Happy National Rubber Duck Day! The reason we celebrate these bath time toys today is because according to a 1973 Sesame Street calendar, Rubber Ducky’s birthday is January 13.
The earliest rubber ducks were made from vulcanized rubber in the late 19th century. They were hard and couldn’t float, and were originally sold as decoys for duck hunters and as chew toys for babies and dogs. An artist named Peter Ganine created a sculpture of a duck in the 1940s. He patented it and 50 million of them were sold. Ernie first sang about his Rubber Ducky on Sesame Street in 1970. The song became a surprise hit, selling over a million copies and peaking at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In April 2011. the Guinness World Record for largest collection of rubber ducks was awarded to Charlotte Lee, who has 5,631 different rubber ducks that she has been collecting since 1996. Learn more in the audio below.