Merle Robbins, a barber from Reading, Ohio, invented Uno in 1971. The game was created to avoid arguments that often occurred while playing Crazy Eights, a favorite card game of Robbins and his family. 

Robbins wrote the action of each card directly on the card using a felt-tipped pen. The instructions included: 

• A king reverses the direction of play 
• A queen means skip the next turn 
Aces are wild