*** Welcome to piglix ***

Seattle World's Fair

EXPO Seattle 1962
Century 21 Exposition logo1.png
Century 21 Exposition logo
Overview
BIE-class Universal exposition
Category Second category General Exposition
Name Century 21 Exposition
Motto Living in the Space Age
Building Space Needle
Area 74 acres (30 ha)
Invention(s) Bubbleator, Friendship 7
Visitors 6,609,609
Organized by Edward E. Carlson
Participant(s)
Countries 24
Location
Country United States
City Seattle
Venue Broad Street
Coordinates 47°37′17″N 122°21′03″W / 47.62139°N 122.35083°W / 47.62139; -122.35083
Timeline
Bidding 1955
Opening April 21, 1962
Closure October 21, 1962
Universal expositions
Previous Expo 58 in Brussels
Next Expo 67 in Montreal

The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World's Fair) was a world's fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962, in Seattle, Washington. Nearly 10 million people attended the fair. Unlike some other world's fairs of its era, Century 21 made a profit.

As planned, the exposition left behind a fairground and numerous public buildings and public works; some credit it with revitalizing Seattle's economic and cultural life (see History of Seattle since 1940). The fair saw the construction of the Space Needle and Alweg monorail, as well as several sports venues (Washington State Coliseum, now KeyArena) and performing arts buildings (the Playhouse, now the Cornish Playhouse), most of which have since been replaced or heavily remodeled.

The site, slightly expanded since the fair, is now called Seattle Center; the United States Science Pavilion is now the Pacific Science Center. Another notable Seattle Center building, the Museum of Pop Culture (earlier called EMP Museum), was built nearly 40 years later and designed to fit in with the fairground atmosphere.

The fair was originally conceived in 1955 to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, but it soon became clear that that date was too ambitious. With the Space Race underway and Boeing having "put Seattle on the map" as "an aerospace city", a major theme of the fair was to show that "the United States was not really 'behind' the Soviet Union in the realms of science and space". As a result, the themes of space, science, and the future completely trumped the earlier conception of a "Festival of the [American] West".

In June 1960, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) certified Century 21 as a world's fair. Project manager Ewen Dingwall went to Moscow to request Soviet participation, but was turned down. Neither the People's Republic of China, Vietnam nor North Korea were invited.


...
Wikipedia

...