December 9, 1793

On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY.com! in 1793, “The American Minerva” was published for the first time. It was the first daily newspaper in New York City and was founded by Noah Webster. After creating his dictionary, Mr. Webster found that he had many unused words left over and needed an outlet to safely dispose of them to prevent any intellectual wordage build-up in the Greater New York Metropolitan area. One of the more popular features of the paper was the “Guess the meaning of this word game.” Mr. Webster would include a word and have the readers write in their guesses. A Mr. Daniel Davis was banned from entering any more guesses after he mailed in “A woeman’s privy parts” for the 37th straight time, all of them wrong. Humorously, the 38th word was vagina.

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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