Anniversaries don't get much more nostalgic than this: LEGO bricks, which represent possibly the greatest expenditure of time throughout my childhood (along with Star Wars figures and Matchbox cars), are now 50 years old.

In fact, the meticulous folks at LEGO know the brick's birthday, down to the minute: LEGO bricks were born on January 28, 1958 at 1:58 pm, when their first patent was filed.

What a ride its been. Three years later LEGO put out its first wheels for LEGO designs, and motorized attachments (for a train system) arrived in 1966. The iconic "minifig" characters were born in 1978. I can still remember fawning over that LEGO Castle in the 1984 Sears catalog... it was the largest LEGO set of its time and remains one of the biggest ever made. (A variety of LEGO castles are available now, some costing up to $400.) LEGO Star Wars kits followed soon after: They're the best-selling LEGO line ever. LEGO went robo in 1998 with Mindstorms. People have used the kits to teach robots to do just about everything, including master Wii Bowling.

Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo has a fascinating timeline of LEGO history (and I bow before his obsession), which you should absolutely spend at least one minute looking at today, preferably at 1:58.

Don't miss the other LEGO fun facts Diaz has collected, such as:

• There are 62 LEGO bricks per person on the earth.
• LEGOs come in 53 different colors.
• 2.16 million LEGO elements are produced every hour.
• There are 55,600 LEGO videos on YouTube.