In the 1930's, Architect Alfred Butts developed a word game called 'Lexiko', but never found a market for it. A few years later, he came up with a variation on the game and first titled it 'Criss-Crosswords', but it was not until 1948 that someone bought the rights to market the game, giving Butts a portion of the royalties, and renamed it "Scrabble".

The now-defunct gaming firm Selchow & Righter was Scrabble's manufacturer for nearly 40 years before being bought by Coleco, which was soon to go bankrupt, but the game was saved by Hasbro, which has sold it for the past 30+ years. Scrabble became a successful game show in the mid-1980's and was later revived for TV as "Scrabble Showdown".

By the 90's, the beloved game had entered PC and internet formats, and is the basis for the popular Facebook game 'Words With Friends'.

More Info: scrabble.hasbro.com