On January 5, 1904, the United States Patent Office granted Elizabeth Magie, known as Lizzie, patent US 748 626 for a board game called The Landlord's Game, designed to highlight the negative aspects of land rent. She had submitted the application on March 23, 1903. Born in Illinois in 1866, Lizzie Magie was a stenographer at the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C., and had previously submitted a patent in 1893 for a typewriter. Later, she became interested in the ideas of economist Henry George, who supported a single tax on land value. Her board game was intended to share these economic theories with friends and colleagues. The original game featured two rule systems: one that encouraged collective wealth creation and another that focused on accumulating properties. The patent included "Go to Jail" squares, stations, and a public park that would later become the Free Parking space. The game was meant to be educational, demonstrating that the collective wealth system was more beneficial than the monopolistic one. Magie did not design a single way to play the game, but rather two distinct versions. In the "anti-monopolist" version, players were rewarded for creating wealth, while in the "monopolist" version, the goal was to accumulate properties and outcompete opponents. She also founded the Economic Game Company in Chicago in 1906 to sell the game, and copies eventually reached university teachers. One such teacher, Scott Nearing, played the game with his students until his dismissal in 1915. In 1935, Charles Darrow sold a game called Monopoly to Parker Brothers. The version Darrow had learned from a friend included the core elements of Magie's game. He added streets from Atlantic City and fixed prices on the squares. Parker Brothers later discovered that Darrow had not told the whole truth and became concerned about Magie's 1924 patent. In November 1935, George Parker, then head of Parker Brothers, visited Lizzie, then 70 years old. She agreed to sell the rights to this 1924 patent for $500, without royalties. Adjusted for inflation, this amount would be approximately $11,700 in 2025, according to an estimate by Wikipedia. Parker Brothers was also required to publish its games, but the company allowed the game to fade without advertising. In 1936, Magie discovered Monopoly on the shelf with Darrow listed as the inventor. Her death notice in 1948 said nothing about her games. It is estimated that about 285 million copies were sold, according to an estimate cited by the Literary Ladies Guide, or more than four times the population of France. For decades, each box of Monopoly told the story of Darrow, a man without a job who supposedly invented the game in his basement and escaped poverty through his ingenuity. Parker Brothers maintained this narrative, even purchasing older handmade versions. Under the Christmas tree, a fable of individual success was offered, built on a game that criticized such notions. It was a 1973 lawsuit that brought Magie's name back into the public eye. Parker Brothers sued Ralph Anspach, the creator of a game called Anti-Monopoly, and the university researcher's quest for evidence brought Lizzie Magie back into the spotlight.