1

Hopscotch

Image: MOHAMMADREZA Kr

When we were kids, before computer games and smartphones, we didn’t need much to keep us entertained in the afternoons. Playing hopscotch, for example, required only a piece of chalk and a large enough asphalt area to draw on and jump around.

There are numerous variations, but children have played hopscotch for centuries . The basic principle remains the same: a series of numbered rectangles is outlined on the ground, and the player tosses a pebble into each one in turn. The player then hops through the course without touching the lines, picking up the pebble along the way, and returns—still hopping—to the starting point.

2

Tag

Image: Aleksandar Andreev

Tag is undoubtedly the most famous chasing and catching game of all time. It also serves as the foundation for many other games. This is no coincidence—tag has existed since ancient times, with different versions in civilizations as dissimilar as Greece and India.

In the simplest form of tag, one player tries to tap another player; the tagged player then becomes "it —a.k.a. "the chaser"—and it all starts all over again. Which version was your favorite? Ours was freeze tag!

3

Jump-rope and Double Dutch

Image: cottonbro studio

Jumping rope was another childhood favorite, whether on street corners or in school playgrounds. Whether alone or in a group, it kept us entertained for hours. Among the countless variations, Double Dutch—a version in which one or more players jump between two long ropes turning in opposite directions—was probably the most fun and most challenging of all.

The origin of Double Dutch is not entirely clear. Some claim Dutch settlers brought it to America, while others argue it was invented in the early 1900s in the U.S. What is certain is that this game, which combines motor skill training and physical exercise , became so popular that it evolved into a competitive sport with worldwide tournaments.

4

Simon says

Image: Arthur Krijgsman

"Simon says… touch your nose!" Remember these commands? As kids, we could spend hours playing this game, where one player took on the role of "Simon" and gave instructions that the rest of us had to follow to the letter.

Records of this game’s existence in the United States date back to the mid-19th century ; however, its origins may be traced back to ancient Rome. Some historians suggest that the name Simon comes from Simon de Montfort, a 13th-century French-English nobleman who was known for his ability to command authority over his subjects.

5

Hide-and-seek

Image: Annie Spratt

Hide-and-seek is one of the simplest games but, at the same time, one of the most fun when we were children. In this game, one player would close their eyes and count to a certain number while the others searched for a place to hide. The challenge was to find as many hidden players as possible before they reached "home base."

Hide-and-seek, which has different variants worldwide, has been played since ancient times. In fact, historians have discovered a strikingly similar game in ancient Greece called apodidraskinda , which followed rules much like the ones we know today.

6

Hula Hoop contest

Image: Annie Spratt

The hula hoop became popular in the late 1950s when the American toy company Wham-O introduced a plastic version to the market. However, hula hoops have been used by children since ancient times. Over the centuries, they have been made from a variety of materials, including willow, grapevines, rattan, stiff grasses, wood, and metal.

Growing up, most schools had hula hoops available during PE classes. It was the ideal game for young children to have fun and get fit at the same time. Teachers often organized contests in which players twirled the hula hoop around their waist for as long as possible. The winner was the one who kept the hoop spinning the longest before it dropped to the floor.

7

Marco Polo

Image: Library of Congress

This game, which shares its name with the 13th-century Italian explorer, was a summer-exclusive tradition we eagerly anticipated all year long. Many of us still vividly remember our friends, siblings, and cousins shouting "Marco!" and responding "Polo!" as kids.

Played in a swimming pool, Marco Polo is a location-based game in which players must find each other using auditory clues. It became popular in America in the 1960s and is now played worldwide with various adaptations.

8

Musical statues

Image: Robert Collins

Musical Statues, also known as Freeze Dance, is a variation of Musical Chairs that can be played outdoors. It was a popular game at birthday parties and involved running around while music played. When the music stopped, players had to freeze in place. Anyone who moved was instantly out, and the last one remaining won the game.

Musical Statues originated in the United Kingdom, likely in the mid-1950s , when music players became more common in people's homes.

9

Tug of war

Image: RDNE Stock project

Did you know that before the 19th century, the game we now call tug of war was known as French and English ? Tug of war—or rope pulling—is an ancient game , with different versions found in Egypt, Greece, India, China, and Cambodia.

In tug of war, two teams compete in a test of strength and strategy, pulling a rope in opposite directions. Though this game is popular at school events for its mix of teamwork, exercise, and friendly competition, it was once an official sport . In fact, from 1900 to 1920, tug of war was part of the Olympic Games.

10

Dodgeball

Image: Wan San Yip

Dodgeball is another game we used to play in school that is now also considered a sport . In this game, the objective is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls.

Though it’s now a fun and friendly game, that wasn’t always the case. Dodgeball originated in Africa approximately two hundred years ago. Back then, it was much more dangerous and violent. Instead of using soft balls, participants threw rocks found in nature. Fortunately, in the mid-19th century, an English missionary saw the game and transformed it into a more enjoyable, non-life-threatening activity.

11

Duck, duck, goose!

Image: Kampus Production

You probably haven’t played this game since preschool or kindergarten, and you might have even forgotten about it completely. However, it was one of the most popular games on the playground .

In this traditional children's game, participants sit in a circle, and one is chosen to touch the heads of the others. The player who is "it" goes around saying "duck" until they choose someone and say "goose." Then the chase begins!

12

Scavenger hunt

Image: Nellie Adamyan

This was a more complex game that required much more development and preparation time. But perhaps because of that, it was so appealing to us. Scavenger hunts were so much fun that we still play them as adults, and they remain a popular activity at some universities , for example.

This game, which involves finding specific items from a list, evolved from ancient folk games. The modern version we play today, however, was popularized by American gossip columnist and socialite Elsa Maxwell in New York City during the 1930s .

1

Cars are dramatically safer

Those enormous old cars may look indestructible, but appearances are deceiving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the average vehicle on the road in 2012 posed a 56% lower fatality risk to its occupants than the average vehicle of the late 1950s .

Seat belts, airbags, improved crash structures, electronic stability control, child restraints, and other innovations transformed driving. NHTSA estimates that vehicle safety technologies saved more than 600,000 lives between 1960 and 2012. We may love a beautiful classic car, but we'd rather crash in a modern one.

2

The air is cleaner

If you could travel back a few decades, one difference might hit you in the nose before anything else. Cigarette smoke was once commonplace in restaurants, offices, airplanes, and countless other public spaces. In 1965, an astonishing 42.4% of American adults smoked cigarettes. By 2022, that figure had fallen to 11.6%.

Outdoor air has improved, too. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that combined emissions of six major air pollutants dropped 79% between 1970 and 2024, even as the population, economy, and number of miles driven increased enormously . Whatever stylish old ads tell us, America literally breathes cleaner air today.

3

Medicine saves far more lives

Modern medicine isn't perfect, but compared with the not-so-distant past, its achievements can seem almost miraculous. In 1900, more than 30% of all American deaths occurred among children under five. Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea, and diphtheria were among the country's leading killers.

Vaccines, antibiotics, sanitation, diagnostics, surgery, and modern drugs changed that landscape. Cardiovascular death rates fell by roughly 60% between 1950 and the end of the 20th century , while treatments transformed diseases such as HIV. Today, the five-year survival rate across all cancers is approximately 70%, up from 20-25% in 1950.

4

Finding information takes seconds

Remember having to actually look something up in an encyclopedia? Before the internet, answering a simple question might involve a trip to the library, a telephone call, searching through reference books, or accepting that you simply weren't going to know the answer.

Today, most of humanity's accumulated knowledge is sitting inside the device in your pocket . By 2023, 95% of American adults were using the internet. A historical date, recipe, translation, weather forecast, repair manual, or explanation can appear within seconds.

5

Getting lost is no longer an option

Paper maps worked perfectly well: provided you knew where you were. Miss a highway exit, misunderstand someone's handwritten directions, or take one wrong turn in an unfamiliar city, and suddenly you might be pulling into a gas station to ask a stranger for help.

GPS changed all that. A breakthrough came in May 2000, when the U.S. government stopped deliberately degrading civilian GPS accuracy . Navigation eventually migrated into smartphones, adding turn-by-turn instructions, traffic conditions, alternate routes, and arrival estimates. Getting lost hasn't disappeared, but you almost have to work at it now.

6

Banking is almost instant

Banking once involved an impressive amount of paper. Checks had to physically move between financial institutions, deposits took time to clear, and many everyday transactions depended on whether your local bank happened to be open.

The transformation happened remarkably quickly. When Check 21 took effect in 2004, 100% of checks processed by Federal Reserve Banks were still handled as paper. By 2010, almost 99% were processed as electronic images. Today, online banking lets customers move money, pay bills, deposit checks, and monitor accounts without visiting a branch . FedNow even allows participating institutions to process payments around the clock, 365 days a year.

7

Buying almost anything is easier

Shopping used to depend heavily on geography. If the stores in your town didn't stock something, your options might involve a catalog, a long drive, a special order, or simply doing without it. Comparing prices could mean physically visiting several stores.

Online shopping demolished many of those limitations. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, Americans spent an estimated $326.7 billion through e-commerce, representing 16.9% of all retail sales. Consumers can now compare prices, hunt down obscure replacement parts, buy products from across the world, and have groceries delivered without putting on their shoes . Whether that's always good for us is another question.

8

Emergency Response is more capable

This country didn't even have a universal emergency telephone number until the late 1960s. The first American 911 call was placed in Haleyville, Alabama, in 1968. Early systems did little more than connect callers with an emergency answering point.

Today's systems can automatically provide callback and location information, helping responders find callers who may not even know exactly where they are . Next Generation 911 is expanding those capabilities further, allowing networks to handle digital data, text, and multimedia. Emergency response still varies enormously from place to place, but the technology available to find, understand, and help someone in trouble is worlds ahead of its predecessors.

9

Commercial flying is safer

Older air travel certainly had glamour: spacious seats, elaborate meals, and passengers dressed for the occasion. It also lacked decades' worth of safety lessons accumulated through engineering, regulation, training, maintenance, and painstaking accident investigations.

The results are dramatic. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that U.S. commercial aviation fatalities fell 95% per 100 million passengers over the two decades it examined . Worldwide, recent statistics put fatal airline accidents at roughly one per several million flights. Modern flying can still be uncomfortable, delayed, and frustrating, but the important part, arriving alive, has become astonishingly reliable.

10

Homes are more efficient, comfortable, and safe

A charming old house can be wonderful, until you discover the drafty windows, questionable wiring, terrible insulation, and complete absence of air conditioning. Nearly 90% of American households were using air conditioning by 2020 , something earlier generations could only have dreamed of during a sweltering summer.

Safety improved as well. Smoke alarms went from relative novelties to standard household equipment, and the death rate in reported home fires is about 60% lower when working alarms are present . Reported U.S. home fires themselves fell from roughly 734,000 in 1980 to about 363,000 four decades later.

11

Communicating with anyone is effortless

Not long ago, calling someone meant calling a place. If nobody was home, you tried again later. Long-distance calls could be expensive, international communication even more so, and letters might spend days traveling across the country.

Now the person travels with the telephone. Smartphone ownership among American adults climbed from just 35% in 2011 to 91% in 2025. A single pocket-sized device can make calls, send photographs, exchange messages, deliver email, host group conversations, and conduct live video calls across the planet .

12

Entertainment is available whenever you want it

Once upon a time, if your favorite television show aired at 8 p.m. on Thursday, you had better be sitting in front of the television at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Miss it, and you might wait weeks, or months, for another chance.

Recording devices began loosening television's grip on the clock, but streaming demolished it. Movies, television series, music, podcasts, games, audiobooks, and decades of archived entertainment are now available almost instantly . By 2026, the U.S. had roughly 593 million online-video subscriptions.

1

Hedy Lamarr

Image: Geoffroy Berlioz

Best known for her 1930s–40s film career, Hollywood icon Hedy Lamarr also co-invented frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology to prevent enemy jamming in WWII. And if you think it’s no big deal, know it’s the basis for modern Bluetooth and Wi-Fi!

While largely overlooked as an inventor at her time, she was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

2

Sybil Ludington

Image: Taylor Brandon

According to many historians, at just 16 years old, Sybil Ludington rode about 40 miles through the night in 1777 to alert American militia of a British attack on Danbury, Connecticut.

This would make her ride roughly twice as long as Paul Revere’s . While some scholars question the veracity of her story, a statue stands in her honor in Putnam County, New York.

3

Bass Reeves

Image: Pramod Tiwari

Born into slavery in 1838, Reeves became one of the first Black U.S. Deputy Marshals west of the Mississippi. He made over 3,000 arrests during his law enforcement career.

Many historians believe his exploits may have inspired the Lone Ranger character, although his name rarely appears in history textbooks.

4

Mary Edwards Walker

Image: David Trinks

A Civil War surgeon and suffragist, Walker treated soldiers on the front lines and was even captured as a prisoner of war.

In 1865, she became the first woman to ever receive the Medal of Honor. Her unorthodox dress style and fearless activism made her a striking figure in 19th-century America.

5

Clara Barton

Image: Kevin Paes

Known as the "Angel of the Battlefield," Barton provided medical care during the Civil War and later founded the American Red Cross in 1881.

Though once a household name, her legacy has faded compared to other, more widely remembered wartime figures.

6

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Image: Chris Chow

A college professor turned Union colonel, Chamberlain famously held Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg, a pivotal moment in the Civil War.

He was awarded the Medal of Honor and later became governor of Maine, but his unexpected battlefield brilliance is often overlooked in Civil War discussions.

7

Robert Smalls

Image: Ian Hutchinson

In 1862, Smalls, a formerly enslaved sailor, seized a Confederate ship and delivered it to Union forces, securing freedom for himself and his crew.

He later served five terms in Congress, advocating for Black education and civil rights.

8

Harvey Wiley

Image: Diana Polekhina

Known as the "Father of the FDA," Harvey Wiley was a chief chemist in the late 1800s whose "Poison Squad" tested various food additives, leading to the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

This law laid the foundation for the FDA and led to the removal of many dangerous substances from consumer products. Notably, it prompted Coca-Cola to eliminate cocaine from its formula in the early 20th century.

9

George Washington Carver

Image: Dan Meyers

More than just being associated with peanuts, George Washington Carver developed numerous innovative crop rotation methods and created over 300 uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and other plants to help Southern agriculture recover after the Civil War.

10

Joe Medicine Crow

Image: Boston Public Library

The last war chief of the Crow Nation, Joe Medicine Crow, completed several traditional war deeds during WWII—including counting coup and stealing enemy horses —and earned both the Bronze Star and the French Légion d’honneur.

Part of his legacy was bridging Native American warrior traditions with modern military service, honoring both cultural heritage and patriotic duty.