🎲 #14 answers: Play Day

The teddy bear is named after President Theodore Roosevelt, who actually hated being called 'Teddy'.

Toymakers in Germany and the US came up with the stuffed bear at almost the same time.

“The name teddy bear comes from Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, who was often referred to as "Teddy" (a nickname he loathed).”

A 1913 newspaper puzzle often called the first crossword was originally named a 'word-cross'.

An illustrator later flipped the name around to 'cross-word'.

“On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist born in Liverpool, England, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the modern genre. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor.”

When James Naismith invented basketball, he nailed up a peach basket as the very first hoop.

He wrote the first rules in 1891 for a gym class in winter.

“Naismith wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto an elevated track.”

The first Olympic Games of modern times were held in Athens, Greece, in the year 1896.

Athens was picked to honour the ancient Games.

“The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, and commonly known as Athens 1896 (Greek: Αθήνα 1896), were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history.”

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor.

It went on to become one of the best-selling toys ever.

“The Rubik's Cube (Hungarian: Rubik-kocka) is a 3D combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik.”

Tetris was created in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s by a software engineer, Alexey Pajitnov.

It spread worldwide through the Nintendo Game Boy.

“Tetris (Russian: Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer, in the mid-1980s.”

Monopoly was inspired by The Landlord's Game, a board game patented by Elizabeth Magie in 1904.

Magie designed her game to teach players about land and taxes, three decades before Monopoly appeared.

“The Landlord's Game is a board game patented in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie as U.S. patent 748,626. A realty and taxation game intended to educate users about Georgism, it is the inspiration for the 1935 board game Monopoly.”

Some of the oldest known dice, from around 2800 to 2500 BCE, came with a backgammon-like game found in Iran.

They were dug up at an archaeological site known as the Burnt City.

“Possibly the oldest known dice were excavated as part of a backgammon-like game set at the Burnt City, an archeological site in south-eastern Iran, estimated to be from between 2800 and 2500 BCE.”

One board for the Royal Game of Ur dates to around 2600 BC, making it one of the oldest game boards known.

That board is now in the British Museum. Rules for the game were later found written on a clay tablet.

“One board, held by the British Museum, is dated to c. 2600 – c. 2400 BC, making it one of the oldest game boards in the world.”

Playing cards were most likely invented during China's Tang dynasty, around the 9th century.

They probably came about thanks to woodblock printing.

“Playing cards were most likely invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century, as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology.”