Ferris wheel day is a day to go to an amusement park, no matter where, get on a Ferris wheel and take a spin between heaven and earth to celebrate the birthday of George Washington Jr., the American engineer who invented the first Ferris wheel in 1893.
In the 17th century there were playgrounds where passengers sat inside wooden seats attached to a large ring-shaped fixture and a powerful man would turn them around. The first facilities existed in Bulgaria and Turkey.
The first modern Ferris wheel was designed for the United States' World's Colombian Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. It was to compete with the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Paris Exhibition.
The designer of the wheel was George Washington Gail Paris Jr. from Gilesburg, Illinois, and the wheel was named in English - Ferris Wheel.
The first modern Ferris wheel was really huge. It weighed about 2000 tons and was powered by two steam engines that each had a power of 1,000 horsepower. The wheel had 36 passenger compartments, each the size of a bus!
Each cabin could carry 60 passengers (20 seated and 40 standing), meaning a total of 2,160 passengers could ride in a wheel.
The Ferris wheel was 26 stories high and was one of the tallest buildings in the world. It took 20 minutes and cost half a dollar.
Today there are giant wheels in almost every amusement park.
The tallest Ferris wheel in the world, High Roller, is located in Las Vegas and is 167 meters high. In second place is the Singapore Flair wheel, which rises to a height of 165 meters and in third place is the star Nanchang (Chinese: εζδΉζ) which is located in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province in China and rises to a height of 160 meters.
February 14 is also Valentine's Day and Pet Theft Awareness Day