National Scrabble Day

The game of Scrabble has its own national day, observed on April 13. It wasn’t invented by a writer but by an amateur artist and unemployed architect. Alfred Mosher Butts developed the board game in 1938.  Although Scrabble sales eventually approached 100 million sets, the game languished for nearly two decades, rejected by major game manufacturers as unmarketable. Originally named Lexiko and then Criss-Cross Words, it wasn’t until 1948, after a final name change and a trademark that Butts finally began to produce the game.

Scrabble is played with two to four players who score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15 x 15 grid. In the United States, the name Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. Scrabble is sold in 121 countries with 29 different language versions. Worldwide, over one hundred and fifty million sets have been sold with sets being found in nearly one-third of American homes.

Interesting Scrabble facts:

• 1984 – Scrabble became a daytime game show on NBC
• 2004 – Scrabble was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame
• Some cities sponsor Scrabble tournaments on the weekend closest to National Scrabble Day
• The word “scrabble” means to “grope frantically.”

Celebrate Scrabble Day by playing the board game with friends and family!