World's fairs debuted the telephone and television before media existed

At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, twenty-seven million people stood in awe as a single switch illuminated 120,000 light bulbs, effectively ending the battle between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla over the future of electricity. These expositions were not just trade shows; they were the only place on Earth where a person could see a working telephone or a talking film decades before they became household staples.