May 1

On the 1st in 1851, Great Britain’s monarch, Queen Victoria, presided at the opening ceremonies of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, the first in a long series of World Fairs. It’s claim to being the first World’s Fair is suspect however, coming as it did hot on the heels of French Industrial Exposition of 1844, though if you weren’t French you had no chance of getting an exhibit in that little number.
By the time the exhibition closed on October 15, 1851, 6 million people had visited it; roughly, a third of the population of Great Britain had visited it.
The chief administrator of Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 was Henry Cole. Among his many achievements, the one closest to British hearts was his award-winning teapot.