Did you know Scrabble was originally invented by American architect Alfred Butts in 1931 under the name Lexico ? (He later redesigned and expanded the game into its familiar board format, patenting it as Criss-Crosswords in 1938. He determined the distribution and point values of the tiles by doing a careful statistical analysis of the letters used in the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, and The Saturday Evening Post. The game was officially renamed Scrabble and trademarked by entrepreneur James Brunot on December 1, 1948. )

Did you know that the origins of baccarat are still debated today, but most believe the game was created in Italy in the 1400s by a man named Felix Falguiere or Falguierein ? (He called the game "baccara," Italian for "zero," because all the tens and face cards were worth zero. It is believed that the Italian game of baccara was based on the old Etruscan legend of a virgin who had to throw a nine-sided die. The result of the throw determined her fate. If she threw an 8 or a 9, then she was elevated to the glory of being a priestess. If she threw a 6 or 7, she was allowed to live but could not take part in any future religious or community events. If she threw lower than 6, she was banished to the sea to drown. Later on, the French spelling "baccarat" was adopted worldwide.)

Did you know Creepy Crawlers originally debuted in 1964 as part of Mattel's "Thingmaker" series ? (The wildly popular toy allowed children to pour a liquid plastic called "Plasti-Goop" into metal molds and heat them on an electric hot plate to create rubbery, toy bugs.)

Did you know Lite-Brite was originally released by Hasbro in 1967 and was invented by Burt Meyer, Joseph M. Burk, and Dalia Verbickas at the Chicago design firm Marvin Glass and Associates ? (It was inspired by a glittering, colorful building they saw lit up in New York City. The toy itself was made with a light box containing a plastic panel covered in holes, a 25-watt light bulb, and D batteries. A blank sheet of opaque black paper was placed over the panel, and small colored plastic pegs were pushed through the paper to illuminate the design being created. There were eight peg colors: red, blue, orange, white (clear), green, yellow, pink, and violet (purple). Hasbro sold dozens of pre-patterned picture sheets of various characters.)

Did you know Super Elastic Bubble Plastic was introduced in the early 1970s by the toy manufacturer Wham-O ? (The iconic toy which allowed kids to blow semi-solid, shapeable bubbles using a pea-sized drop of viscous plastic and a straw—became a staple of the decade. Because the formula relied on polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone, the bubbles would quickly solidify as the solvent evaporated. The mixture emitted strong fumes and was flammable, which led to it eventually being discontinued in many markets due to safety concerns over children inhaling the vapors.)