Firsts

There was no such thing as the crossword puzzle in ancient times. But the Greeks, Romans, and other peoples had a kind of word game called the word square that would lead to the invention of the crossword puzzle many years later.

A word square is a group of three or more words arranged in a square, so that the words read across the same as they read down. An example of a three- word word square is:  read more »

Dictionaries haven't always been on hand to show us the meaning of words we don't know. The first English book that was called a dictionary wasn't written until 1552.

And the first English dictionary listing ordinary words as well as difficult words was published in 1702. About 50 years later, the renowned English writer Samuel Johnson brought out his own dictionary, which he wrote entirely by himself over an eight-year period!

Noah Webster published his first American dictionary in 1806, with about 40,000 words. In 1828, he brought out another with almost twice as many words.  read more »

Unlike most other languages, English was born out of a combination of two languages. The Anglo-Saxons, the people who settled in England during the fifth century, spoke a German language we now call "Old English."

Then in the 11th century, England was conquered by French-speaking people from Normandy, and French became the official language of England. Gradually, the two languages merged to form a new one, which we call "Middle English." And Middle English gradually changed into modern English, the language we speak today.  read more »

No one knows where playing cards really came from. Some people think it was China, others believe it was India, and still others claim it was the Near East. Cards didn't reach Europe until around 1300. But from the very beginning, almost all decks of playing cards had four suits.

The names of the suits and their symbols were different in various parts of Europe. In Italy, where the first European playing cards were made, the suits were called cups, swords, coins, and rods (or clubs).  read more »

You probably have noticed that in every deck of playing cards, the ace of spades is different from the other aces. The central spade symbol on the ace of spades is bigger than any other symbol in the deck. And there's a reason for it.

In past centuries, governments in Europe always put a heavy tax on decks of playing cards. No one could sell a deck of cards without a tax stamp showing that a tax had been paid on the deck.  read more »

No one knows for certain where the game of chess was first played. Most likely, the game began in ancient India, where it was called chaturanga. This word refers to the four members of an Indian army: the foot soldier, the elephant, the chariot, and the horse.

During the 6th or 7th century, the game traveled from India to neighboring Persia, where its name became shatranj. From there it spread to the Arab lands, then moved into Europe sometime around the 10th century.  read more »

No one knows exactly where the game of billiards was invented. Some say it was in ancient Greece, others say China or France, and still others say England. According to the people who think it was invented in England, this is how it happened:

A game called lawn bowling was very popular in England during the Middle Ages. This game was played outdoors, on a patch of grass. But it rains often in England, so bowlers decided to move the game indoors. This meant that the playing court would have to be much smaller, as small as the room.  read more »

The board game called backgammon is one of the most popular games in America today, with more than two million regular players. Yet this game isn't as popular today as it was more than 2,000 years ago!

No one person invented backgammon. It evolved from a number of old games that were played in the Near East as early as 3000 B.C. The ancient Egyptians played a board game, called senet, that was similar to backgammon. A senet board was found in the tomb of King Tut, which dates from 1500 B.C.  read more »

Cubes with numbers or spots on their sides have been used since ancient times by people in almost all parts of the world. Dice are so old that we don't even know when or where they were invented, because they have been around since before man learned how to write!

Primitive people probably made the first dice from the bones of sheep, and used them for predicting the future as well as for playing games.  read more »

Although another bicycle may have been invented earlier, the first bicycles in the world that we know about were built late in the 18th century.

These early bikes, called hobby horses, consisted of two wheels connected by a curved bar. Since these bikes had no pedals, riders had to move their bikes by pushing along the ground with their feet!

In 1838, a Scottish blacksmith invented the first bicycle with pedals. In the -decades that followed, bicycles became very popular, but because they had wooden wheels, the ride was very rough — so rough that bikes were nicknamed "boneshakers."  read more »