Uno was invented in 1971 by an Ohio barber named Merle Robbins, who simply took a deck of standard playing cards and wrote instructions on them to settle an argument with his son over the rules of Crazy Eights.

A closer look

Uno was invented in 1971 by an Ohio barber named Merle Robbins, who simply took a deck of standard playing cards and wrote instructions on them to settle an argument with his son over the rules of Crazy Eights. He spent eight thousand dollars of his own money to print the first specialized decks, eventually selling the rights for a tidy fifty grand plus royalties when it became incredibly popular. Thus, one man's petty refusal to lose a family card game birthed a global phenomenon uniquely designed to ruin friendships with a devastating plus-four card and a deeply aggressive color change