Mattel plans to celebrate Barbie's 50th birthday with an updated version of the original doll and a party in a real Dream House in California, the company said. The house features a sunburst mirror incorporating 65 Barbie dolls, a chandelier made of Barbie hair and such Barbie touches as skirted chairs. The garage will have a life-size Barbie Volkswagen Beetle.
Barbie doll was created by Ruth Handler at the International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959.
Here are few details about Barbie's life:
1. She was born Barbara Millicent Roberts.
2. Barbie is 11 1/2 inches tall.
3. If Barbie were 5 feet, 6 inches tall, she would have a 39-inch bust, a 21-inch waist and 33-inch hips.
4. Barbie is the brainchild of Ruth Handler, one of the founders of Mattel.
5. Handler was inspired by a European doll called Bild-Lilli, a doll for adults that Handler said she saw in Vienna or Lucerne.
6. Handler named the Americanized doll after her daughter, Barbara.
7. In a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s, Barbie's parents were George and Margaret Roberts who lived in the fictional town of Willows, Wis.
8. Barbie attended Willows High School but graduated from Manhattan International High School.
9. Barbie's boyfriend is Ken. He's named after Handler's real-life son, who, incidentally, hated the comparisons.
10. Barbie and Ken split up in 2004. They reunited in 2006.
11. Barbie has had over 43 pets, including 21 dogs, 12 horses, 3 ponies, 6 cats, a parrot, a chimpanzee, a panda, a lion cub, a giraffe and a zebra.
12. Barbie, who started her professional life as a teenage model, has had several careers, like dentist, basketball player, business executive, and pilot, among others.
13. Barbie went to space as Astronaut Barbie four years before Neil Armstrong made his historic journey to the moon. 
14. Barbie found a best friend in Beat Midge, who was part of the Barbie lineup from 1963 to 1966.
15. Doctor Barbie debuted in 1988.
16. Mattel launched the first ever African American and Hispanic Barbie dolls in 1980.
17. Italian was the first nationality Barbie represented in the Dolls of the World Collection.
18. The best-selling Barbie ever was Totally Hair Barbie`D2, with hair from the top of her head to her toes.
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