First Five Facts

I will try to post five facts each day. Here are the first of those five facts:

Crosswords
A crossword puzzle consists of a diagram, usually rectangular, divided into blank (white) and cancelled (black, shaded, or crosshatched) squares. The first crosswords appeared in England during the 19th century. They were of an elementary kind apparently derived from the word "square," a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally. The first modern crossword puzzle was published on December 21, 1913, in the New York World Sunday supplement, constructed by Arthur Wynne. By 1923, crosswords were being published in most of the leading American newspapers.

Old New Year's Day
In Great Britain and its North American colonies, this day was the beginning of the new year up through 1751, when the adoption of the Gregorian calendar changed the beginning of the year to January 1. On this day in 1857, the first photograph of a solar eclipse was taken.

Board games
The earliest game boards and pieces that can be positively identified were discovered during excavations at the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in 1926-1927. The artifacts date from c 3000-2500 BC. Evidence suggests that they were racing games with rules similar to Parcheesi. Boards and their pieces have also been found in Egyptian tombs and depicted on wall paintings, mostly from c 2000 BC onward.

Rocket and cow
In November 1960, an American rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, went off-course and a piece of debris fell in Cuba, killing a cow. The Cuban government gave the cow an official funeral as the victim of "imperialist aggression."

Pencil and eraser
The first pencil with an attached eraser was patented by Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia in 1858. The pencil had a groove into which was "secured a piece of prepared rubber, glued in at one end." Erasers weren't always called erasers, though. The item was originally referred to as a "rubber," because the tree resin it was made of "rubbed out" marks made by a pencil. To eraser manufacturers, those little erasers on the ends of pencils aren't called "erasers" at all. They call them "plugs." More and more of today's erasers are made from something other than rubber. While some of the "pink" erasers you find on pencils are made from synthetic rubber blended with pumice (a grit that enhances its ability to erase), an increasing number of erasers are made from vinyl, a type of durable, flexible plastic.