August 29 - According to Hoyle Day

Known as the "Father of Whist", Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769) didn't actually invent the game. Whist is a card games played with 52 cards and is the forerunner to the modern version of Bridge. The game was extremely popular with the English aristocracy of the time and Hoyle took it upon himself to publish "A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist", which at the time was the definitive collection of rules for the game. So popular was the book that Hoyle wrote a number of other "treatises" on a variety of card and board games including, backgammon, piquet and chess. It soon became popular custom to generically call any rule book on card and board games a "Hoyle", which lead to today's say, "according to Hoyle", which usually refers to the standard of rules for just about anything. So today, break out a deck of cards, or a board game, keep the rule book close to hand and raise a glass in thanks to Mr. Hoyle.