The History of the Rubik's Cube

The Rubik’s Cube was created by Hungarian design teacher and puzzler Erno Rubik. He created his first cube puzzle in 1974 and called it the Magic Cube. The Ideal Toy & Novelty Company renamed it to the Rubik’s Cube when they began selling it in stores in 1980. It quickly became a phenomenon, and one hundred million of them sold in the first two years. Rubik explained that his puzzle was based on geometry, and young “cubers” quickly learned to spot the patterns (called algorithms by aficionados) needed to solve the puzzle. Today, cube-solving competitions are held and records are awarded to those who are fastest at solving the puzzle.