The 1939 New York World’s Fair opened on this day, April 30. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons. It was the first exposition to be based on the future, with an opening slogan of “Dawn of a New Day”, and it allowed all visitors to take a look at “the world of tomorrow”.

Albert Einstein gave a speech, and his writings were included, along with Thomas Mann‘s, in a time capsule. Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his work for harp and string orchestra “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus” on commission. David Sarnoff, then president of RCA, chose to introduce television to the mass public at the RCA pavilion.  Read more (Wikipedia)