September 11, 1950: The New York Times Crossword Goes Daily

Today in 1950 · Monday, September 11, 1950

The first crossword puzzle, published in the New York World on December 21, 1913

The first crossword puzzle, published in the New York World on December 21, 1913 · New York World, 1913, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On this Monday in 1950, New York Times readers found something new next to their morning coffee: a crossword puzzle on a weekday. The puzzle of September 11, 1950 was the first daily-sized crossword ever to run in the Times — until then, the crossword had been a Sunday-only treat since its debut on February 15, 1942.

The puzzle carried no byline; the constructor is officially listed as 'Unknown' in the paper's records. But it appeared under the hand of Margaret Farrar, the Times' pioneering first crossword editor — and, as the XWord Info database that preserves every Times puzzle notes, 'rumor has it that Margaret Farrar herself constructed this puzzle.'

From that day the crossword became a permanent daily fixture, surviving every redesign and every format war since. Of everything that happened in the world on September 11, 1950, the small grid of black and white squares may be the thing most Americans still touch every single day.

Also on this day

  • President Truman signed NSC 81, authorizing military operations north of the 38th parallel under specified conditions — a decision with vast consequences.
  • The school desegregation case that became Bolling v. Sharpe began in Washington, DC.
  • Field Marshal Jan Smuts, twice South Africa's prime minister, died at 80.
  • A troop train carrying Army recruits was struck by an express train near Coshocton, Ohio, killing 33.

🎵 On the radio that week: America’s No. 1 song was “Goodnight Irene” by Gordon Jenkins and The Weavers (Billboard best sellers) — TIME magazine sniffed that the Weavers' polished version was 'dehydrated' and 'prettied up' — America bought it anyway. That sound never really left — we recreate 1950s doo-wop and slow-dance ballads every week: read the stories behind our songs or listen on the lovesong1950s channel.
🎬 At the movies: Late summer's big pictures — “Sunset Boulevard,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Winchester '73” — were still crowding the marquees as the fall season warmed up.
⚾ In sports: Joe DiMaggio went 4-for-4 with three home runs at Washington's Griffith Stadium on the 10th, keeping the Yankees a half game back in an AL race with three teams packed within one game.

Sources: XWord Info: the Sep 11, 1950 puzzle · Wikipedia: The New York Times crossword · Wikipedia: September 1950 · Billboard best-seller charts, 1950 (issue scans) · Variety National Boxoffice Survey, 1950 (Lantern scans) · Retrosheet 1950 game logs and box scores. Every fact above is drawn from the records linked here — no dramatization, no invented details.

More from this series: Today in 1950 — the daily archive · every post from September 2026

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