OXON HILL, Md. — The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee , which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year .

The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation's capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River. It started Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.

This is the 97th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic . This year's champion will be the 110th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.

Indian Americans have dominated the competition

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