The World in 1900 the year paris put the world on show

About 50 million visits were counted at the Paris World's Fair over seven months. The entire population of France at the time was closer to 39 million.

Life back then

Almost nothing came in a packet. At the grocer's shop, tea, sugar, flour and biscuits sat in sacks and tins behind the counter, and the shopkeeper weighed out what you asked for and twisted it into a paper cone. You carried a jug to the dairy for milk and took the bottle back to the brewer. Brand names printed on a box were still a novelty, and buying anything meant a conversation rather than a shelf. Little of it kept for long, so most families shopped nearly every day.

The year in 8 events

• 🌍Jan 1 Britain takes direct charge of Northern and Southern Nigeria, buying out the trading company that ran them.
• 🏛️Feb 27 Trade unions and socialist groups meet in London and set up what becomes the Labour Party.
• 🎡Apr 14 The Paris World's Fair opens. About 50 million visits are counted before it closes in November.
• 📖May 17 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is published in Chicago.
• ⚔️Aug 14 Troops from eight countries fight their way into Beijing and end a 55 day siege of the foreign legations.
• 🕯️Sep 8 A hurricane hits Galveston, Texas. Around eight thousand people die in the worst natural disaster in US history.
• 🗳️Nov 6 William McKinley is elected to a second term, beating William Jennings Bryan again.
• 🔬Dec 14 Max Planck tells German physicists that energy comes in small fixed packets. Quantum physics starts here.

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