The invention of Jenga

It's just over 30 years since the brick game was introduced to the world at a department store in London. Made of 54 wooden blocks stacked into a tower in rows of three by three, each player takes a turn to remove a block from the tower and place it at the top. When the tower falls, the game is over. Surya Elango speaks to its British designer Leslie Scott about how a family game that started in her parent's home in 1970s Ghana, became an international hit.By 1986, the game was successfully introduced into the North America market at a time when video games were taking off. It’s now in the US National Toy Hall of Fame having sold millions worldwide. Leslie went on to create 40 other games. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.(Photo: Leslie Scott with a jenga set in 1983. Credit: Sue Macpherson ARPS.)

HISTORICAL ARCHIVE & EVIDENCE
The original photo gallery, unedited witness statements, and the private archive documents mentioned in this historical report are now available for public access:
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