Hello, welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

We are taking you back to 1974 when Hungarian architect Edna Rubik invented a puzzle which

went on to sell more than 450 million cubes.

In 2015, Dina Newman spoke to Mr. Rubik about how he came up with the idea and how it became

a global phenomenon.

Mr. Rubik Rubik Rubik Rubik, is your cube from outer space?

Mr. Rubik Rubik, he got three sides then lost his place.

Mr. Rubik Rubik Rubik Rubik, he just twist your cube all day.

He's saying my idea of child's play.

The Rubik's cube took the world by storm in the 1980s when it hit the global market and

became the world's best selling puzzle.

But initially, his creator, Erno Rubik, was not thinking of sales and exports.

He wanted to design a useful teaching tool for his students at the Budapest College of Applied Arts.

I was lecturing architecture, design architecture, buildings, and for the students,

the best way to teach them not to tell them what to do, but to show them what to do.

Well, and I'll start it like this.

I was interested about to create something that is mobile, simple, and contains some kind of task.

I was working very traditional legal forms, and I found an interesting way

what we can do with them and how we can transform them.

And finally, I was falling in love with the cube as a form because it has very special qualities.

Playing around with blocks of wood and rubber bands, Erno Rubik created early versions of his cube.

Once he got the individual pieces to move around the structure without falling apart,

...