National Scrabble Day

National Scrabble Day, observed on April 13th, celebrates the classic word-building board game and is marked on the birthday of its inventor, American architect Alfred Mosher Butts, who first designed the game during the Great Depression in 1938 under the name "Lexiko," later renamed "Criss-Cross Words." Butts, who was unemployed at the time, meticulously calculated letter frequencies by analyzing the front page of The New York Times to determine appropriate letter distributions and point values for his new game, a system still largely used in Scrabble today. The game struggled commercially for years until 1948, when entrepreneur James Brunot acquired the rights, streamlined the rules, and renamed it Scrabble, though it remained a niche product until 1952, when the president of Macy's reportedly discovered the game on vacation and was surprised his store didn't carry it, prompting a sudden surge in orders that turned Scrabble into a nationwide phenomenon almost overnight. Since then, Scrabble has become one of the best-selling board games in history, translated into dozens of languages and spawning competitive tournament play with dedicated word lists, professional players, and international championships. On this day, fans celebrate by playing a game with friends and family or participating in organized Scrabble events and tournaments.