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Hands, photographed in 1988
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The list of famous lefties inevitably goes back deep into history, to Charlemagne or Leonardo da Vinci. But it was only in the last few decades that being left-handed ceased to be a real problem for many people, and instead became something that could be celebrated.

As TIME explained in 1969, “southpaws, gallock-handers, chickie paws and scrammies” were seen as sinister—literally, since the word means “left”—for centuries. “In the Middle Ages, for instance, the left-hander lived in danger of being accused of practicing witchcraft,” the article explained. “The Devil himself was considered a southpaw, and he and other evil spirits were always conjured up by left-handed gestures.”

One possible reason that aura of suspicion may have changed, TIME suggested, was a lot less complicated than anything having to do with evil spirits. It was just a matter of simple economics. At the time, lefties had few options in terms of the everyday items that depend on handedness; from sports equipment to kitchen items, most things designed to be held were only optimized for one direction. That situation meant there was an untapped market for leftie goods, just waiting for a smart business owner to jump. And jump they did:

Not everywhere caught on equally quickly—a few years later, TIME ran a story about the persistence of the stigma in Japan—but barriers were being knocked down. And, finally, that knocking might happen with left-handed tools.

Read more from 1969, here in the TIME Vault: Left in a Right-Handed World

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com.

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