1967 World Exposition
| EXPO Montreal 1967 | |
|---|---|
Official Expo 67 Logo
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| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Universal exposition |
| Category | First category General Exposition |
| Name | Expo 67 |
| Motto | Man and his World |
| Building | Habitat 67 |
| Area | 365 hectares (900 acres) |
| Visitors | 50,306,648 |
| Organized by | Pierre Dupuy |
| Participant(s) | |
| Countries | 60 |
| Organizations | 2 |
| Location | |
| Country | Canada |
| City | Montreal |
| Venue |
Notre Dame Island Saint Helen's Island Cité du Havre |
| Coordinates | 45°31′00″N 73°32′08″W / 45.51667°N 73.53556°W |
| Timeline | |
| Bidding | 1958 |
| Awarded | 1962 |
| Opening | April 27, 1967 |
| Closure | October 29, 1967 |
| Universal expositions | |
| Previous | Century 21 Exposition in Seattle |
| Next | Expo '70 in Osaka |
| Specialized Expositions | |
| Previous | IVA 65 in Munich |
| Next | HemisFair '68 in San Antonio |
| Internet | |
| Website | expo67 |
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was a general exhibition, Category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century with the most attendees to that date and 62 nations participating. It also set the single-day attendance record for a world's fair, with 569,500 visitors on its third day.
Expo 67 was Canada's main celebration during its centennial year. The fair had been intended to be held in Moscow, to help the Soviet Union celebrate the Russian Revolution's 50th anniversary; however, for various reasons, the Soviets decided to cancel, and Canada was awarded it in late 1962.
The project was not well supported in Canada at first. It took the determination of Montreal's mayor, Jean Drapeau, and a new team of managers to guide it past political, physical and temporal hurdles. Defying a computer analysis that said it could not be done, the fair opened on time.
After Expo 67 ended in October 1967, the site and most of the pavilions continued on as an exhibition called Man and His World, open during the summer months from 1968 until 1984. By that time, most of the buildings — which had not been designed to last beyond the original exhibition — had deteriorated and were dismantled. Today, the islands that hosted the world exhibition are mainly used as parkland and for recreational use, with only a few remaining structures from Expo 67 to show that the event was held there.
The idea of hosting the 1967 World Exhibition dates back to 1956, but it was in 1958 that Conservative Senator Mark Drouin suggested during his speech at the Brussels Exhibition that Canada should host a World Exhibition to celebrate its centennial. The exposition was offered first to Toronto but politicians there rejected the idea. However, Montreal's mayor, Sarto Fournier, backed the proposal, allowing Canada to make a bid to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). At the BIE's May 5, 1960 meeting in Paris, Moscow was awarded the fair after five rounds of voting that eliminated Austria's and then Canada's bids. In April 1962, the Soviets scrapped plans to host the fair because of financial constraints and security concerns. Montreal's new mayor, Jean Drapeau, lobbied the Canadian government to try again for the fair, which they did. On November 13, 1962, the BIE changed the location of the World Exhibition to Canada, and Expo 67 went on to become the fourth-best attended BIE-sanctioned world expositions, after Shanghai, Osaka, and Paris.
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