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Nursery rhymes, some dating back centuries, have left a strong mark on many of our childhoods, but we often don’t realize where they came from. Some have evolved over centuries, bringing a whole new version to modern children, while others have remained tried and true since their inception. From women’s prisons and peep shows to wholesome tales of beloved pets, here are the origins of some beloved nursery rhymes.

“Mary Had a Little Lamb” Is About a Real Schoolgirl

Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow

Poet Sarah Josepha Hale first published a version of this poem in 1830. Around 50 years later, an elderly woman named Mary Sawyer stepped forward as the real Mary.

Sawyer’s story goes pretty much like the version we know and love today. She rescued a little lamb that had been abandoned by its mother and hand-fed it until it regained its health. One morning, she and her brother decided to bring the lamb to school. The lamb hid in a basket by Mary’s feet until it bleated, drawing attention from the teacher, who gently let the lamb outside so Mary could bring it home at lunch. The other kids did, indeed, laugh.

In a letter included in a 1928 book detailing the story, Sawyer says that the lamb grew up and had a few lambs of its own.

“Ring Around the Rosie” May Be About the Plague … or a Dancing Ban

Ring around the rosie
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down

You may have heard the popular Black Plague origin story for this rhyme, with the titular “ring” representing the red rings that would appear on the skin of people with the disease. However, there are other variations of the rhyme, such as 1883’s “Ring a ring a rosie/A bottle full of posie/All the girls in our town/Ring for little Josie,” that present different theories.

When he analyzed this version, folklorist Philip Hiscock offered a less deadly translation. Religious bans on dancing in Britain and North America in the 19th century led to “play parties,” with ring games that were similar to square dancing but without music, so the events quietly flew under the radar.

“The rings referred to in the rhymes are literally the rings formed by the playing children,” explains Hiscock. “‘Ashes, ashes’ probably comes from something like ‘Husha, husha,’ another common variant which refers to stopping the ring and falling silent. And the falling down refers to the jumble of bodies in that ring when they let go of each other and throw themselves into the circle.”

“Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” Came From a Women’s Prison

Here we go round the mulberry bush
The mulberry bush
The mulberry bush
Here we go round the mulberry bush
On a cold and frosty morning

Although this rhyme likely started out using Bramble Bush (mulberries actually grow on trees), historian R. S. Duncan suggests this version came about at Wakefield Prison in England. The facility has been home to an extremely recognizable mulberry tree for centuries, and the theory goes that Victorian female prisoners used to dance around it and made up the rhyme to keep their kids amused. (Back then, men, women, and children were often confined together.) The tree eventually died in 2017, but it was replaced with a cutting from the original.

“Rub a Dub Dub” Is About a Peep Show

Rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker,
And all of them out to sea

Most American children know a heavily revised version of this rhyme with only men in a tub. But you need the original version to understand the origins of this 14th-century phrase:

Hey, rub-a-dub
Ho, rub-a-dub
Three maids in a tub
And who do you think were there?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker
And all of them going to the fair

According to author Chris Roberts, the “tub” here refers to a bawdy fairground attraction. “Today it would be perhaps a lap-dancing venue,” Roberts said in 2005. “The upper-class, the respectable tradesfolk — the candlestick maker and the butcher and the baker — are ogling, getting an eyeful of some naked young ladies in a tub.”

“There Was a Little Girl” Was Written by a Famous Poet About His Daughter

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid

Many curly-haired troublesome children heard this short-and-sweet rhyme growing up — but perhaps didn’t know about its relatively prestigious origins. Famed American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, known for works like “Paul Revere’s Ride,” wrote this goofy little verse about his own daughter. His son Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in his book, Random Memories, that “it was while walking up and down with his second daughter, then a baby in his arms, that my father composed and sang to her the well-known lines.”

“Humpty Dumpty” Isn’t About an Egg

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again

There’s nothing that makes Humpty an egg in this rhyme! That image was popularized by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass in 1871, decades after the rhyme’s inception. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “humpty dumpty” had a few meanings before the wall came into it, including a drink with brandy and a short, dumpy, clumsy person. An 1881 book even features images of Humpty as a clown.

A popular theory is that “humpty dumpty” refers to a cannon used during the Siege of Colchester in 1648. The idea that this rhyme is some kind of wartime ballad is pretty common. Before the cannon theory got traction, many believed the rhyme was about the usurpation of Richard III in 1483.

However, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, the root of this nursery rhyme could be more innocent. While it’s unclear whether this game predates the rhyme, Humpty Dumpty was a popular game in the 19th century where girls would tuck their legs into their skirts, fall back, and then try to regain balance without letting go of their skirts. “Eggs do not sit on walls,” authors Peter and Iona Opie write. “But the verse becomes intelligible if it describes human beings who are impersonating eggs.”

“Hickory Dickory Dock” Is Actually About a Mouse and a Clock

Hickory dickory dock
The mouse went up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse went down
Hickory dickory dock

Some believe this counting rhyme was inspired by the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral in Devon, England, which was plagued by mice. Around 1600, the presiding bishop directed carpenters to cut a hole in the door to the clock room — or, as the records said at the time, “Paid ye carpenters 8d for cutting ye hole in ye north transept door for ye Bishop’s cat.” The cathedral’s cats got easy access to prey, cutting down the vermin population. Centuries later, the door is still there.

But there’s a reason mice were so common around the clockwork: Animal fat was often used to lubricate clock parts during that time. It’s possible it was just written about a pretty normal thing to be happening on a clock at the time, but that’s not as fun.

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Graduation season: a time when students wear awkwardly pointy hats, wrap themselves in a robe, and listen to esteemed strangers tell them to chase their dreams. Here’s how those traditions came to be (and the reason graduates are always marching to that song).

Wearing Robes

The first universities in Europe weren’t designed for fresh-faced teens straight out of high school. They were for the clergy-in-training. These medieval students would wear robes or gowns, much like the vestments still worn by priests, monks, and other religious orders today (the hoods often helped keep shaved heads warm). While universities are no longer strictly training grounds for religious folk, these ancient garments have remained part of everyday wear for centuries. In fact, at schools such as Oxford, students must pull out the so-called “academic dress” for regular events like exams and chapel. (And in Portugal, some students still wear capes to class — which may have been part of the inspiration for the Harry Potter uniform.)

Square Hats

It’s hip to be square: The mortarboard is another anachronism from the university’s medieval holy days. Back in the 11th century, a newly ordained clergyman would receive a round skullcap called a calotte. As the centuries passed and universities grew to include new areas of study, the headwear stuck around. The hat evolved from a small skullcap to a round and puffy beret (called a pileus rotundus) to a square-shaped hat (called a pileus quadratus, which supposedly saved time and fabric). Four centuries later, the ceremonial square cap — first called a mortarboard in the 19th century for its resemblance to the boards masons used for carrying mortar — remains the graduate’s go-to.

Moving the Tassel

Tassels have been around for millennia, often used as a talisman or a marker of rank. Hundreds of years ago, students at Oxford wore different-colored tassels to denote their social status. The moving of the tassel, however, is a modern tradition. It’s unclear when or why graduates started the practice, but it may be related to “hooding ceremonies,” where a master’s or doctorate student is individually given a hood or stole. (At some universities, the tradition actually called for an entire wardrobe change.) The moving of the tassel may have emerged as a similar practice — a small fashion tweak that symbolizes a graduate’s upgraded status.

Throwing the Cap

It’s not entirely certain when graduates started throwing their caps in the air, but 1912 is the first well-remembered instance. That year, the graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis anxiously awaited their commission to become officers. Upon graduation, they would be given an officer’s cap and would no longer need the midshipman hats they had worn during their grueling cadet years. (Previously, graduates had to serve in the fleet for two years before getting their commissions, but the Navy was desperate for junior officers, and relaxed the rules that year.) So when it came time to don their new officer hats, the graduating class threw their old ones into the air in celebration, and a tradition was born.

Playing “Pomp and Circumstance”

Written by Edward Elgar in 1901, the musical piece famously played during every graduation was actually one of five “Pomp and Circumstance Marches” by the British composer. In England, the tune — which is named for a line in Shakespeare’s Othello — became a patriotic staple after being played at the 1902 coronation of Britain’s Edward VII, with lyrics touting the “Land of Hope and Glory.” The tune wouldn’t become a U.S. graduation tradition until 1905, when Elgar received an honorary doctorate at Yale University. Local musicians played the piece as the composer and the graduating class walked out of the ceremony. Other schools soon started using the tune too, and by the 1920s it was a common graduation theme.

Getting Diplomas

For centuries, it was the student’s responsibility to make their own diploma. The document functioned like a passport, a way to prove that he or she had training in a particular set of skills. If a student wanted a certification of their degree, they needed to hire a calligrapher and then pay their university president to sign the document. It’s not entirely clear which school started to give them out first, but graduates of Harvard College didn’t begin receiving diplomas from their alma mater until 1813. Other schools followed the trend soon after.

The Commencement Speech

Originally, commencement speeches were performed by the students and faculty, not an outside speaker. Students would orate and debate in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew as a way to show off their extensive public speaking training (at one time, it was common for students to be conversant with all three languages). According to a TIME article that quotes Anthony Grafton, a professor at Princeton, the custom “goes with the idea that oratory was one of the central things that students were learning, and one of the central skills of the university.” But as oratory faded from the institutions, outside speakers stepped in to fill the void and provide words of wisdom to new graduates.

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Many families have their share of strange holiday traditions unique to their own households and likely passed down through the generations, but even widely practiced year-end customs like putting up the Christmas tree or white elephant gift exchanges have their own often-surprising origin stories. Why did folks start wearing ugly sweaters as a way to commemorate the holidays? When did the odd-but-delightful tradition of listening to groups of strangers caroling door-to-door begin? And what’s up with the “Christmas pickle”? Here, we’ve rounded up 10 fun holiday traditions and traced them back to their genesis (or tried to), in hopes that the next time you’re told to down a tall glass of eggnog, you’ll know why.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Ah, the ugly Christmas sweater. Now an ironic-yet-nostalgic mainstay of the holiday season, the look forces even the coolest fashion kids to raid their parents’ closets in search of itchy, unbecoming outerwear. According to the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book: The Definitive Guide for Getting Your Ugly On, two Canadians are actually responsible for the phenomenon. The book credits Vancouver residents Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch as the two young men who threw the first-ever ugly Christmas sweater party in 2002. In an interview on Canadian TV, Boyd and Birch explained that they were hoping to put on a “cheesy, feel-good, festive party, and the sweaters were a main ingredient of that.” In the years since, hipsters and hip, fun-loving bosses alike have jumped on the bandwagon, creating a wholesome custom perfect for revelers of all ages (as well as a booming industry of purposefully hideous knitwear).

White Elephant Gift Exchanges

There are a lot of different names for this most rambunctious of holiday games: “Yankee Swap” or “Dirty Santa,” for instance. Regardless of what you call it, though, you’ve likely taken part in some iteration of the white elephant gift exchange, which involves giving, exchanging, and stealing items to the merriment — and sometimes indignation — of everyone involved. Legend has it that the game’s origins can be traced back to the King of Siam (now Thailand), who used to gift his enemies with a literal white elephant. The reasoning behind this unlikely present? White elephants were notoriously difficult to care for and would eventually drain the owner financially, so the “gift” was actually a passive-aggressive way to tell someone off. This particular anecdote was even mentioned in The New York Times in 1873, but author Rita Ringis debunked the legend in her book Elephants of Thailand in Myth, Art, and Reality, writing that there was no factual basis for it — meaning that the actual origins are likely far less dramatic.

Eggnog and Candy Canes

Eggnog and candy canes are as emblematic of the holidays as a turkey is to Thanksgiving, but the origins of these sweet treats are a bit fuzzier than one might imagine. Eggnog, for example, is much-debated among culinary historians; the one thing they do agree on, however, is that it likely originated from an early medieval drink called “posset,” which was a milky, ale-like drink, served warm. The drink only became associated with the holidays once it was brought over to the States in the 18th century.

Candy canes, meanwhile, are rumored to have originated in Germany in the 1600s, when choirmasters at the famed Cologne Cathedral would hand out sugar sticks to their choir boys to keep them from being chatty during the Living Crèche (or Live Nativity) ceremony. The bent cane is believed to either have been a nod to the candy’s religious origins or a more practical solution for those who wanted to hang the sweets on their Christmas trees. Interestingly, the original candy canes were all-white; it wasn’t until production was automated around the turn of the 20th century that the iconic red stripes and peppermint flavoring were added (likely for increased marketability).

Gingerbread Houses

As with many Christmas-adjacent things, gingerbread houses originated in Germany during the 16th century. Gingerbread itself had of course been around for much longer: Rhonda Massingham Hart, the author of Making Gingerbread Houses, noted that the first known recipe for gingerbread came from Greece in 2400 BCE. Gingerbread houses, however — those miniature homes made with cookies for walls and frosting for roof tiling — became popular around the same time the Brothers Grimm wrote their story about Hansel and Gretel and the witch’s house in the forest made entirely of sweets. But according to PBS, it’s unclear, still, whether gingerbread houses became popular because of the fairy tale or if the fairy tale included a memorably edible home because of how popular gingerbread houses were at the time.

Christmas Caroling

Singing for strangers is a thing humans have been doing for quite some time: Back in the 12th and 13th centuries, medieval minstrels would often go door to door performing as a form of entertainment all year round. But it wasn’t until centuries later that it would come to be associated specifically with Christmastime. The earliest Christmas carols evolved out of Nativity plays started by St. Francis of Assisi in Italy, and were mostly religious in nature. The carolers themselves weren’t always welcome by the neighbors whose houses they sang at, however. According to a 2011 Salon article, the tradition took a turn for the worse in the 17th century, when carolers would sometimes demand food and drink, or even threaten violence in their lyrics. For a time, Puritans banned not only caroling but Christmas itself; luckily for us today’s carolers are quite a bit less confrontational.

Kissing Under the Mistletoe

Sneaking in a kiss under the mistletoe is as Hallmark as it gets. And the history behind the practice is, fittingly, also classic — mythology-classic, in fact. According to legend, the Norse god Baldur was killed by a sprig of mistletoe; he had woken up that morning afraid that every plant and animal species was out to get him, so his loving mother and wife went out to ask every plant and animal to leave him alone. The women forgot to ask mistletoe, however, and a sprig of the evergreen ultimately killed him. His mother, the goddess Frigga, wept tears that turned into white berries on the mistletoe. She was able to revive him, and in celebration, Frigga proclaimed mistletoe the plant of love. The ancient Druids, Greeks, and Romans all also believed that mistletoe could restore fertility, likely due to the fact that the plant remains green and hardy even in the worst winter weather. And so, the practice of smooching under the mistletoe was born.

Christmas Light Displays

The holidays are all about sharing in communal cheer, and bundling up to go see the neighborhood Christmas light displays is often a big part of many families’ holiday agendas. Edward Hibberd Johnson, a good friend of Thomas Edison’s, was the man who came up with the brilliant idea to string a bunch of lights together; the first displayed Christmas tree stood tall in New York in 1882. (The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, now a longtime tourist attraction, was first erected in 1931.) It’s believed that the first outdoor public Christmas holiday display was organized by Frederick Nash and the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce in Altadena, California, in 1920. Now known widely as “Christmas Tree Lane,” the display exemplifies the best and most extravagant version of what neighborhoods around the country share every year.

Christmas Trees

Even though displaying a tall evergreen tree indoors in the month of December is most often associated with Christmas, the practice of celebrating nature in the dark months of winter actually predates Christianity. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used greenery in their homes as decoration to celebrate winter festivals as a way to show triumph over death, but it was the Germans who started the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it — lights, ornaments, and even strings of popcorn. The widely held belief is that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, was the first person to introduce lighted candles to the tree. The tradition carried over to America by German settlers in the 1830s, and though Americans initially scoffed at the odd idea, they finally adopted the tradition several years later after an illustration of Queen Victoria and her kids gathered around a Christmas tree reached the U.S.

The Nutcracker

One of the most beloved holiday stories of our time is The Nutcracker — the musical scores, stunning ballet performances, and memorable set decorations are the epitome of holiday tradition glam at its finest, whether the performance is in a school auditorium or at a regal, highbrow theater. The ballet is based on the 1816 story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” by German author E.T.A. Hoffmann, and features music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It premiered on December 18, 1892, in St. Petersburg, Russia, and was, incredibly, only performed for the first time outside of Russia in 1934, in London. It didn’t reach the United States until a decade later when it was performed by the San Francisco Ballet, and by the 1960s it became standard holiday viewing. Today, the story of Clara’s encounter with her brave nutcracker come to life has been adapted by major studios, dance companies, and high schools around the country, and the iconic music of The Nutcracker Suite plays on rotation at radio stations as often as anything Bing Crosby ever sang.

Christmas Pickles

The Christmas pickle is an American tradition that was once believed to have originated in Germany, which seems plausible given that so many other holiday customs have found their way to the United States that way. In actuality, the Christmas pickle was most likely the result of a marketing gimmick. In the 1880s, Woolworth stores received imported German ornaments shaped like pickles — glass-blown fruits and veggies were commonplace — but they needed to find a way to sell these particular, peculiar baubles. American salesmanship got to work, and an origin story emerged: Parents would hide the green glass ornament within the tree on Christmas Eve, and the first child to find it would either get to open presents first or receive a special treat. Just like that, they were out of their pickle — and Christmas pickles became a pretty big dill.

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While most adults with jobs, kids, and other responsibilities have little time to play with toys, chances are these same busy folks can easily recall their favorite playthings from childhood. That’s because the best toys — whether a doll, sporting item, video game, or other novelty — pack a certain timeless appeal and leave lasting memories. But as much fun as these cherished items can be to play with, it’s also fun to learn about the unique ways they came into existence. Discover how breakthrough experiments, bold innovation, and even bizarre accidents created some enduringly popular classic toys.

Frisbee

Unveiled by the Wham-O toy company in 1957, Frisbees are said to have gotten their unofficial start decades earlier among New England college students who enjoyed tossing pie tins and other containers made by the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. One young man named Walter Morrison decided to form a business from these flying discs, and by the late 1940s, he and a partner had developed a plastic version that eventually caught the attention of Wham-O founders Arthur “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr.

At that point called the “Pluto Platter,” to capitalize on the UFO craze then sweeping the country, the disc was rebranded to its now-familiar name in 1958 as a nod to the pie company that unintentionally launched the high-flying toy. And while undoubtedly a success from a profit standpoint — more than 200 million official Frisbees had been sold by the time of Morrison’s death in 2010 — the disc also left a sizable imprint on popular culture by inspiring the creation of new sports like Ultimate Frisbee and Frisbee Golf.

Lincoln Logs

It can be tough following in the footsteps of a famous parent, and while architect John Lloyd Wright never quite emerged from the outsized shadow of his legendary father, Frank Lloyd Wright, he did manage to distinguish himself in a completely different field. Inspired by his dad’s work on Japan’s Imperial Hotel, which was built on a flexible wooden-beam structure designed to sway but not collapse during an earthquake, the younger Wright set about developing his own mini-version of interlocking building beams that could withstand the rough play of children.

After founding the Red Square Toy Company in 1918, John Lloyd Wright obtained a patent for his “toy-cabin construction” in 1920. With an increasingly urbanized populace yearning for the adventurous days of the Western frontier, Wright named his product for the log-cabin-born President Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln Logs debuted in 1924 with packaging boasting “Interesting playthings typifying the spirit of America.”

After a failed follow-up attempt to pique the interest of young builders with the more complex Wright Blocks, Wright sold Lincoln Logs to Playskool in 1943 and abandoned the toy trade to resume his focus on architecture. While some of his homes are still standing, Lincoln Logs remain Wright’s best-known creation, even with frequent changes in licensing rights shuttling possession of this classic playset across several companies and into the hands of its current distributor, Basic Fun!

Mr. Potato Head

While most parents would prefer that their kids not play with their food, that was precisely the concept motivating George Lerner’s creation of what became Mr. Potato Head in 1949. After initially scoring a deal to have his three-dimensional plastic facial parts distributed as a cereal-package prize, Lerner found a better opportunity with Hassenfeld Brothers (which later became Hasbro) in 1951. Mr. Potato Head began appearing in stores the following year, offering a series of body parts and accessories that could be affixed to other objects with pins; although they came with styrofoam heads, the instructions suggested that potatoes and other vegetables could easily be substituted.

Mr. Potato Head pulled in a whopping $4 million in sales after a few months, and his popularity soon fueled the additions of Mrs. Potato Head and children Yam and Spud to the family. In 1964, lingering concerns about the sharpness of its pieces prompted Hasbro to finally package Mr. Potato Head with a plastic body and easily pluggable body parts.

The toy eventually became something of an unlikely ambassador for the changing of the country’s values. In 1987, Mr. Potato Head’s pipe was discontinued as a show of solidarity with the Great American Smokeout, a day dedicated to anti-smoking efforts. Five years later, the character disavowed his time-honored status as a “couch potato” and received an award from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. And in 2021, Hasbro announced that the famed brand would simply be known as “Potato Head” in an effort to be more gender-neutral.

Silly Putty

It seems the creation of Silly Putty was a happy accident on the part of not one, but two separate chemical engineers. According to the standard story put forth by its manufacturer, Crayola, General Electric’s James Wright was seeking to come up with a rubber substitute during World War II when he mixed boric acid and silicone oil to produce an extremely bouncy and stretchy material. At roughly the same time, Dow Chemical researcher Earl Warrick stumbled upon a similar boric acid-infused polymer. Both men obtained patents, but because there were no practical applications for this substance, it mainly served as a novelty item at parties.

The stretchy stuff eventually made its way into a toy store, where it caught the attention of advertising executive Peter Hodgson. Seeking to market it himself, Hodgson secured a small loan, hired Yale University students to separate a batch into 1-ounce balls, and sold the “Silly Putty” in plastic eggs for $1 each. Demand was modest until a favorable review appeared in an August 1950 issue of The New Yorker, after which some 250,000 eggs were sold over the course of three days.

Initially marketed toward adults, Silly Putty was rebranded as a children’s toy in the mid-1950s. By the time it made its way onboard Apollo 8 in 1968, the former laboratory curiosity had emerged as an iconic plaything for people of all ages. As of 2021, more than 300 million eggs and 4,000 tons of the beloved goo had been sold.

Barbie

In the early 1950s, Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler saw her daughter Barbara playing with paper fashion figurines and mused about the possibility of creating a full-figured adult doll. After a trip to Europe in 1956 brought her into contact with an existing doll of that type named Bild Lilli, Handler set about convincing her reluctant colleagues to develop their own prototype.

Making her debut at the National Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959, the original 11-inch Barbie cost $3 and scared off most of Mattel’s usual distributors because of the doll’s adult-proportioned body parts. However, Barbie’s popularity began to pick up by summertime, and more than 300,000 dolls were sold before the end of the year. In 1961, she was joined by her longtime companion, Ken. The following year saw the introduction of the Barbie Dreamhouse.

Even more than Mr. Potato, Barbie has been a barometer of social change. Mattel has long sought to prop up a persona of ambition for its flagship figurine, giving her some 250 careers over the course of her existence. Black and Latina versions began appearing in 1980, and in recent years, added efforts at diversity have led to the introduction of Barbies with prosthetic limbs and Down syndrome.

Meanwhile, the leggy doll continues to stand tall in popular culture. Barbie launched her first bid for President in 1992, and she made the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in 2014. You may have heard something about a recent Barbie movie, too, which grossed more than $1.4 billion globally at a time when theaters are struggling to draw audiences. Altogether, more than 1 billion individual Barbies have been sold since she made her National Toy Fair splash back in 1959.

Slinky

As the famous jingle goes: “What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound? A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it’s Slinky.” But did you know the beloved toy was created by accident?

In 1943, while stationed at a Philadelphia shipyard, U.S. Naval engineer Richard T. James was searching for a way to use springs to help sensitive equipment hold up in turbulent seas. One day, Richard knocked a spring off a shelf and watched as it gracefully “stepped” from a stack of books to a table and then to the floor, where it landed upright. James told the story to his wife, Betty, who wondered if the industrial spring could be transformed into a toy.  

Richard soon took that idea and designed a machine to coil 80-feet of wire into a 2-inch spiral, which Betty named “Slinky,” inspired by the flowing movement and distinct sound of the spring in motion.

The toy was introduced during the 1945 Christmas season at a Gimbels department store in Philadelphia. Priced at $1, the Slinky was an immediate hit, with 400 Slinkys selling out in just 90 minutes.

However, in 1960, Slinky sales began to decline when Richard left his family to become a missionary in Bolivia. Betty took over the business, even mortgaging her home to keep it afloat. She reintroduced the Slinky at a 1963 New York Toy Show.

The Slinky toy line expanded through the decades with plastic Slinkys and Slinky animals. In 1995, the Slinky Dog became a hot ticket item after it was featured in Pixar’s Toy Story, with 800,000 Slinky Dogs selling that year. Today, more than 300 million Slinkys have been sold, enough to circle the globe 150 times if stretched.

Candy Land

Candy Land is one of the top-selling children’s board games of all time, wIth an average of one million games sold a year.

Players began traveling through the Peppermint Stick Forest and the Molasses Swamp in 1948, when retired schoolteacher Eleanor Abbott invented Candy Land in the polio ward of a San Diego, California, hospital. Abbott’s hand-crafted game became a welcome distraction for the sick children during their most difficult moments.

This inspired Abbott to bring the game to Milton Bradley, and it debuted on shelves in 1949. The post-World War II Baby Boom created a huge market for children’s games, and Candy Land quickly became Milton Bradley’s highest-selling game. Marketed as the “sweet little game for sweet little folks,” Candy Land’s legacy is even sweeter because Abbot donated all the royalties she received from her invention to children’s charities.

Magic 8 Ball

Since the 1950s, the Magic 8 Ball has been a consistent source of advice for all of life’s problems. The toy’s inventor, Albert C. Carter, was the son of a Cincinnati clairvoyant, and completely fascinated by her work. Carter’s mother, Mary, would often use the fortune-telling invention the Psycho-Slate — a small chalkboard sealed inside a container — with her clients. When someone asked a question of the “other world,” Mary would reveal the answer on the Psycho-Slate, as if the spirits scribbled it down themselves.

Thus inspired, in 1944, a grown-up Carter completed his version of a fortune-telling tool called the Syco-Seer, a liquid-filled tube with a window allowing a view of two floating worded dice. The Syco-Seer attracted the attention of Cincinnati store owner Max Levinson, who turned to his brother-in-law Abe Bookman to help with production. Under the company name Alabe Crafts, the Syco-Seer’s design was further tweaked to a smaller tube with only one floating die inside a crystal ball.

In 1950, Chicago company Brunswick Billiards was looking for a promotional item to give to their customers and came across the Syco-Seer. Brunswick Billiards tweaked the design once more and replaced the crystal ball with a black eight billiards ball.

After ending its contract with Brunswick, Alabe Crafts went on to market the now-named Magic 8 Ball as a paperweight before repositioning it as a children’s toy, which launched its international popularity. Today, the Magic 8 Ball continues to respond with its 20-sided die that includes 10 positive, five negative, and five vague responses. Now owned by Mattel, over a million Magic 8 Balls are sold every year.

Play-Doh

In the early 20th century, Cincinnati’s Kutol Products was known for its pliable compound used for cleaning coal soot from wallpaper. But by the 1950s, during the transition to cleaner heating fuels, there was far less demand for Kutol’s cleaner.  

When Joseph McVicker was tasked with turning the company’s fortunes around, his sister-in-law Kay Zufall, a nursery school teacher, read that wallpaper cleaner could be used as a type of modeling clay, and tested the nontoxic material in her classroom. The children loved it, and Zufall suggested a new name for the product: Play-Doh.  

When Play-Doh was launched in 1956, the product was only available in white and would harden when left exposed to air. In 1957, chemist Dr. Tien Liu tinkered with the formula allowing Play-Doh to remain pliable longer and make its color more vibrant.

Initially, sales were modest, but in 1958, they began to soar when Play-Doh was featured in ads during the hit TV show Captain Kangaroo. Eventually, additional colors were included in the line, and in 1960, the first Play-Doh Fun Factory set hit shelves.

In 1965, McVicker sold his Play-Doh company to General Mills, with Hasbro taking the brand in 1991. Today, more than 3 billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold in more than 80 countries.

The Easy-Bake Oven

The Easy-Bake Oven debuted in stores in November 1963. It was inspired by Norman Shapiro, a sales manager at toy manufacturer Kenner, who saw a New York City vendor warming pretzels in a cart’s tiny oven and thought it would make an excellent toy. The original oven was made up of three cubes with a stovetop and carry handle, all painted bright teal. While users were invited to come up with their own recipes, the oven came with mixes for baked goods, bubble gum, candy bars, and complete “kiddie dinners” of meat, macaroni, and peas. Packet contents were mixed with water, poured into supplied bakeware, and cooked by the heat of two lightbulbs, with temperatures reaching up to 350 degrees.

The toy was originally priced at a then-high $15.95 (around $115 in 2022), which surprisingly did not deter sales of 500,000 units in the oven’s first release. The quick-baking toy’s popularity paralleled America’s interest in kitchen technology and the increased use of mixes and packaged products.

In 1968, Kenner was acquired by General Mills, who introduced Betty Crocker recipes into the Easy-Bake Oven’s repertoire. Over the years, production increased along with changes to the toy’s design to reflect the interior design trends of the time, from the harvest-gold and avocado tones of the 1970s to a redesign of the oven to resemble the new microwaves of the 1980s.

Recently the Easy-Bake Oven, now owned by Hasbro, has adopted a more gender-neutral design, acknowledging its popularity with both girls and boys. Since its inception almost 70 years ago, more than 30 million Easy-Bake Ovens have been sold and more than 150 million mixes have been cooked.

Nerf Balls

After the incredible success of the game Twister, its Inventor Reyn Guyer wanted to create another sensation. In 1968, Guyer and his team began work on a game they called “Caveman,” using “rocks” cut out of mattress foam which were to be thrown at opponents. During development, Guyer thought the rocks would be better shaped into balls for safer indoor use. The original concept was scrapped in favor of making an indoor game using the newly named Muffball.  

Parker Brothers acquired Guyer’s ball, and in 1969, introduced the renamed Nerf ball in four colors: yellow, orange, red, and blue. While some think the name is an acronym for “non-expanding recreational foam,” Guyer says it came from the foam-padded roll bars on Jeeps, known as “NERF bars.”

With ad copy of “throw it indoors; you can’t damage lamps or break windows. You can’t hurt babies or old people,” 4.5 million Nerf balls were sold in the first year of production.  In 1971, Parker Brothers expanded the product line to include a Super Nerf Ball and Nerf Disk.

In 1972, Fred Cox, former Minnesota Vikings field-goal kicker, came up with the idea of making a football out of foam, using an injection molder to give the soft ball a durable surface that could be gripped. Cox brought the invention to Parker Brothers, where it became the Nerf Football which further propelled its international fame. Today, NERF is probably best known for its series of foam dart blasters, which debuted in 1992.

Simon

In the 1960s, Ralph Baer, a military engineer, would spend his free time developing early video games, dreaming of a system that would allow gameplay on a television. He eventually succeeded and in 1971, Baer and his employer Sanders Associates received the first-ever video game patent for the Magnavox Odyssey, which went on sale in 1972.

In 1976, Baer, who was now working as a consultant for toy company Marvin Glass and Associates, took inspiration from an Atari arcade game called Touch Me, where players had to repeat a bright light and annoyingly loud musical sequence. Over the next two years, Baer worked on a portable game with four pleasing bugle horn notes. Originally called Follow Me, the new game was licensed by Milton Bradley as Simon, after the children’s game Simon Says.

In 1978, Simon debuted at the disco palace Studio 54 in New York City. That Christmas season, stores reported long lines of people hoping to nab one of the highly desired machines, despite its original price of $25 (around $90 in 2022). While Simon could only play one sequence, was bulky, and required many D batteries, it was a huge step forward in home electronic gaming. The popularity of Simon was boosted by its coincidental connection to Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. During the science-fiction classic’s finale, aliens communicate using a sequence of musical notes and lights on their spaceship that resembles Simon’s gameplay.

By the end of the 1980s, 10 million Simons were sold despite many knock-offs of the original game entering production. Newer versions of the game, including Simon Optix, where users wear a virtual reality-style headset to play, have brought the game to new audiences — but the retro appeal of the original remains.

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Where there is art, there’s a chance to make money. A lot of money. Art heists have been happening for centuries. But as security technology has become more advanced, stealing art has turned into, well, something of an art. (An illegal art, to be clear.) Here are six of the most headline-grabbing art heists in recent memory.

The Stewart Gardner Museum Heist

It was 1:24 a.m. on March 18, 1990, when two men in police uniforms buzzed the guard at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, asking to come inside to respond to a report of a disturbance. But when the guard answered the call, he found himself handcuffed, tied up in the basement, and perhaps shaking his head at a game of deception — the “police” were fake. With the guards muzzled, the thieves made off with more than $500 million worth of art, including works by Vermeer, Manet, Degas, and Rembrandt. More than 30 years later, none of the paintings have been recovered, despite a $10 million reward.

The Skylight Swipe

In 1972, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was doing repairs on one of its skylights, covering the hole with a sheet of plastic. Apparently, somebody noticed. In the dead of night, three ski-masked burglars descended from the open skylight with nylon rope and rappelled down. It wasn’t long before the shotgun-toting men had bound and gagged all of the museum’s unarmed guards. The robbers stole 18 paintings and 39 pieces of jewelry. A week later, a cinematic ransom scene ensued, with suspicious phone calls from men with European accents and enigmatic messages sending investigators into phone booths and train stations in search of clues. Unfortunately, only one piece has been recovered.

The Daylight Robbery

The October 27, 1985 heist at Paris’s Musée Marmottan was more like a bank robbery than a sneaky art theft. Minutes after the museum opened, the armed robbers traipsed inside — two even bought tickets — before flashing their weapons. With the guards held at gunpoint and onlookers spread on the floor, the criminals stuffed reams of art into the trunk of a double-parked car. In total, the crime took only five minutes. The five gunmen made off with five Monets, two Renoirs, and two other artworks in broad daylight. In 1990, the works were discovered on the island of Corsica.

The Takeaway Rembrandt

Rembrandt’s 1632 painting of Jacob de Gheyn III, a prominent Dutch engraver, has been stolen so many times it’s been called the “Takeaway Rembrandt.” (One of the Old Master’s smallest works, its size — just under 12 inches by 10 inches — makes it easier to pilfer.) The painting has been discovered in some unlikely places: the back of a bicycle, under a cemetery bench, and near a train station luggage rack. However, the most cinematic heist occurred in 1983, when a burglar smashed a skylight at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, descended a rope à la Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, and pried the painting off the wall with a crowbar.

The Green Vault Jewelry Heist

Around 4 a.m. on November 25, 2019, the lights along the Augustus Bridge in Dresden, Germany, went dark. The power outage — caused when a nearby electrical box caught on fire — made some of the security alarms at the Green Vault Museum shut down. That’s when the thieves swooped in: The criminals cut the iron bars around a basement window, slipped through, and, guided by flashlights, smashed the ornate jewelry displays with an axe. One hour later, they slunk through the window with their hands full of rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. The heist included the 49-carat Dresden White Diamond, a sword encrusted with more than 700 precious stones, and jewelry belonging to 18th-century royalty. The total value of the stolen goods? More than $1 billion.

France’s Criminal Spiderman

The cat burglar who robbed the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris was so crafty, locals called him Spiderman. Vjean Tomic spent six days preparing for the robbery, dabbing a window frame “with paint-stripping acid, exposing the head of each screw,” according to The New Yorker. “Then, after applying another solution, to eliminate rust, he removed the screws and filled the holes with brown modelling clay that matched the color of the window frame.” Afterward, he removed the window with suction cups, broke a lock with bolt cutters, and stole $70 million worth of paintings. Tomic, who would describe “robbery as an act of imagination,” was only paid 40,000 Euros for the crime. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

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From the Michigan State Spartan to the Duke Blue Devil, college sports are full of charismatic mascots that exemplify school spirit. Among those legendary characters are several oddball creatures boasting amorphous shapes and unlikely origin stories. These wacky sideline staples are beloved by students at their respective institutions. In their honor, here are some spirited facts about seven of the most endearing and unusual college mascots.

Sammy the Banana Slug, University of California, Santa Cruz

Banana slugs aren’t the most animated creatures — National Geographic deems them among the slowest beings on Earth — but that reputation hasn’t stopped Sammy the Slug from riling up fans on the sidelines. Sammy has been the official mascot for UC Santa Cruz’s athletic program since the mid-1980s, though the slug was once a point of contention between students and members of the administration. As far back as 1965, students noticed banana slugs crawling around local hiking trails; given that UCSC had no NCAA sports teams at the time, they felt that the mollusk’s low-key, docile nature suited the school well.

But when UC Santa Cruz joined several Division III sports leagues in 1980 and had to submit an official team name, it settled on the Sea Lions — a nod to the school’s geographic proximity to the Pacific Ocean. That’s when the protests (in good fun) began: Students would show up to basketball games and chant, “Slime ’em!” in support of their beloved banana slugs. The school ultimately held a vote in 1986 that ended up overwhelmingly in favor of adopting the banana slug as the official mascot, and Sammy the Slug was born. Sammy has since appeared in publications such as People and Sports Illustrated, and in the character’s 25th year, the Santa Cruz City Council declared September 27, 2011, the “Day of the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slug.”

Big Red, Western Kentucky University

Few college mascots are more mysterious than Western Kentucky University’s Big Red. Though WKU’s athletic teams are the Hilltoppers, Big Red is a huge, furry, red, amorphous character who was intentionally designed to be unlike other college mascots. Big Red’s creator, Ralph Carey, didn’t want to go with a tired animal mascot, and also wanted to avoid any “hillbilly” stereotypes. So, after spending $300 on foam, fake fur, plastic tubing, and aluminum framing, Carey fashioned a unique costume and debuted Big Red on the sidelines at E.A. Diddle Arena on December 1, 1979. Known for its signature belly slide and belly shake, Big Red has appeared on ESPN, been named to the Capital One All-America Mascot Team, and even reportedly inspired a beloved Italian children’s television character named Gabibbo.

WuShock, Wichita State University

WuShock is an anthropomorphized, muscular bundle of wheat that represents the Wichita State Shockers athletics program. A reference to the practice of “shocking” or harvesting wheat, the “Shockers” nickname first appeared on a poster advertising a football game in 1904. It wasn’t until 1948, however, that WuShock debuted as the official mascot, named for the abbreviation “W.U.,” from a time when the school was known simply as “Wichita University.” For the first few years, WuShock appeared as just a drawing on promotional materials, but in 1954, cheerleader Dave Johnson finally brought the character to life using a prototype outfit made for $20. In the years since, WuShock has undergone several redesigns, only a few of which have been considered official. The mascot now wears a black turtleneck with the letters “WSU” emblazoned on the front, and dons a messy, wheat-like haircut as he patrols the sideline rooting for his beloved Shockers.

Artie the Artichoke, Scottsdale Community College

Artie the Artichoke was the culmination of an act of protest. In the 1970s, disagreements over intended budget priorities at Arizona’s Scottsdale Community College led to a period of unrest. During a 1972 vote to determine a school mascot, disillusioned students selected “the Artichokes” in an effort to embarrass school leadership, with other finalists including “the Scoundrels” and “the Rutabagas.” The administration was not happy and called for a second election, but the result was once again the same. And despite the initial discord, Artie has become beloved by students and administrators alike. Fans now colloquially refer to the school as “Artichoke Nation” and the sports teams as the “Fighting Artichokes.”

Otto the Orange, Syracuse University

New York’s Syracuse University first adopted the color orange in 1890, in part to stand out from other schools, none of which used the hue as their sole primary color for collegiate sports at the time. In the decades after, Syracuse’s mascots included a gladiator, a goat, and even a dog wearing a football helmet. None had as big of an impact, however, as the school’s current mascot, Otto the Orange. The character, an anthropomorphic orange wearing a blue baseball cap, made its debut in the early 1980s, and is said to have been designed by a former SU student named Eric Heath. Known as “Clyde” or simply “the Orange” in those early days, the mascot quickly became universally beloved across campus — so much so that in 2004, when Nike proposed redesigning Otto, objections from students and alumni alike ensured that the Orange remained largely unchanged.

The Stanford Tree, Stanford University

Though California’s Stanford University doesn’t have an official mascot — its athletic teams are known as the Stanford Cardinal, a reference to the color, not the bird — the school’s unofficial symbol is the Stanford Tree. First created in 1975, the Tree is technically a member of the Stanford Band, and was originally meant to be a spoof on mascots, before its popularity made it what it is today. It’s supposed to represent a famous redwood tree called El Palo Alto, but the costume (which is remade by each student who performs as the Tree) tends to be more goofy than majestic, boasting big eyes, big lips, buck teeth, and other striking features that add to its cartoonish nature. Several past Tree costumes are now preserved and stored in the school library, where current and former Trees can access them for special occasions.

The mascot is not without controversy, however. In 2022, the 44th Stanford Tree was suspended for displaying a sign that read, “Stanford Hates Fun,” during halftime of a football game. A previous Tree was also busted for drinking alcohol on the sidelines. But despite these follies, the Stanford Tree remains as popular among students as it ever was.

The Blue Blob, Xavier University

Cincinnati’s Xavier Musketeers have long featured a swashbuckling mascot named D’Artagnan. But in 1985, the school spirit squad coordinator decided they needed a new mascot that wouldn’t scare children like D’Artagnan did — and thus the Blue Blob was born. The Blue Blob — who, true to its name, is blue and amorphous, with a furry white nose and a wide smile — is known to “lick” fans with its 22-inch-long tongue and has even starred in a SportsCenter commercial for ESPN, alongside former NFL quarterback Jim Kelly. Blobby’s main job, however, is to act as a mischievous and childish foil to the more serious, sword-wielding D’Artagnan. When the Blob isn’t posing for photos with kids, you’ll find it sitting alongside the cheerleaders at each Xavier basketball game, or rolling around the court (its signature move) as fans chant, “Roll, Blob, Roll!”

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You don’t have to actually watch sports to be aware of the country’s most famous teams — or wonder how they got their names. While some are obvious (the Boston Red Sox wear red socks), others are anything but. If you’ve ever wondered what a knickerbocker is or what the 2020 World Series champions have been “dodging” all these years, read on for the story behind six teams’ unique names.

New York Knickerbockers

Though almost always called the Knicks these days, New York’s oldest basketball team is still officially known as the Knickerbockers. If you don’t know what a knickerbocker is, you’re hardly alone — the team even has an explanation on its NBA page. History buffs will remember that New York was settled by the Dutch and was even known as New Amsterdam for a time; the “knickerbocker” name is in honor of that history.

The term refers not only to the distinct style of pants worn by those settlers but also to the pseudonym Washington Irving used for his 1809 book A History of New York From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty: Diedrich Knickerbocker. At the time, the word was used as an affectionate term for both New Yorkers in general and the settlers’ descendants in particular.

Green Bay Packers

Corporate sponsorship is nothing new. Just ask the NFL’s third-oldest franchise, which celebrated its centennial in 2019 and has been winning championships since long before the Super Bowl became football’s top prize. The team was cofounded in Wisconsin by George Whitney Calhoun and Earl “Curly” Lambeau, the latter of whom struck a deal with the company he worked for at the time: The Indian Packing Company would provide $500 for uniforms, equipment, and the right to use their athletic field, and in return, Lambeau would name his team the Packers.

It was quite the bargain. (For context, SoFi recently paid $400 million for the naming rights to the new stadium where the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers play.) Alas, the meat-packing company ceased to exist just two years later, when it was absorbed by the Acme Packing Company — whose name briefly appeared on team uniforms in 1921 — but its legacy lives on through the Packers to this day.

St. Louis Blues

Lots of teams are named after fierce animals and local landmarks. Not many are named after songs. The rare — and possibly only — exception would be the St. Louis Blues, a hockey team whose moniker is derived from W.C. Handy’s song of the same name. First recorded in 1914, the classic tune has been covered by everyone from Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby to Dizzy Gillespie and Bessie Smith. Blues owner Sid Salomon Jr. chose it as the team’s namesake because “no matter where you go in town there’s singing. That’s the spirit of St. Louis.”

Unlike most expansion teams, the Blues were instantly successful — they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1968, 1969, and 1970, but were swept in all three series. Don’t feel too bad, though — they finally won the big one in 2018.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Not unlike the Utah Jazz, the Dodgers trace their name to their original city — Brooklyn, where the team was founded as the Grays (and later the Bridegrooms) in 1883. Writers began referring to them as the “Trolley Dodgers” in 1895, when trolley cars became ubiquitous in the borough. At the time, the subtle art of evading those vehicles was as much a pastime in Brooklyn as playing baseball. The team officially adopted the nickname and became the Dodgers in 1932, ultimately keeping the title even after their 1958 move to Los Angeles, despite now being in a city that isn’t exactly known for its public transportation.

Although the name sounds quaint, historical context reminds us that it had a far different connotation at the time. “In the 1890s, the electric trolley terrified many New Yorkers,” Joseph P. Sullivan wrote in his essay “The Terror of the Trolley.” “The electric streetcar was much faster than a horse streetcar and caused many accidents. In Brooklyn especially, the trolley frequently killed or maimed young children. As a result, the electric trolley became a symbol of the chaotic nature of modern, urban life.”

Indiana Pacers

When basketball came to Indianapolis in 1967, it was probably inevitable that the new franchise would draw inspiration from the city’s most famous event: the Indy 500. Indiana’s capital and most populous city has long been synonymous with the annual race, which was established in 1911 and is billed as the Greatest Spectacle in Racing to this day. Among the Indy 500’s many traditions is the pace car, which has been used in the race since its very first edition.

The pace car’s purpose is both ceremonial and highly important: Its appearance on the track signals a caution period during which racers aren’t allowed to pass either it or the competitor in front of them, often to allow safety technicians to clear the track of obstructions or wait until it’s safe to drive at full speed again. It’s considered an honor, as well as an advertising opportunity, for a manufacturer to provide the Indy 500’s pace car — the vehicle will be seen by millions, after all.

San Francisco 49ers

If you aren’t up to date on your California history, the number 49 might not carry much significance. But there’s a reason it’s called the Golden State, and that reason is the gold rush that began in 1848 and reached its peak in 1849. The California Gold Rush brought some 300,000 people to the state over the course of seven years, with hopeful prospectors becoming known as forty-niners. Formed nearly a century later in 1946, San Francisco’s first major sports team took its name from those prospectors. Seventeen years later, the Philadelphia 76ers followed suit by naming themselves after the year America declared its independence from Great Britain.