Microsoft Throwing Party for Solitaire’s 30th Anniversary

Have  you been playing a lot of computer games during the never-ending pandemic? Maybe you've played a hand or two of Solitaire. Get ready to play some more because next Friday, May 22nd, National Solitaire Day, is the 30th Anniversary of Windows Solitaire and there's a record on the line.

I had been told a long time ago that the Solitaire game was added to the Microsoft Windows operating system to teach people how to use a mouse. That made sense, it involved left clicking, right clicking, dragging, all of the functions that the recently introduced mouse technology required us to do. It turns out that was just the official reason for putting into play. The real reason was, a Microsoft intern developed the game out of boredom.

That was back in 1988 and that intern was Wes Cherry. The game was included in the 1990 version of Windows 3.0 and the rest is history. At one time the game even had something called a "Boss Key", a special key you could hit that opened up a bogus spreadsheet for those times the boss walked in while you were playing Solitaire on the clock and you needed to instantly look like you were working on something important.

Wes no longer works with Microsoft, now he works with apples. The ones that grow on trees. He owns and operates a cidery in Washington state.

That non-essential bit of information aside, Microsoft would like you to play Solitaire on the 30th Anniversary of the computer game on Friday, May 22nd. The goal is to have more hands of Solitaire played on that day than any other day in history. The Microsoft Solitaire Collection even has an event page set up for it. Go ahead and join the event to get updates and reminders. Microsoft even has some giveaways going on in conjunction with the event.

So bust out your Microsoft Solitaire Collection app and brush up on your skills. You may need them to see the cards cascade across your screen next Friday.