The board game Monopoly is invented.

On this day 81 years ago Charles Darrow’ popular board game, Monopoly, based on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey, was first marketed, becoming a cultural phenomenon, having been licensed in over 103 countries and released in more than 37 languages, featuring cities from all over the world.

Last year, the 80th anniversary edition of Monopoly came out, featuring one iconic token from each of the 8 decades: bathtub, locomotive, money bag, cat, cannon, cavalry and Monopoly World Championships trophy. Read more here.
landlord’s game,However, there is some controversy involving the game since, despite Charles Darrow being generally credited with the invention of Monopoly, it all started some decades before when Elizabeth Magie Phillips created Landlord’s Game. Find out more at Monopoly’s Inventor: The Progressive Who Didn’t Pass ‘Go’.

Apparently, this was this game that Charles Darrow first saw and played. He became infatuated with the game and developed his own version. His modifications included adding icons and graphics, the corner symbols and the color bands at the top of each property. Previously there were no pictures on the game board. These modifications gave the game more appeal and greatly increased its popularity.