Barbie, the Doll, Celebrates her Birthday Today

 Events
Mar 092024
 

Barbie, the doll, celebrates her birthday today. She was created in 1959 by Ruth Handler after Ruth saw a doll with adult characteristics (as opposed to a baby doll) in Germany. She bought three dolls and brought them back to the United States. Changes were made to the doll, and the doll was named Barbie after Handler’s daughter. Around 350,000 thousand dolls were sold in the first year of production. Today over one billion dolls have been sold in 150 countries. Children can visit the Mattel site at: http://www.barbie.com/.

Scrabble Was Copyrighted by James Brunot in 1948

 Events
Dec 012024
 

Scrabble was copyrighted by James Brunot in 1948. Alfred Butts created the game, originally called Lexico, in 1931. Butts based the amount of letters by analyzing letter frequencies on the first pages of The New York Times and other print sources. Butts sold Scrabble to Brunot in 1948 in exchange for a royalty on every unit sold. Brunot and his family struggled for a while trying to make Scrabble profitable. Then it became so profitable they could not meet demand. Today Hasbro has the United States and Canada rights, and Mattel sells the game in all other countries. It is sold in 121 countries and in 30 languages. Children could learn more at: Scrabble.