In black and white

The first crossword puzzle is attributed to Arthur Wynne, above, born in Liverpool in 1871. Wynne moved to the US at the age of 19 and designed puzzles for the New York World newspaper. On December 21 1913, Wynne introduced what he called the “word-cross puzzle”. Originally diamondshaped with a hollow centre, this was refined into the puzzle we know today, using black and white squares in rows and columns. “Crossword” was the result of a typesetting error within a few weeks of the puzzle’s inception. The name stuck and has been used ever since. On December 20 2013, a Google doodle honoured the centenary of Wynne’s addictive invention.