Apparently, World Monopoly Day is today, the 19th of March. If you didn’t know that was a thing (because I certainly didn’t) well, now you do! In celebration of this auspicious day, here are 10 interesting facts about the world’s most ubiquitous family tabletop game:

  1. Charles Darrow developed the MONOPOLY game in 1933, using small items from around the home, including pennies or buttons, to allow players to track their journey around the game board.
  2. Darrow’s young niece had a better idea and suggested using charms, like the ones on her bracelet, to serve as the iconic tokens fans know and love today.
  3. The original tokens represented familiar items from 1930s America, including an iron, purse, lantern, race car, thimble, shoe, top hat, battleship, cannon, and rocking horse.
  4. Mr Monopoly was only introduced into the game in 1936
  5. In 1943, when faced with a metal shortage during World War II, wooden tokens were substituted until 1945, when the metal tokens were brought back into the game.
  6. The sack of money token was added in 1999 but retired less than a decade later.
  7. In 2008 Mr Monopoly began wearing an M-shaped silver metallic bowtie.
  8. 2013 saw Mr Monopoly ranked #12 on the Forbes Fictional 15 list of wealthiest characters, with a net worth of $1.2 Billion.
  9. In 2015 Mr Monopoly celebrated his 80th birthday by ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ.
  10. Last year Hasbro held a historic vote allowing fans to pick the eight tokens that would feature going forward. Over 4.3 million fan voted to secure spots for the: Scottie Dog; T-Rex; Top Hat, Car, Rubber Ducky, Cat, Penguin and Battleship token on board!

Monolopy has over a thousand variations and is enjoyed by more than 1 billion players in 114 countries across the globe. Love it or loathe it, Monopoly is the biggest and most well-known tabletop game. So to celebrate World Monopoly Day, I want to hear about your fondest (or not so fondest) Monopoly memories. Do you have the warm and fuzzy memories of rainy days passed with a friendly game among friends? Or do you remember an epic game that, with house rules, took hours and hours? Maybe your last Monopoly game ended with tantrums and table-flipping? Let me know in the comments below.