The First Crossword

December 21, 1913 - Readers of the New York World were treated to the very first crossword puzzle on this day.

The puzzle was the brainchild of journalist Arthur Wynne, and he modeled it after a word game he had played as a child called "Magic Squares."

Wynne's original design was diamond-shaped and had no black squares. By the 1920s, crossword puzzles were a common fixture in almost every newspaper across the United States.

Here's the puzzle that started it all: