Courtesy of statistician K. Ken Nakamura, enjoy this history of the world cross country championships. The history dates back to 1903, though the first IAAF World Championships were not until 1973.

Some other nuggets:

-The 1982 edition was moved from Warsaw to Rome after martial law was declared in Poland.

-The first senior medal ever won by an African came despite Mohamed Kedir miscounting laps in 1983.

-The youngest woman (Zola Budd at 18) and oldest man (Carlos Lopes at 38) both won in the same year, 1985.

-From 1992 to 1995, Catherina McKiernan of Ireland won four straight silver medals.

-Prize money was only introduced in 1997.

-Short-course races were run from 1998 to 2006.

-In 2001, the race was moved from Dublin, Ireland to Ostend, Belgium after a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Ireland.

-Kenenisa Bekele in 2002 became the man to pull off the career sweep, winning junior, senior, long, and short titles.

-Bekele went on to win the long and short races five years in a row, from 2002 to 2006.

-Tirunesh Dibaba in 2005 became the first woman to finish the career sweep.

-In 2010, Kenya won every single team and individual title at the junior and senior levels, the first country to do so.

The entire history is below. 

Chronology of the World Cross Country Championships