Knoxville World’s Fair
The Event International exposition focused on
energy and energy-related technologies
Date May 1, 1982 to October 31, 1982
Place Knoxville, Tennessee
The 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville celebrated energy effi-
ciency, usage, and alternatives and brought 11 million vis-
itors to pavilions and exhibits from over two dozen nations.
Following a decade of energy shortages, in the early
1980’s the city of Knoxville in East Tennessee
emerged as a likely host for an international energy
exposition. The town of nearly 200,000 boasted close
proximity to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory;
served as the headquarters of the nation’s largest
utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority; and was adja-
cent to the University of Tennessee’s energy re-
search facilities. Knoxville’s access to major inter-
state highways and closeness to the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park also made tourist traffic
likely.
City leaders rallied around the concept of hosting
an international exposition as a way to revitalize
Knoxville’s downtown, improve the interstate sys-
tem, and attract outside industry to the mountain
town. Event planners settled on “Energy Turns the
World” as the exposition’s theme. Leaders selected a
narrow tract of land between downtown and the
University of Tennessee’s campus, a tract once known
as Scuffletown, as the location for the exposition.
Following approval from the Bureau of Interna-
tional Expositions in Paris, Knoxville planners se-
cured funding from the federal government and
issued city bonds to help raise the $115 million re-
quired to stage the event. State and federal funds
also became available for significant interstate high-
way improvements around the city.
On May 1, 1982, President Ronald Reagan offi-
cially opened the Knoxville International Energy
Exposition (also known as Energy Expo ’82, the
Knoxville World’s Fair, and the 1982 World’s Fair).
The 266-foot-tall Sunsphere overlooked the grounds
and served as the event’s symbol. Visitors marveled
at pavilions and exhibits including multilingual com-
puters from Japan, solar collectors from Saudi Ara-
bia, bricks from the Great Wall of China, a giant
Rubik’s Cube from Hungary, an unwrapped Peru-
vian mummy, and talking robots from the United
States. Fairgoers experienced daily parades, nightly
fireworks, marching bands, midway rides, and en-
tertainment performances by Bob Hope, Debbie
Boone, Johnny Cash, and many others. Professional
football and basketball exhibition games were also
held nearby. On October 31, 1982, the Energy Expo
’82 closed after hosting over 11 million visitors, mak-
ing it one of the top-drawing fairs in American his-
tory.
Impact The 1982 World’s Fair brought the small
city of Knoxville, Tennessee, to the forefront of in-
ternational attention. The production and conser-
vation of energy proved a timely and relevant theme
for Americans in the 1980’s. While the fair ad-
dressed many of the world’s energy problems, how-
ever, it brought about no significant innovations in
energy.
Further Reading
Dodd, Joseph.World Class Politics: Knoxville’s 1982
World’s Fair, Redevelopment, and the Political Process.
Salem, Wisc.: Sheffield, 1988.
Findling, John E., ed.Historical Dictionar y of World’s
Fairs and Expositions, 1851-1988. New York: Green-
wood Press, 1990.
Wheeler, William Bruce.Knoxville, Tennessee: A
Mountain City in the New South. 2d ed. Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 2005.
Aaron D. PurcellSee also Louisiana World Exposition; National
Energy Program (NEP); Reagan, Ronald; Science
and technology; US Festivals.Koop, C. Everett
Identification Surgeon general of the United
States, 1981-1989
Born October 14, 1916; Brooklyn, New York
Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was not afraid to speak
out on controversial health issues and inform Americans of
the dangers of smoking and AIDS.
C. Everett Koop became surgeon general of the
United States in November, 1981, after an unprece-
dented nine-month-long confirmation battle in the
Senate. A distinguished pediatric surgeon, Koop was
a conservative Republican, an evangelical Christian,
and a staunch opponent of abortion. He seemed an
ideal candidate to promote the pro-life health poli-The Eighties in America Koop, C. Everett 567