The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was the largest international exhibition ever built in the United States. More than one hundred fifty pavilions and exhibits spread over six hundred forty-six acres helped the fair live up to its reputation as "the Billion-Dollar Fair." With the cold war in full swing, the fair offered visitors a refreshingly positive view of the future, mirroring the official Peace through Understanding. Guests could travel back in time through a display of full-sized dinosaurs, or look into a future where underwater hotels and flying cars were commonplace. They could enjoy Walt Disney's popular shows, or study actual spacecraft flown in orbit. More than fifty-one million guests visited the fair before it closed forever in 1965. The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair captures the history of this event through vintage photographs, published here for the first time.

Since 1962, Adventureland has been entertaining and thrilling the Long Island community. The park was constructed in a rural area of Suffolk County around the time of a suburban boom eastward on Long Island, which brought enormous population growth in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Since its opening, the park has seen significant change, with numerous rides and attractions being moved or retired to make way for newer attractions. Published here are images of the park throughout its entire history, many of which have never been seen by the public before. Adventureland shares early lost attractions and retired fan favorites in full living color, allowing both the young and the young at heart to remember the park in all of its stages, from opening to today.

In the 1960s, Battle Creek was a successful industrial town known around the world as the “Cereal City” due to the area’s largest employers, the ready-to-eat breakfast food companies of Ralston Foods, the Kellogg Company, and the Post division of General Foods. As these long-established businesses began to downsize, automate, and relocate, the community met the new economic and social challenges by developing a downtown pedestrian mall, converting a former military base into a vibrant industrial park, and merging two municipalities into the third-largest city (by area) in Michigan. These changes, along with many others, have continued to guide this Midwestern community into the 21st century.

In May 1972, actor Fess Parker of Davy Crockett fame announced plans for a huge theme park complex in Santa Clara, California. Eventually, the Marriott Corporation joined the effort. Parker later departed, while Marriott continued with what was the corporation's largest project to date. Marriott's Great America opened its gates on March 20, 1976. It featured a variety of family and thrill rides on a grand scale plus live entertainment, including multiple stage shows and even a full circus. From Marriott to the park's current owner, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, Great America has entertained and continues to entertain millions of guests in what is now the heart of Silicon Valley.

Greensboro has reinvented itself in recent decades. By the time of its 1958 sesquicentennial, Greensboro was North Carolina's second-largest city and the world's largest producer of denim. It was home to many textile companies, including the world's largest; major insurance firms; and manufacturers of other products. Greensboro holds an important place in the civil rights movement, with the sit-ins at Woolworth's department store, a site now preserved as the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. In 1982, a grocery store opened in Greensboro that wanted to bring the old-fashioned market experience back to consumers. The Fresh Market has since expanded to over 100 stores in more than 20 states. Greensboro's roster of colleges and universities has grown over the years, and it remains a key education and research center. Founded in 1991, RF Micro Devices, Greensboro's largest company, makes components of most cell phones. Greensboro showcases the rich commercial and community history of this city over the past 50 years.

Situated on the Hudson River, the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal operated its railroad/maritime complex for over 100 years in this area. After its shutdown in 1967, community advocates, already lobbying for nine years, continued their successful campaign for the site to become a public park. With over 1,000 acres, Liberty State Park opened on Flag Day—June 14, 1976. Today, this recreational landscape features the Nature Interpretive Center, Liberty Science Center, and a section of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway. Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, is the only place in New Jersey where one can board a ferry to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Liberty State Park showcases the rich cultural and environmental history of this landscape's transformation from an abandoned waterfront transportation hub into one of America's most exceptional state parks.

The history of rock music in Milwaukee began at an age when some musicians played in a segregated part of the city. At the same time, a young singer named Buddy Holly kicked off a tour that ended with a plane crash in Iowa 11 days later. The following years brought the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the rest of the British Invasion. In the late 1960s came acid rock, civil unrest, and Summerfest, a music festival that continues to this day. Milwaukee has had its moments in the spotlight: Bob Dylan left the stage after two songs in 1964, Bruce Springsteen's 1975 concert was delayed for hours while police searched for a bomb in the theater, hundreds of Black Sabbath fans rioted after a 1980 show, and the Plasmatics' Wendy O. Williams was beaten by police in 1981. And then there was the helicopter crash in which blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn perished.

Surfing came to the central Oregon coast in the early 1960s. Mostly young boys from Newport and the Agate Beach area took to the waves, without wetsuits or leashes, and taught themselves how to surf in the forbidding cold waters. Eventually forming the Agate Beach Surf Club, they discovered other surfing communities along the Oregon coast. With no modern-day technology to help them, they traveled the rugged Oregon coast in search of good and accessible surf spots. Fifty years later, the surfing culture has grown and evolved, including both genders, kite, wind, stand-up-paddle, and big wave surfing. What hasn't changed is the unique and challenging environment of the Oregon coast. Geography, the weather, and the cold water still remain the biggest challenges. In the face of all this, the surfing community grows and continues to prosper.

Born out of tragedy and like none of her predecessors, over the course of her 25 missions and her 19-year career, this new orbiter would perform many vital and historic missions for humanity. Inspiring pride and admiration, Endeavour would fix the Hubble Space Telescope, begin construction of the International Space Station (ISS), and perform several Spacelab missions, never failing to expand man's knowledge of space. Endeavour's story was not to end with 25 missions in space but with one final mission, mission 26, her move from Florida to her new home in California. Atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Endeavour was flown piggyback across the United States for her final victory lap. Welcomed and waved along by millions of admirers, she was carried through the streets of Los Angeles to her final destination, the California Science Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

Mention "advertising," and just about everyone thinks of New York's Madison Avenue, long the center of the nation's advertising universe. The reality is that advertising is everywhere and has been almost since the inception of the nation. In St. Louis, for example, two early advertising agencies became major players on the national scene, creating advertising for multinational corporations. Browsing through this collection of old advertisements gives readers a chance to follow the development of the nation's business community over the past 200 years and see what was important in the daily lives of Americans, as well as what the nation's commercial interests wanted them to believe was important.

West Brighton has come a long way from its 19th-century name of "Factoryville" and has evolved into a wonderful residential community on the north shore of Staten Island. Today, West Brighton remains a place of family-owned and -operated businesses and churches that have surpassed the century mark. It retains the spirit of what Staten Island once was, while continuing to grow alongside the rapidly changing times. The most enduring characteristic about West Brighton is its people, the generations that have chosen to live and raise their families here. They have celebrated milestones and achievements, such as being elected borough president of Staten Island, which was accomplished by native West Brighton residents Anthony R. Gaeta and Ralph J. Lamberti.