On This Day: New York World published first crossword puzzle

It was On This Day in 1913 that the Sunday edition of the New York World published the first crossword puzzle. The puzzle was created by Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool.

The crossword was in a diamond shape. Clues included “What this puzzle is” and “Part of a ship.” In all, there were 31 clues in this first crossword puzzle.

Today many sites allow you to make your own puzzle and I have to admit it is harder than it looks! I used Puzzlemaker on Discovery Education’s site. It includes just 20 clues. The point of it was two fold. First, I wanted to give my girls a copy since it was of the family. Second, it was appropriate to this post.

If you attempt it, please leave a comment below and let me know how you did!

Sources

“Brief History of Crossword Puzzles,” American Crossword Puzzle Tournament www.crosswordtournament.com

On This Day is a prompt to further explore historical events.

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