FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29: CROSSWORD TOURNAMENT

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29: CROSSWORD TOURNAMENT

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29: CROSSWORD TOURNAMENT

Profile America Friday, February 29th. Today, the 31st annual Crossword Puzzle Tournament and Convention kicks off in Brooklyn, New York. Some 700 puzzle solvers are expected to meet the challenge of eight different puzzles. The first crossword puzzle was created by journalist Arthur Wynne and appeared in the Sunday New York World in 1913. Wynne's puzzle was diamond shaped and had no black squares. During the 1920s, other newspapers picked up the new pastime and, within a decade, crossword puzzles were featured in most every U.S. newspaper and began to assume their now familiar form. Today in the U.S., more than 32 million people enjoy solving crossword puzzles, about half of them two or more times a week. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at http://www.census.gov.