This It happened week!

The classic board game Monopoly was created in 1933. Due to its popularity—and to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its appearance in France—hasbro put real money into 80 of their 30,000 anniversary editions and distributed them in France. One set contained a total of $23,348!

Francis Scott Key’s ”The Star-spangled Banner” officially became the country’s national anthem in 1931. It happened after a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” cartoon pointed out our country’s lack of an anthem, which sparked five million people to sign a petition demanding President Hoover name one!

The Cat in the Hat author Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in 1904. Another of his beloved books— Green Eggs and Ham— was actually written on a dare from his publisher, who didn’t think Seuss could write a book using 50 words or less. He did it in exactly 50!

The Ford Motor Company produced its one millionth Mustang in 1966, a testament to the phenomenal appeal of the car, which launched in 1964. It’s still in production today, although the older ones have the most cachet. In fact, the most expensive Mustang ever sold is a 1967 custom model, which fetched $1.3 million at auction in 2013!

Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone in 1876. Just three days later, he placed the first intelligible call to his assistant, saying, “Mr. Watson, come here, I need you!”

The Beach Boys released their hit single “Surfin’ USA” in 1963. The band became so popular that when President Reagan’s Interior Secretary forbade them to play at the 1983 Fourth of July celebration in Washington D.C., he got a scolding from two avid fans—the president and his wife—and the show went on!

Nabisco debuted the bestselling cookie of all time—the Oreo— in 1912, a birthday celebrated every March 4th. More than 450 billion of the treats have been sold worldwide; if all were stacked on top of each other, they’d reach the moon and back more than five times!