She began her life as plaything for men.  Really.  Her name was Bild Lilly and she was introduced in 1950 primarily as a gag gift for German men, inspired by a curvacious blonde cartoon character who appeared in the tabloid Bild-Zeitung.  The cartoon character Lilly had an office job and an active social life, and, at least according to Wikipedia, said things like The sunrise is so beautiful I always stay late at the nightclub so I can see it and I could do without balding old men but my budget couldn't.  Eventually little girls noticed and fell in love with the Lilly doll, and when Ruth Handler visited Germany with her children Barbara and Ken, she bought three dolls, one for each child and one to take back to Mattel, the company she had co-founded with her husband only a few years earlier.  Though legend has it the reception by Handler's husband and the Mattel board was tepid, Ruth Handler prevailed, and on this day in 1959, Barbie made her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York City.