Which board game was invented to entertain quarantined children?

Candy Land (or Candyland) is a simple racing board game currently produced by Hasbro. The game requires no reading, and minimal counting skills, making it suitable for young children.

Invented in 1948, Candy Land is over 70 years old, and still one of the most beloved children’s’ board games of all time. It's cute and sweet (no pun intended) from top to bottom, and was designed to please and entertain even the youngest players.

Candy Land was the brain child of schoolteacher Eleanor Abbott, who had contracted polio. In the 1940s and 50s, polio was a viral epidemic; those who contracted the crippling disease were often isolated in hospital wards. While recovering from the disease herself, Eleanor felt pity for the children who were also quarantined in the polio wards. She developed the game as a means to cheer them up during their (sometimes lengthy) hospital stay. The game was tested by the children in the wards, and was such a hit that the kids suggested that it be submitted to Milton Bradley Company, where it quickly became the company's best-selling game.

Happily, polio was eventually eradicated by Jonas Salk's famous vaccine. The magic of Candy Land, however, lives on as a perennial favorite. The Toy Industry Association named Candy Land ‘The most popular toy in the US’ for the 1940s. In 2005, the game was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. In 1984 Milton Bradley was bought out by Hasbro; the game continues to sell an estimated one million copies every year.