History of Legos

Ole Kirk Christiansen was born in 1891 in the village of Filskov. The Billund Carpentry Shop and Lumberyard was built in 1895 and would later be purchased by Ole Kirk Christiansen.

 In 1920, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen is born. He inherits the company in 1958. In 1924, little 5-year old Godtfred, set fire to some wood shavings in the carpentry shop and later set the whole shop on fire. In 1932, the first wooden toy (a yo-yo) was made and the carpentry shop is struck by lightning after nearly going bankrupt. 

The name Lego, is actually a combination of the two Danish words leg godt, meaning "play well". The first wooden toys were released in 1935 that were a duck and a train. In 1937, Godtfred, started making wooden toys. On march 22nd 1942, a short circuit causes a fire in the workshop. Then, in 1947, the company got its first plastic moulding machine.

Later that year, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen was born and is the current CEO of Lego. In 1948, the workshop reached 50 employees.The well known Lego brick(known then as the automatic binding brick) was introduced in 1949. The first time Lego was sold outside of Denmark, was in 1953. Ole Kirk Christiansen died on March 11th 1958. In 1960, the warehouse that most of the wooden toys were kept in caught fire.