Date: Sun, 17 Dec 95 03:12:30 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Hoey To: Cube Lovers Subject: Re: Million dollar cube Jerry Bryan wonders about the 15th anniversary celebration: That would make it 1980. Is that right? I think Cube-Lovers started in 1980, but I have just been reading some early stuff from Singmaster dated 1978 and 1979. In _Rubik's Cubic Compendium_, Erno Rubik remarks that his major insight occurred in 1974. He patented the cube in January, 1975 and it went on sale in Hungary in 1977. In 1980, one million were sold in Hungary, and U.S. distribution through Ideal began. Incidentally, they were always the "Magic Cube" until Ideal renamed them. There is some more information in the archives about Bela Szalai (Logical Games, Inc), who sold the white-faced cubes in the U.S. after seeing the cube in Hungary in 1978. I'm not sure whether he actually beat Ideal to the ship date, or what happened to him after the big cube bust. Dan Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil