12 Fascinating Facts About Crosswords

Crosswords are a beloved pastime that challenges the mind and entertains countless people worldwide. Here are some fascinating facts about crosswords.

Interesting Facts About Crosswords:

1. Modern crosswords are believed to have first appeared on November 19, when the first crossword written by Edward Powys Mathers was published in the English-language newspaper The Sunday Times. According to other sources, a crossword by S.V. Shepard was published on November 2, 1924, in the Sunday Express.
2. The first crossword collection appeared in the United States in 1923 (or 1924, according to other sources) with a print run of seventy-five thousand copies, which sold out in just a few days.
3. The first crossword in Russia was published in Leningrad on December 2, 1925, in the literary magazine “Rezetz” No. 48.
4. In 2013, more than four hundred professional print publications with crosswords and puzzles (both word and numerical) of varying complexity were registered.
5. The first crossword in Japan was published in 1987. Since hieroglyphs cannot intersect like words, Japanese crosswords consist of black-and-white or colored images that must match according to specific rules.
6. There is a World Federation of Crosswords, and there are crossword championships.
7. To participate in the famous TV show “Field of Miracles”, one must create and send an original crossword to the editors.
8. The popular board game Scrabble was inspired by crosswords.
9. The record for creating the largest crossword is held by Roger Buechart from Bruges, Belgium. To celebrate his 65th birthday, he made it into the Guinness Book of World Records with a crossword measuring thirty-one meters in length and fifty-three centimeters in width, containing 50,400 words.
10. Solving crosswords can aid in weight loss. Researchers have found that the brain works hard to burn calories and that mental exercises such as solving puzzles can burn up to ninety calories per hour. There is even a “crossword diet” based on the principles of healthy eating, where the first letter of each dietary product forms a crossword.
11. Another interesting fact about crosswords is that in December 1970, during a contest organized by the BBC radio program “Today,” a 43-year-old Briton named Roy Dean solved a Times crossword in just three minutes and forty-five seconds, the shortest time ever recorded.
12. Crosswords are considered one of the most challenging quizzes in the world. In one and a half hours, participants must solve five crosswords: two in English and other European languages and one mixed word crossword, such as Anglo-French or Anglo-German.