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Quiz Questions
3000BC The earliest 6-sided dice
date to about this time from a site in northern Iraq.
(WSJ, 10/27/06, p.W5)
c1500BCE A court to play ulama was built about this
time in Chiapas, Mexico. Olmecs used latex balls for the game.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.81)
c500BCE The game of Go was devised in China about
this time.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.128)
43CE The Romans brought with them
the board game latrunculi (little soldiers), when they conquered
Britain.
(Arch, 1/05, p.39)
56CE Huan Tan, Go strategist,
died. In his book “Xin Lun” (New Treatise) he advised that the best
approach to the game is to spread your pieces widely so as to encircle
the opponent.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.128)
c990 A set of instructions on
chess, the Versus de Scachis (Poem About Chess), emerged in Switzerland.
(Arch, 1/05, p.40)
1620 May 17, The 1st
merry-go-round was seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1702 Meijin Dosaku, go-master to
the shogun of Japan, died. He was the 4th head of the Honimbo go school
and is held by many Japanese to have been the game’s greatest player.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.129)
1722 Apr 30, Game of Billiards was
mentioned in New England Courant.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1742 Aug 29, Edmond Hoyle
(1672-1769) published his "Short Treatise" on the card game whist.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1769 Aug 29, Edmond Hoyle
(b.1672), English games expert, died.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1788 Rules were set for the game
of cricket.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.81)
1791 A document was released in
2004 from Pittsfield, Mass., that contained a 1791 bylaw to protect the
windows of a new meeting house from baseball players.
(SFC, 5/12/04, p.A2)
1834 Nov 1, The 1st published
reference to poker was as Mississippi riverboat game.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1836 May 18, Wilhelm Steinitz was
born. The Czech-born world chess champion (1866-94) later became a
naturalized American.
(HN, 5/18/99)(SC, 5/18/02)
1860 Jul 25, The 1st US
intercollegiate billiard match was between Harvard and Yale.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1860 Milton Bradley started a
lithograph company in Springfield, Mass. In 1866 Bradley launched the
board-game industry in North America with “The Checkered Game of Life,”
which innovated on earlier representations of life as a board game. By
1880 he expanded into manufacturing jigsaw puzzles. Hasbro, short for
Hassenfeld Brothers, bought Milton Bradley in 1992.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_Life)(SFC,
6/11/08, p.G3)
1861 Henry Morton founded the
Paris Manufacturing Co. in South Paris, Maine. The company made various
toys and then desks from the late 1800s. In 1978 it became Paricon Inc.
(SFC, 1/23/08, p.G5)
1862 Frederick August Otto
Schwartz (FAO Schwartz) opened up a toy shop in Baltimore 6 years after
arriving in America from Germany. In 1870 he moved to New York. In 1880
he moved to larger quarters on Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F3)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1865 Oct 10, John Wesley Hyatt
patented a new method for manufacturing billiard balls. He used melted
glue and cloth as an alternative to the ivory balls in use, but his 1st
products did not work well. [see Apr 6, 1869]
(MC, 10/10/01)(ON, 11/03, p.3)
1867 The US Playing Card Co. began
business. In 2003 its brands included Bee, Hoyle, Aviator and Bicycle
(b.1885).
(WSJ, 4/29/03, B12)
1869 Apr 6, John and Isaiah Hyatt
applied for a new patent using collodion to manufacture billiard balls.
They later named their product celluloid. It was similar to that made
by English inventor Alexander Parkes, who patented the process in
England in 1855. The new plastic could be molded and mass produced, but
was very flammable and exploded when struck with excessive force. [see
Jun 15]
(HNQ, 5/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC, 4/6/02)(PCh,
1992, p.467)(ON, 11/03, p.3)
1870 Frederick August Otto
Schwartz (FAO Schwartz) opened up his 1st NYC store on Broadway called
Schwartz Toy Bazaar.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1871 Jul 25, A carrousel was
patented by Wilhelm Schneider in Davenport, Iowa.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1873 Modern lawn tennis made its
debut. It was a variation of a game played for centuries by royals.
Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, a British army officer, devised the
game for the entertainment of guests at his country estate.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.81)
1875 Apr 17, The game of "snooker"
was invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1876 The medieval game of court
tennis arrived in the US. It was the fore-runner of lawn tennis, which
was already being played in the US.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D7)
1886 A board game called "The Game
of Baseball" was made with a lithographed game board by the McLoughlin
Brothers. In 1999 the boxed game was worth $3,000.
(SFC, 4/7/99, Z1 p.7)
1877 In Germany the Steiff Toy Co.
was founded. They made their first teddy bears in 1903 with black,
shoe-button eyes.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.3)
1877 In Germany the S. Gunthermann
manufacturer of metal vehicles and other toys was founded in Nuremberg
about this time.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.G3)
1889 The dexterity game “Pigs in
Clover” was built by Charles Crandall. It dared a player to move little
balls into a center pen.
(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A15)
1890 In Chicago Henry C. Niemann
organized the H.C. Niemann & Co. to make tables. In 1909 the
company moved to the 1800 block of Rockwell Street. It closed in 1929.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.G6)
1890 Parker Brothers introduced
its board game Across the Continent. The game was re-released a number
of times until 1952.
(SFC, 6/25/08, p.G3)
1891 Dec 1, The Canadian, Dr.
James B. Naismith, sports figure, inventor, teacher, invented the game
of basketball at the YMCA in Springfield, Mass. A janitor provided
peach baskets instead of the requested boxes.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.126)(DTnet, 11/28/97)(MC, 12/1/01)
1895 The Montgomery Ward catalog
offered the game of Tiddledy Winks for 20 cents.
(WSJ, 12/17/03, p.B1)
1895 The J&E Stevens Co. began
making Rival toy stoves. The mass-produced cast-iron toys were sold
with a coal bucket, a tea kettle, frying pan and cooking pot. The
company was in business until the 1930s.
(SFC, 3/19/97, z1 p.3)
1895 The US Bowling Congress began
keeping league records.
(WSJ, 5/24/08, p.A7)
1898 Aug 16, Edwin Prescott
patented a roller coaster.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1899 Apr 13, Alfred Moser Butts,
inventor of the board game Scrabble, was born.
(HN, 4/13/98)(MC, 4/13/02)
1900 Joshua Lionel Cowen
(1877-1965), inventor, along with some partners founded Lionel Corp in
NYC. Operation were later based outside Detroit and Lionel grew to
become the world’s largest toy maker in the 1950s. [see 1901]
(WSJ, 11/17/04,
p.B1)(www.fact-index.com/j/jo/joshua_lionel_cowen.html)
1901 Feb 5, Loop-the-loop
centrifugal RR (roller coaster) was patented by Ed Prescot.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1901 Joshua Lionel Cowen (22) set
up a battery-powered toy train to draw customer attention to goods in a
store display window. This marked the beginning of Lionel Trains.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, Z1 p.8)
1902 S.W. Erdnase published “The
Expert at the Card Table.” The book revealed secrets behind card tricks
and cheating techniques. The real identity of the author was a mystery.
(WSJ, 8/16/00, p.A1)
1903 Feb 15, The 1st Teddy Bear
was introduced in America by Morris & Rose Michtom.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1907 In France the bowling game of
petanque or boule assumed its current form after possible origins in
ancient Greece or Egypt. Similar to bocce ball it is played on a dirt
court with baseball sized steel balls. In 1998 it was seeking Olympic
recognition. The French version was born near Marseille as a sport for
the masses. In 1959 France held the 1st annual petanque world
championship.
(WSJ, 1/5/98, p.20)(WSJ, 8/30/07, p.A7)
1909 Rose Cecil O’Neill
(1874-1944), illustrator, drew the 1st Kewpie doll for an issue of
Ladies Home Journal. By 1911 they were being produced as dolls and
figurines.
(www.lambiek.net/oneill_rose.htm)(SFC, 5/14/08, p.G6)
1912 Prizes were added to boxes of
Cracker Jacks. [see Feb 19, 1913]
(HFA, ‘96, p.67)(SFC, 7/29/98, Z1 p.23)(AH, 10/01,
p.34)
1912 The Durable Toy & Novelty
Co. began making toy registering banks about this time. Its office was
in NYC and its factory in Cleveland, Ohio.
(SFC, 4/2/08, p.G2)
1912 Heinrich Muller and Heinrich
Schreyer started the Schreyer & Co. toy company in Nuremberg,
Germany. The name was shortened to Schuco in the 1920. They began
making “Yes/No” toys in 1921 and after WWII these were called “Tricky”
toys. In 1999 Schuco became part of the Simba Dickie Group.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.G6)
1913 Feb 19, The 1st prize was
inserted into a Cracker Jack box. [see 1912]
(MC, 2/19/02)
1913 Dec 21, The first crossword
puzzle, created by Arthur Wynne, the English-born New York journalist,
was published in the New York World.
(AP,
12/21/97)(www.fun-with-words.com/first_crossword.html)
1913 Strombeck-Becker
Manufacturing Co. of Moline Illinois was incorporated by J.F. Strombeck
and R.D. Becker. They made wooden handles and tent poles and expanded
into toys in 1919 and dollhouse furniture in 1931. In 1962 the company
dropped out of the toy business.
(SFC, 8/20/08, p.G4)
1913 Mary McAboy of Missoula,
Montana, began hand-making Skookum Indian dolls and acquired a patent
for it in 1914. Skookum was a Siwash Indian word that roughly means
bully good.
(SFC, 6/17/98, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 3/16/05, p.G4)
1914 The Toy Tinkers Company of
Evanston, Ill., made the Tinkertoy Wonder Builder construction set out
of wood as its first product. It sold for 50 cents. Toy Tinkers was
sold in 1952 to A.G. Spalding. It was later acquired by Hasbro who made
its parts out of plastic. Hasbro was named after the Hassenfeld
Brothers.
(SFC, 2/5/97, z-1 p.7)(SFC, 4/8/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC,
8/15/98, p.E4)
1915 May 28, John B. Gruelle
patented the Raggedy Ann doll.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1917 Jun 28, The Raggedy Ann doll
invented.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1918 The game “Consult El Caro”
was 1st built. A metal ball fell into a recessed hole containing
answers to questions.
(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A15)
1921 Wyandotte Toys of Wyandotte,
Mich., was founded and initially concentrated on toy pistols.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.E7)
1928 Norman Angell (1872-1967),
English journalist, made one venture into economics, when he invented a
card game, described in “the Money Game” (1928). This was an attempt to
explain matters such as deflation and inflation in visual terms which
the ordinary person could understand.
(www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/text160_p.html)
1928 John von Neumann,
mathematician, conceived the strategies of game theory. In 2000 Robert
Wright authored "Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny." In the 40’s and
50’s Neumann and John Nash developed game theory as a branch of
mathematics.
(WSJ, 1/23/97, p.A12)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.75)
1929
Apr 1, Louie Marx introduced the Yo-Yo in the US.
(OTD)(HN, 4/1/01)
1929 Aug 26, The 1st US roller
coaster was built.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1929 The game of beano involved
dried beans and was first played in the US at an Atlanta carnival. It
was based on an Italian game that dated back to 1530. In New York the
name mutated to “Bingo” when Edwin Lowe, a toy salesman, took it there.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A25)(SFC, 7/25/98, p.B5)
1930 Herman G. Fisher (1898-1975)
and Irving L. Price co-founded the Fisher-Price toy company in East
Aurora, NY. Quaker Oats Company acquired the firm in 1969. Mattel Inc.
acquired Fisher-Price in 1993.
(www.hbs.edu/leadership/database/leaders/274/)(WSJ,
12/21/05, p.A8)
1931 Frederick August Otto
Schwartz (FAO Schwartz) moved to uptown NYC to its flagship Fifth
Avenue store. In 1986 it moved across the street.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1932 Kenton Hardware Manufacturing
Co., founded in Ohio in 1890 as a lock maker, began making toy concrete
mixers under the Jaeger brand name. The company closed in 1952.
(SFC, 5/28/08, p.G2)
1932 The Danish LEGO Group was
founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen.
(www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=group)
1933 Mar 7, George Darrow added
some copyrighted art work to the board game Monopoly and began selling
it commercially in Philadelphia. He sold it to Parker Brothers in 1934.
The game had originally been patented in 1904 as the Landlord’s Game by
Elizabeth J. Magie. In Oct 1929 Ruth Hoskins brought a version to
Atlantic City, refined the rules and street names. It was later
introduced to George Darrow.
(HN, 3/7/98)(WSJ, 2/3/05,
p.W12)(http://richard_wilding.tripod.com/history.htm)
1934 Dec, Parker Brothers
purchased the game of Monopoly from George Darrow and rewrote the
rules. George Parker had rejected the 1st version of Monopoly submitted
by Darrow and cited 52 fundamental errors. In 2003 Philip E. Orbanes
authored "The Game Makers: The Story of the Parker Brothers, from
Tiddley winks to Trivial Pursuit."
(Econ, 11/22/03,
p.81)(www.adena.com/adena/mo/mo11.htm)
1934 Daisy Manufacturing
introduced a Buck Rogers toy pistol.
(SFC, 4/13/05, p.G4)
1935 Jan, Parker Brothers launched
the Monopoly game acquired from George Darrow and by mid February were
selling 20,000 sets per week.
(www.monopolycollector.com/)
1935 Mar 16, Aron Nimzowitsch
(b.1886), a Latvian-born Danish chess player, died. In 1925 he authored
“My System,” which he described as a chess manual based on entirely new
principles.
(WSJ, 3/22/08,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Nimzowitsch)
1939 William Gruber and Harold
Graves produced the 1st View-Master in Portland. 2 cameras were used to
create stereo images. They were introduced at the New York World’s Fair
and became an overnight sensation. In 2009 Fisher-Price eliminated
almost all of its View Master titles, except for a handful of
children’s titles.
(SFC, 8/31/00, p.C8)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.34)
1941 Jan 11, Emanuel Lasker
(b.1868), German mathematician and chess player, died. In 1927 he
authored “Lasker’s Manual of Chess.”
(WSJ, 3/22/08,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Lasker)
1943 Mar 9, Bobby Fischer
(d.2008), first American world chess champion (1972-1975), was born. He
later authored “Bobby Fischer’s Games of Chess.”
(HN, 3/9/99)(SFC, 9/7/01, p.D5)(SFC, 1/19/08, p.A2)
1943 Apr 7, The NFL adopted its
free substitution rule.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1943 Richard James (d.1974)
observed a torsion spring balance bounce off a ship’s deck while
working at a Philadelphia shipyard and conceived the idea of a "slinky"
toy for children, named by his wife Betty James (d.2008). In 1945 they
founded James Industries. In 1998 the company was sold to POOF Products
of Michigan.
(IBCC, 10/97, #9)(SSFC, 11/23/08, p.B9)
1944 Jul 13, Erno Rubik, inventor
(Rubik's cube), was born in Budapest.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1946 Aug 21, Lev Alburt, USSR
International Chess Master (1976), was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1946 Lincoln Toys began operating
in Walkerville, Ont., and continued to 1958.
(SFC, 10/1/08, p.G6)
1946 The Mattel toy company was
co-founded by Ruth Handler, her husband Elliot, and Harold “Matt”
Mattson. The name came from a combination of Matt and Elliot. In 2009
Jerry Oppenheimer authored “Toy Monster: The Big, Bad world of Mattel.”
(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A15)
1947 Parker Brothers launched the
board game Clue.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.81)
1947 Tonka toys were introduced by
Mound Metalcraft, located in Mound, Minnesota, near Lake Minnetonka.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.G7)
1948 Spud Melin (d.2002) and
Richard Knerr (1925-2008) started a mail-order toy company in southern
California named Wham-O to market sling-shots. In 1982 they sold the
company to Kransco Manufacturing for $12 million.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)(WSJ, 1/19/08, p.A10)
1950 Mar 2, Silly Putty was
introduced to the public. Silly Putty was accidentally invented in 1943
by James Wright of General Electric.
(www.sillyputty.com/silly_science/silly_science.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/zwree)
1951 Mar 8, The Int’l. Table
Tennis Federation banned Egypt for refusing to play Israel.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1951 May 23, Anatoli Karpov, world
chess champion (1975-85), was born in the USSR.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1952 Apr 25, American Bowling
Congress approved use of an automatic pinsetter.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1952 May 1, Mr. Potato Head was
introduced.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1954 May 1, Legos, founded by
Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, became a registered trademark
in Denmark.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllego.htm)
1955 Jan 19, "Scrabble" debuted in
the board game market.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1955 Wham-O purchased a plastic
disc from building inspector Fed Morrison, who had developed it after
watching Yale students toss Frisbee Co. pie tins. [See Jan 13, 1957]
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)
1957 Jan 13, The Wham-O Company
produced the 1st Frisbee. It was initially called the Pluto Platter.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)(MC, 1/13/02)
1957 Jun 7, Mrs. Elizabeth S.
Kingsley, double-Crostic puzzle creator, died.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1957 Jul 22, Walter "Fred"
Morrison applied for a patent for a "flying toy" which became known as
the Frisbee.
(AP, 7/22/07)
1958 Jun 19, Entrepreneurs Richard
Knerr and Arthur Melin sought a trademark for a plastic cylinder based
on a similar toy in Australia. Wham-O began selling the Hula Hoop
following a demonstration of a rattan hoop imported from Australia.
After one year teenagers in the US purchased some 100 million hoops at
a suggested retail price of $1.98.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)(SFC, 6/19/08, p.C3)
1958 Legos, the toy Lego building
block kit with simple red bricks, was introduced with 8-stud bricks
that could be combined 24 ways. The company was founded by Danish
carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932. Legos became a registered
trademark in 1954. The name was derived from “les godt,” Danish for
play well.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.B8)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.76)
1958 In central Moscow Detsky Mir
(Children's World), a new huge toy store, opened. In 2008 the hulking
block-long building across from the KGB's notorious Lubyanka
headquarters closed for a 3-year, $200 million renovation project.
(AP, 7/2/08)
1959 Mar 9, The Barbie doll was
unveiled at the American Toy Fair in New York City. The Barbie Doll No.
1 was introduced by Mattel Toy Company for $3. Ruth Handler (d.2002),
co-founder of Mattel, had spotted the German Bild-Lilli doll in 1956
and asked toy designer Jack Ryan (d.1991) to create a version for
American girls. The first dolls were produced by Mattel Toy Co. in
Hawthorne, Ca. In 1994 one sold for $4000 as a collector’s item.
(WSJ, 12/9/94, p.R-8)(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A2)(SFC,
5/31/05, p.E1)(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A15)
1959 Parker Brothers launched the
board game Risk.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.81)
c1960 The Visible Man toy was
created by Marcel Jovine (d.2003 at 81) and was soon followed by
Visible Woman.
(SFC, 1/28/03, p.A15)
1960s The DoodelMaster Magic
Screen toy, made in England, was acquired by Ohio Art Toy and
renamed Etch A Sketch.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.C6)
1961 Mattel toys introduced the
Ken doll, and marketed it as Barbie’s boyfriend.
(SFC, 1/14/98, Z1 p.2)
1962 Denys Fisher, an English
inventor, made a tool to help draw waves for scientific use, but it was
not adopted. His family thought it would a good toy for children and in
1965 it was made into a kit and showed at an int’l. toy show. Kenner
bought the toy and sold it as the Spirograph.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.G2)
1963 Apr 13, Gary Kimovich
Kasparov, world chess champion (1985-2000), was born in the USSR.
(MC, 4/13/02)(SFC, 1/16/04, p.D19)
1964 Feb 2, The G.I. Joe action
figure debuted as a popular American toy.
(MC, 2/2/02)(SFC, 7/10/04, p.F11)
1965 Nov 1, Edward Headrick
(d.2002) of Wham-O patented the Flying Saucer, an improved Frisbee with
concentric ridges that improved flight.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A20)
1967 Aug 28, Charles Darrow, US
inventor of Monopoly, died.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1969 The US National Commission on
Product Safety recommended that 8 toys be banned including the Zulu toy
gun, which shot plastic darts, the Empire Little Lady Stove, which had
racks that could heat to 600 degrees, and the Bird of Paradise
slingshot, with razor-sharp missiles. The commission urged Congress to
pass new legislation banning toys based on their electrical, mechanical
or thermal qualities.
(WSJ, 12/3/07, p.B1)
1970 Aug, The first all-computer
championship was held in New York and won by CHESS 3.0 (CDC 6400), a
program written by Slate, Atkin and Gorlen at Northwestern University.
Six programs had entered the first Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM) North American Computer Championships. The event was organized by
Monty Newborn. The other programs were DALY CP, J Brit, COKO III,
SCHACH, and the Marsland CP.
(http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/comphis.htm)
1971 Keith Wylie (1945-1999),
British croquet star, in the Open Championship completed "the sextuple
peel," which involved knocking a ball through 6 hoops using another
ball. He authored "Expert Croquet Tactics" in 1985.
(SFC, 12/7/99,
p.B4)(www.mauicroquetclub.org/people/KeithWylie.htm)
1972 Sep 1, American Bobby Fischer
won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, defeating
Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. In 2004 David Edmonds and John
Eidinow authored "Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the
Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time."
(AP, 9/1/97)(SSFC, 2/07/04, p.M1)
1973 Jul 4, Leonid Stein (b.1934),
Soviet Grandmaster chess player from the Ukraine, died of a heart
attack.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Stein)
1974 Hungarian professor Erno
Rubik designed the Rubik's Cube. Sales peaked at 100 million in 1980.
Some 250 million units were sold worldwide.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SFC, 8/8/03, p.D1)
1974 Gary Gygax (1938-2008) and
David Arneson (d.2009 at 61), having founded Tactical Studies Rules
(TSR), published Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game. Gygax and
Don Kaye had founded Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), a publishing firm in
1973. In 1997 TSR was sold to Wizards of the Coast.
(Econ, 3/15/08,
p.102)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax)(SFC, 4/11/09, p.B3)
1975 Apr 3, Bobby Fischer
(1943-2008) was stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend it.
(www.bobby-fischer.net/)
1975 Sep 26, Herman G. Fisher
(b.1898), co-founder of the Fisher-Price toy company (1930), died. In
1930 he got together with Irving Price and Helen Schelle to establish a
toy company under the name of Fisher-Price.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Fisher)
1975 Edward Headrick (d.2002)
invented the golf, for Frisbee players.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.A1)
1975 Mattel introduced its
"Growing up Skipper" doll. When her arms were twisted she would grow
taller and her breasts would get larger.
(SFC,1/22/97, Z1 p.7)
1977 Apr 23, Dr. Allen Bussey
completed 20,302 yo-yo loops in Waco, Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco,_Texas)
1978 Jul 11, Christa Tybus of
London set a 24 hrs hula-hoop record.
(www.recordholders.org/en/list/hulahoop.html)
1979 Feb 25, James Williams and
Gene Stewart of Redwood City won the 18th world championship domino
tournament in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/20/04, p.E4)
1980 May 22, The computer game
Pac-Man was first released in Japan. Pac-Man, with its characters:
Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, epitomized the arcade games of the 1980s.
(SFC, 7/5/97,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man)
1982 John Maynard (1920-2004),
English biologist, authored "Evolution and the Theory of Games."
(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.B7)
1984 May 26, A frisbee was kept
aloft for 1,672 seconds in Philadelphia.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1984 In Russia Alexander Pajitnov,
a computer programmer at the Moscow Academy of Science, invented the
game "Tetris" on an old Electronica 60 computer. He gave up the rights
to the game to the State for ten years. In 1996 rights for the game
reverted back to Pajitnov. He and Henk Rogers soon founded Blue Planet
Software to manage the Tetris rights.
(SFC, 7/7/96, C5)(SFC, 6/3/09, p.C5)
1987 The “Winnie the Pooh” stuffed
animals, the original toys of author A.A. Milne, given to publisher
E.P. Dutton in 1947, were turned over to the New York Public Library.
In 1998 the British requested that they be returned to England.
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A12)
1989 The Brooklyn Salvation Army
began to allow the Elite Pool Checker Club to play regularly in their
library.
(WSJ, 10/22/02, p.A17)
1990 Dec 26, Garry Kasparov beat
Anatoly Karpov to retain chess championship.
(http://tinyurl.com/hmp9d)
1990 Toy company FAO Schwartz sold
out to Dutch Company Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1992 Sep 1, Defying a U.S.
government warning, Bobby Fischer announced he would play his one-time
rival, Boris Spassky, in a $5 million chess match in Yugoslavia despite
United Nations-imposed sanctions.
(AP, 9/1/97)
1993 Apr 4, Alfred Mosher Butts
(b.1899), US architect and inventor of the Scrabble game, died.
(WSJ, 6/28/01, p.B1)(MC, 4/4/02)
1993 Aug 19, Mattel and Fisher
Price toys announced a merger.
(http://tinyurl.com/bxdjz)
1993 Mattel introduced its “Earing
Magic Ken” doll, which gave him a pierced left ear.
(ST, 7/29/04, p.C8)
1993 The fantasy card game Magic:
The Gathering was created.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.B1)
1993 The computer game "Mortal
Combat" sparked a controversy in Congress over video game violence.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.E1)
1993 The computer game "Myst"
swept the US with its eerie puzzle plot.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.E1)
1994 Aug 31, In the London Intel
Speed Chess Grand Prix a Pentium computer beat world chess champ Gari
Kasparov.
(www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/apctcol/c9411.htm)
1994 John Bowes (1928-2005), SF
businessman, and John Rosekrans sold the assets of their Kransco Group
Cos. to Mattel and netted over $350 million. Kransco had acquired
Wham-O and popularized such toys as Frisbee, Slip’N-Slide, and hula
hoop.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.B7)
1995 The colonization board game
“Settlers of Catan” began a new boom in board games.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.52)
1995 The first Internet gambling
casino opened, but games could only be played for fun. The first real
money Internet casino opened in 1996.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.C1)
1996 Dec 15, The Tyco Toys Tickle
Me Elmo stuffed animal that giggles and says "that tickles" when
squeezed retailed for $30 and was flying out of stores. It was based on
a character from the children’s TV show Sesame Street.
(WSJ, 12/16/96, p.B1)(WSJ, 9/15/06, p.B1)
1997 May 1, Virtual Pets began to
be marketed by Tiger Electronics and Bandai Ltd. of Japan. The
egg-sized gadgets played out the lives of various animals on a liquid
crystal display.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.B1)
1997 May 3, World chess champion
Garry Kasparov won the first game of his rematch with IBM's Deep Blue
computer. However, he lost the six-game match.
(AP, 5/3/98)
1997 May 4, IBM's Deep Blue
computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, evening their
six-game series at one game apiece.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1997 May 6, World chess champion
Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue computer played to a draw in game
three of their six-game match.
(AP, 5/6/98)
1997 May 11, The "Deep Blue" IBM
computer demolished an overwhelmed Garry Kasparov and won the six-game
chess match between man and machine in New York.
(AP, 5/11/98)
1997 Jul 10, Walter Korn (b.1908),
Czech-born chess authority, died. His books included "The Art of Chess
Competition."
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A18)
1998 Oct 22, The US government
announced one of the biggest toys recalls ever, advising parents to
remove batteries from Fisher-Price Power Wheels cars and trucks because
of faulty wiring.
(AP, 10/22/99)
1998 Nov 27, Shoppers on Black
Friday crowded shopping centers and the new Furby toys, a furry talking
toy, was creating a mania. Black Friday was used to describe the big
shopping day following Thanksgiving that put stores into the black.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A1)
1999 Mar 20, The 128-acre Legoland
California, a children’s theme park, was scheduled to be completed in
Carlsbad by the Danish toy company.
(USAT, 5/7/98, p.1D)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.B8)(SFEC,
2/7/99, p.T3)
1999 David Gonzales began selling
2-inch figurines of fictional barrio residents in vending machines
across the country. The "Homies" sales grew and in 2004 a Mijos line,
short for "Mis Hijos," (My Kids), was introduced through K-Mart.
(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.B1)
2000 May 6, The 1st geocaching
cache was found hidden outside Portland, Oregon, by Mike Teague. [see
May 3]
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A20)
2000 Gary Kimovich Kasparov (37),
world chess champion (1985-2000), lost to Vladimir Kramnik (25).
(MC, 4/13/02)(SFC, 1/16/04, p.D19)
2001 The first commercial
alternate reality game (ARG), called “The Beast,” was produced as part
of a promotional campaign for Steven Spielberg’s film “A.I.: Artificial
Intelligence.”
(Econ, 3/7/09, TQ p.16)
2001 MGA Entertainment introduced
the Bratz line of dolls based on a design by Carter Bryant, a designer
from Mattel. The doll became very popular and threatened the Barbie
franchise of Mattel. In 2008 the 2 companies faced each other in court.
A jury ruled that the Bratz dolls were conceived while Bryant was
employed by Mattel. On August 26 a federal jury in Riverside, Ca.,
awarded Mattel $100 million in damages. On Dec 3 a federal judge banned
MGA Entertainment Inc. from making and selling Bratz dolls after the
holiday season. In January, 2009, a federal judge said the company can
continue to sell the toy line through 2009.
(WSJ, 5/23/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/18/08, p.B1)(SFC,
8/27/08, p.C3)(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A9)(SFC, 1/8/09, p.C2)
2002 Jun 28, Spud Melin (77),
co-founder of Wham-O (1948), died in Costa Mesa, Ca.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)
2002 Aug 12, Edward Headrick (78),
the man who made the Frisbee soar, died in California. He created the
sport of disc golf in the 1970s.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A19)
2003 Feb 7, Garry Kasparov (39),
chess master, played to a 3-3 tie against the Deep Junior computer
program.
(SFC, 2/8/03, p.A2)
2003 Aug 18, A 24-year-old woman
from China tipped over 303,621 dominos, breaking a long-standing record
for the world's longest solo domino topple.
(AP, 8/18/03)
2003 Aug 24, Dan Knights of San
Francisco set a world record at the World Rubik's Game Championships in
Toronto. His record time was an average of 20 sec.
(SFC, 8/26/03, p.A15)
2003 Oct 23, A 3-day dominos
tournament began at the Ocho Rios resort in Jamaica.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.D3)
2003 Dec 4, Toy seller FAO
Schwartz filed for bankruptcy.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.B2)
2003 James Zug authored "Squash: A
History of the Game."
(WSJ, 9/26/03, p.W16)
2004 Feb 11, It was reported that
Mattel planned to introduce a line of toys capable of receiving digital
signals from a new Batman TV cartoon show scheduled for the Fall.
(WSJ, 2/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 12, Mattel released news
that Barbie would have a new boyfriend named Blaine, an Australian
boogie boarder. Barbie’s new “Cali Girl” lined was set to debut in the
summer.
(ST, 7/29/04, p.C8)
2004 Billy Gaines and Duncan
Carrroll, graduates of Carnegie Mellon Univ., developed a Web site
called bpong.com along with a multiplayer online beer-pong game. Beer
pong had gained popularity on college campuses in the 1990s.
(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A10)
2005 Mar 17, Toys R Us agreed to
become a privately owned company in a $6.6 billion buyout deal that
included 2 equity firms and a real estate developer.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.C1)
2005 Disney launched a free online
game called Virtual Magic Kingdom in conjunction with its 50th
anniversary. It became very popular and in 2008 fans protested plans to
shut the site down.
(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.B1)
2006 Nov 11, Sony Corp. launched
its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) in Japan.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.63)
2006 Nov 17, Japan’s Sony Corp.
launched its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) in the USA.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Germany world chess
champion Vladimir Kramnik lost the sixth and decisive game against
computer program Deep Fritz, ceding a hard-fought Man vs. Machine match
4-2.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 12, Online political
groups, the Campaign to Defend the Constitution and the Christian
Alliance for Progress, demanded that Wal-Mart dump Left Behind: Eternal
Forces, a new computer game in which players must either kill or
convert non-Christians.
(SFC, 12/12/06, p.A1)
2007 Jul 7, Jack Odell (b.1920),
British creator of the Matchbox miniature toys (1953), died. The toys
were made by Lesney Products, founded by Leslie and Rodney Smith in
1947. The company went public in 1960 and bankrupt in 1982, when it was
sold to Hong Kong’s Universal International Ltd. In 1997 Mattel
acquired Matchbox.
(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 2, Beijing and Washington
agreed to cooperate more closely on product and food safety as the US
recalled almost 1 million toys due to lead concerns. Mattel apologized
to customers as it recalled nearly a million Chinese-made toys from its
Fisher-Price division that were found to have excessive amounts of lead.
(AP, 8/3/07)(SFC, 8/3/07, p.D1)(AP, 8/2/08)
2007 Sep 21, Mattel Inc,
apologized for damaging China's reputation after recent massive recalls
of its Chinese-made toys, admitting it targeted some goods that were
actually up to scratch.
(AP, 9/21/07)
2007 Oct 14, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed legislation banning toys that contain toxic
plastic softeners, i.e. phthalates, becoming the first state in the US
to do so.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 12, Thailand smashed
through the 100-gold barrier at the SEA Games as they continued their
relentless pursuit of top spot on the medals table.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Edward McPherson authored
“The Backwash Squeeze & Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's
Journey into the World of Bridge.”
(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.P8)
2008 Jan 14, Richard Knerr (82),
co-founder of the toy company that popularized the Hula Hoop, Frisbee
and other fads that became classics, died. Knerr started Wham-O in 1948
with his childhood friend Arthur "Spud" Melin.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Mar 4, Gary Gygax (b.1938),
co-creator of the role-playing Dungeons & Dragons game, died in
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Gygax and Don Kaye had founded Tactical Studies
Rules (TSR) in 1973. In 1974 Gygax and David Arneson published D&D.
In 1997 TSR was sold to Wizards of the Coast.
(WSJ, 3/8/08, p.A7)(Econ, 3/15/08, p.102)
2008 Apr 29, The videogame “Grand
Theft Auto IV,” produced by Take-Two Interactive Software, hit the
stores with expectations of record sales. First week sales topped $50
million.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.B7)(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.B8)
2008 Jun 10, In NYC a million
pieces of stainless steel toy parts assembled into a nearly seven-story
model skyscraper glimmered under the hot sun. It was created by
American artist Chris Burden (b.1946). The 16,000-pound (7,250-kg)
"poetic interpretation" of the 30 Rock Building at Rockefeller Center
was made of replicated Erector set pieces from the toy created by A.C.
Gilbert in 1912.
(Reuters, 6/11/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Germany
Viswanathan Anand of India retained his world chess title by drawing
with the white pieces against Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 13,The 38th Chess
Olympiad started in Dresden, Germany. It included 146 teams in the open
division, often referred to as the men's division although it includes
a few women. The separate women's division included 111 teams.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 25 Armenia won its second
straight gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Germany by defeating China
2.5-1.5 in the 11th and final round.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2009 Jan 30, Hans Beck (79),
creator of the colorful plastic Playmobil toy figures that sold by the
millions around the world, died in Germany. Beck had created and
developed the 3-inch (7.5-centimeter) tall line of figures for the
company in 1971. they were dubbed Playmobil and brought to market in
1974.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Apr 9, Dave Arneson (61),
co-creator of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game (1974) and a
pioneer of role-playing entertainment, died after a two-year battle
with cancer.
(AP, 4/10/09)(SFC, 4/11/09, p.B3)
2009 May 27, Toys R Us Inc. said
it acquired toy retailer FAO Schwarz, which has struggled for years
through bankruptcies amid tough competition from discount stores.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2008 Jul 9, US electronic games
publisher Activision under Bobby Kotick closed its merger with the
gaming arm of Vivendi, a French media conglomerate, in a deal valued at
$18.8 billion.
(Econ, 8/15/09,
p.60)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard)
2009 Oct 1, Mattel planned to
release its Mindflex toy, which allowed users to lift a ball and send
it through an obstacle course using brain control interface technology.
(SSFC, 9/6/09, p.A8)
2009 Sep 9, In South Korea
performers from around the world have gathered on the South Korean
island of Jeju for this week's international Delphic Games, popularly
known as the "Culture Olympics." The first Delphic Games of the modern
era were held in Russia in 2000 and the second in Malaysia in 2005.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 24, Japan’s Tokyo Game
Show, billed as the world's largest computer entertainment fest, kicked
off with hopes that depressed sales of game consoles will enjoy a
holiday resurrection.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 24, In Spain Garry
Kasparov soundly defeated Anatoly Karpov in an exhibition chess match
marking the 25th anniversary of their first title bout.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Oct 1, Mattel planned to
release its Mindflex toy, which allowed users to lift a ball and send
it through an obstacle course using brain control interface technology.
(SSFC, 9/6/09, p.A8)
2009 Nov 10, The hotly-anticipated
video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" was launched in Britain
amid a political row over its levels of violence.
(AFP, 11/10/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Games, Toys
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