Probably the most
popular word puzzle in the world. Its estimated that over 40 million people in the United States try and solve a crossword on any given day. So how did they begin?
It turns out that crossword puzzles have a relatively brief history. The precursor to the crossword puzzle was something called the word square. The earliest known word square was found in the Roman ruins of Pompeii and looked something like this.
SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
I digress, a gentleman by the name of Arthur Wynne from Liverpool is generally credited for publishing the first crossword puzzle. It appeared in the December 21, 1913, Sunday New York World. It was originally called a "word-cross" puzzle but over time evolved into the its current name. At first, the World only carried the puzzle on a weekly basis. In 1924, the publishing company that went on to become Simon and Schuster came out with the first collection of crossword puzzles in book form. It was an instant success and helped launch a craze that featured crosswords being placed on everything from clothing to jewelry.
As time went on, crossword puzzles evolved even further. The advent of "themes" brought about a different kind of puzzle and made them harder to solve. In addition, the British came up with something they called the "cryptic" puzzle. Cryptic clues will often look something like this
"Beat in return game here" (4). Huh? Well it turns out this clue would turn the word "golf" for the (game) portion of the clue and "flog" for the (beat) portion of the clue. Spelled backwards, golf and flog take care of the (in return) portion of the clue.
Anyway, some software programs have been developed that enables regular folks such as you and I to create our own crossword puzzles. In 1997 a US company called Variety Games Inc. was issued the first US patent on using a computer to create crossword puzzles.
Interesting side note. One of the last holdouts in the publishing of crossword puzzles was none other than the New York Times. It published its first Sunday puzzle in 1942 and didn't start a daily puzzle until 1950.
sources - www.infoplease.com/spot/crossword1.html
www.crosswordpuzzles.info/history.html