This day in geek history: January 28
1958
Lego is patented in its present form: Lego building blocks were developed over many years. The company that would come to be known as Lego was started in 1932 building wooden toys, and began building interlocking blocks in 1949. But it wasn't until 1958 when the design for the current interlocking block was patented. That same design is still used, and Lego pieces manufactured in 1958 will work with pieces built today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego