It was today in 1963 that kids could start baking by lightbulb thanks to these colorful little toy appliances. We'll explain how the Easy Bake Oven came together.
Today in 1992, it's said the first picture book featuring a sock monkey was published. But where did the sock monkey itself show up? That was decades earlier, in the Illinois city of Rockford - or, as it's sometimes called, Sockford.
Today in 1879, the birthday of S.S. Adams. If you don’t know the name, you know the products: joy buzzers, sneezing powder, the dribble glass and hundreds of other novelties known all over the world all started with the S.S. Adams Company.
Today in 1956, the US issued a patent for Play-Doh. Millions of kids have built bazillions of things with this colorful stuff, but in its first life, Play-Doh had a very different job: cleaning soot off wallpaper.
Tomorrow in Las Vegas, the 2023 AArrow Sign Spinners competition begins, with elite-level sign spinners showing off their best moves.
It was around this time in 1975 that Gary Dahl dropped by a gift show in San Francisco with the idea for the pet rock. It would make him a millionaire.
A project out of a Saudi university has built a cooling system that uses salt, water and heat from sunlight, but not electricity.
Today in 1963 the Hula Hoop was patented, although by that point it had already become a worldwide phenomenon. And toy hoops go way, way back even before the toys we know today first became popular. Plus: how a very unusual photographer won the Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition.
Today is the day the Slinky first became a phenomenon, even though it was invented by accident.
The Rubik's Cube first came to a toy fair in London 40 years ago today. I have never finished one, but the enthusiasts known as speedcubers can now solve an entire cube in seconds.
