Inventor Facts

Shakespeare's works contain the first recorded use of approximately 1,700 English words, including critical, frugal, excellent, barefaced, assassination, and countless.

The inventor of the Game Boy, Gunpei Yokoi, started at Nintendo as an assembly line maintenance worker fixing machines before being discovered by the company president and becoming one of gaming's most influential designers.

Louis Prang, a Bavarian immigrant to America, perfected color printing and began mass-producing Christmas cards in 1875. His elaborate designs of flowers, children, and winter scenes became so popular that by the 1880s he was printing five million cards per year. He's known as the Father of the American Christmas Card.

The inventor of the lithium-ion battery gave away his patent for free, refusing to profit from a technology that could help the planet.

Lizzie Magie invented The Landlord's Game to show how monopolies crush ordinary people. Parker Brothers bought it for $500, stripped her name, and renamed it Monopoly. It became the best-selling board game in history, making billions. She died almost forgotten.