National Play Monopoly Day on November 19th recognizes the iconic board game that lands us on Park Place, Boardwalk or even in jail.
- Known as one of the most popular board games in the world, Monopoly was originally based on a board game designed by Elizabeth Magie in 1902.
- Magie created the game in order to explain the single tax theory of Henry George. Henry George’s tax theory was that owning a monopoly over specific arrangements and interactions of materials could be caused great issues to the economy, and thus supported land value taxes and patent rents onto monopolized companies and businesses.
- Originally called the Landlord’s Game, in order to explain the effects of monopoly into simpler terms, Magie patented the game in 1904 and published it in 1906.
- The game has been played by an estimated 5 million people since 1935.
- Although Charles Darrow created a semi-copyrighted version of Monopoly, it wasn’t until the Parker Brother’s in 1935 sold a similar game called Monopoly that it gained popularity and as history states it, in 1991 Hasbro Inc. bought Parker Brothers and thus bought Monopoly.
- Two famous characters are Jake the Jailbird, and Officer Edgar Mallory
- Mr Monopoly’s true name is Rich Uncle Pennybags
- It’s been said that the Monopoly Man was inspired by J.P. Morgan, a powerful banker who helped finance the construction of railroads and organized several major corporations including General Electric.
- Escape maps, compasses, files and money were smuggled in Monopoly cases during World War II.
- Icons have been featured on postage stamps.
- More than six billion houses, and 2.25 billion hotels have been made.
- the total bank is really only $20,580
- The top three most landed on spaces in a traditional game are Jail, Illinois Ave., and Go.
- Jail may seem like the worst place to be during a game of Monopoly, but being locked up could be a winning strategy. According to Natalie Fitzsimons, 2015 UK Monopoly champion, at the end of the game, it’s best to sit in jail and collect money from your opponents rather than land on their properties and end up owing money.
- The first set included 4 small wax wood pawns and in 1937, die-cast metal tokens were introduced. In 1943, due to the World War II, there was a shortage of metal and the tokes were made back out of wood.
- Parker Brothers originally rejected the game. They said there were “52 fundamental errors” with the game, including details about the theme, length, and overall complexity. But after it proved successful in local Philadelphia stores, they changed their mind in 1935.
- The most common square you’ll land on is Illinois Avenue. Based on probability, that is. The least common? Mediterranean Avenue.
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