On this Throwback Thursday, here's a mark that may bring back fond (or maybe not so fond) memories for anyone in elementary and middle school in the 1990s:
The E.W. Scripps Company administers the nation's largest and longest-running spelling bee. The National Spelling Bee was started in 1925 and Scripps took over sponsorship in 1941 (taking a hiatus from 1943 to 1945). Frank Neuhauser won the very first National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling gladiolus. In the most recent competition in 2015, co-champions took home trophies and spelling bragging rights: Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam. Their winning words were scherenschnitte and nunatak, respectively.* Of the 93 National Spelling Bee champions (co-champions were declared five times), 45 have been boys and 48 have been girls.
On this day in 1996, the National Spelling Bee's new logo was registered with the USPTO (No. 20009905) in Class 41 for use with "Entertainment services in the nature of spelling contests intended to promote the importance of correct spelling in primary school curricula."
In the 90s, this updated logo replaced the former logo, which had a pretty long run (first used in 1952):
The logo developed in the 1990s is still in use now. So what's new since the 90s? Now you can follow the National Spelling Bee on Instagram and Twitter and "Like" it on Facebook.
*If you're curious (I was), scherenschnitte is the art of cutting continuous paper designs. An art form developed in Switzerland and Germany in the 1500s, it was brought to Colonial America in the 1700s by immigrants who settled primarily in Pennsylvania. A nunatak, or sometimes called a "glacial island," is an exposed, often rocky element of a ridge, mountain or peak within an ice field or glacier that is not covered by ice or snow.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
