The forerunner of what is known today as World EXPO was the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in London back in 1851. Queen Victoria personally invited nations to participate, and the event was attended by famous persons of that time, such as Charles Darwin, Charlotte Bronte, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens... A total of 28 countries participated at this event, and as many as six million people visited the exhibition. Today, World Expos represent global events organised with the aim of improving people's lives by finding solutions to the challenges humanity faces.

Interestingly enough, Queen Victoria also visited the next exhibition in Paris in 1855, and it was the first visit of a British monarch to the French capital in 400 years. At this event, visitors had the opportunity to see a lawnmower and a sewing machine for the first time. At the following exhibitions, numerous inventions were presented, such as the telegraph, Remington typewriter, the first telephone by inventor Alexander Bell, diesel engine, sound film, escalator, X-ray, wireless telephone, fax machine, and many others.

The Kingdom of Serbia, with as many as 302 exhibitors, participated for the first time in the exhibition in Antwerp in 1885, as one of the 25 participating countries.

World EXPOS are most famous and remembered for their scientific innovations and artistic achievements. Here are some lesser-known facts about these exhibitions.

The American manufacturer Heinz first introduced the product many people love today, ketchup, at the exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.

At the first World Exhibition held in the southern hemisphere in 1880 in Melbourne, the total number of visitors was 1.5 times greater than the population of Melbourne at that time.

Did you know that the world-renowned scientist Nikola Tesla visited the exhibition in Paris in 1889? The Eiffel Tower was temporarily built for that Expo. Interestingly enough, a great rival of Tesla, American scientist Thomas Edison, visited the same exhibition. However, it remains unknown whether they met on the Eiffel Tower or somewhere else on this occasion.

Thanks to the phonograph, a device for sound reproduction that was presented for the first time at this exhibition, French composer Claude Debussy heard music from the island of Java, which had a crucial influence on his later work.

Already at the next exhibition, in Chicago in 1893, American President Grover Cleveland lit up 160,000 electric light bulbs that illuminated the night of the "Windy City". This event marked a great victory of alternating current over direct current (known in science as "The Current War"), and Nikola Tesla's stance over Thomas Edison's opinion. This World Expo in Chicago, after the one in Paris, once again intertwined the destinies of these two geniuses.

Even the second Olympic Games were held as part of the exhibition at the turn of the century, in 1900 in Paris.

The audience saw Walt Disney's cartoons about Mickey Mouse in colour for the first time at the exhibition in Brussels in 1935.

At the next exhibition held again in Brussels two decades later, held in 1958, the Yugoslav Pavilion designed by architect Vjenceslav Rihter was one of the smallest, but also one of the most impressive ones. Made of iron and glass, with six steel arches symbolising the six Yugoslav republics, it received the gold medal of the Belgian Crown due to its artistic value. Two years after the end of the exhibition, it was transferred to the municipality of Wevelgem in West Flanders, where it was reconstructed, and today it is one of the few preserved pavilions from that era. Unlike the country it represented, which has disappeared.

The exhibition in Shanghai in 2010 had a record of more than one million visitors per day, a figure that only a few events can claim. This exhibition was seen by as many as 73 million people.

Belgrade will host the EXPO Specialised Exhibition in 2027. Although smaller in scale and duration, specialised exhibitions are equally important to showcase innovation and creativity. The approximately 3 million visitors expected at the exhibition in Belgrade will have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the solutions and answers to specific challenges that humanity faces.