1967 was the
year of Canada's 100th birthday and of all the events
and celebrations that were to take place during that
euphoric year of Canadian nationalism, the world's fair
in Canada's largest city, Montreal, was to be the most
spectacular. It opened on April 27th, 1967 and was
located two large islands on the St Lawrence River in
the heart of Montreal. By the time the fair came to an
end, over 50 million visitors had experienced the
amazing presentation of technology, culture and a
view of the future.
After the Soviet Union had won the rights
to hold the fair, the Russians backed out of their
commitment in 1961, due to financial constraints, and
Montreal stepped up. The Ile Ste Helene was chosen as
the site a second island, the Ile Notre-Dame was created
from dredging the river and building up he island.
Expo 67 was designated an exhibition of
the First Category by the Bureau International des
Expositions which required that it would have to ask
participants to cover the entire range of human
activities.
The
architecture and technology were impressive and
spectacular and almost all visitors were duly impressed.
Some of the highlight pavilions were the gigantic U.S.
geodesic dome, the inverted pyramid Canadian pavilion
and the large Soviet structure. The five themes of the
exhibition were
Man the Creator
man the Explorer
Man the Producer
Man the Provider
Man and the
Community
Habitat 67 focused on
new ways for housing to be conceived and built in the
modern world and was an impressive success with visitors
to the fair. Space exploration played a central role in
the U.S. and Soviet pavilions which used this theme to
promote their achievements high above the earth.
All together there were over 120
countries represented at the fair with 53 private
pavilions.
When the far came to a
close on October 27thm 1967 it was estimated that the
revenues generated from the fair were almost double that
expected and tourism in Quebec soared during that
magical, mystical summer.
Travel
The History Club
Sign up for a complimentary membership
in our history e-publication TIMELINES and receive a
monthly issue of Timelines magazine.
Join
To contact regarding information on this
site or to submit articles for web publication,
please click here
