Have they made refrigerator magnets as long as they’ve made refrigerators? I mean, magnets specifically for sticking things to your fridge, not just magnets that you COULD stick to your fridge if you felt like it. Obviously those have been around for far longer than fridges.
It may have been invented in 1971 by Jaron Summers according to this site
Or how about the world’s first gangsta rap fridge magnets?
Well, Tacky living.com claims they first appeared in the early 1920’s; no actual examples though.
OTOH, these Greek Fridge Magnets are an utter red herring.
There were several patents issued for refrigerator magnet designs from the 70’s thru the 90’s. Several of these reference older patents, but none seems to link to the prototypical patent. Sadly, earlier patents are not keyword searchable at this site.