, World's Fairs were held throughout the United States and Europe. The usual reason for holding an Exposition was to commemorate an important and noteable historical event. Some examples include: Columbus discovering America (1893, Chicago, World's Columbian Exposition), The centennial of the Louisana Purchase (1904, St. Louis, Louisiana Purchase Exposition), The Chicago Centennial (1933, A Century of Progress Exposition), The 150th Anniversary of Washington's Presidential Inauguration (1939-1940 New York World's Fair), to name a few. There were dozens of smaller world's fairs that celebrated other events.

Some historical events occured at World's Fairs. President McKinley was assassinated at the 1901 Buffalo World's Fair. In 1939, the first television broadcast was done at the RCA Pavillion at the New York World's fair. In 1964, the public got the first view of the new Ford Mustang being built in the Ford Pavillion at the New York World's Fair.

The heyday of the International Exposition was between 1890 and 1940. After this time, World's Fairs were less frequent and not as flamboyant as their predecesors. The main problem with these fairs is that the sales of tickets almost never exceeds the cost of constructing and running a fair. Almost all World's Fairs lose money. After 1964, Expositions (later shortened to "Expos") were mere imitations of the earlier "Great" World's Fairs. Despite their losing money, there have been small fairs held in Europe. Hannover, Germany hosted Expo 2000, which ended October, 31st, 2000. It was small and attendence was much lower than expected. However, there were thousands of souvenirs produced for collectors and fairgoers to remember the fair. In 2005, Japan will be hosting it's own Expo.

For those of you who are interested, there are a couple of videos available that deal with World's Fairs. The film, "Meet Me in St. Louis", 1943, starring Judy Garland, was about a family who lived in St. Louis at the time of the Lousiana Purchase Exposition. There are many references to the family visiting the fairgrounds during construction and after it opened. Also, there is an excellent documentary on the 1939 New York World's Fair, "The World of Tomorrow," narrated by Jason Robards. This film shows many home movies, mostly in color, of the fair. It is excellent and the quality of the footage is first rate. Some of the scenes look as though they were filmed today, especially the night shots.

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