The Chronicle of the New York Times

A Newspaper is Born

The New York Times is a leading American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. The New York Times published its first issue on the 18th of September 1851. It was earlier known as ‘New York Daily Times’ but on September 14, 1857, the paper officially shortened its name to The New-York Times (the hyphen in the city name was dropped on December 1, 1896.) Moreover, in the year 1861, April 21 – the New York Times began publishing a Sunday edition to offer daily coverage of the Civil War.

/pop-culture/the-chronicle-of-the-new-york-times/img/newYorkTimes01-63509MobileImageSizeReigNN.jpg

16th April 1912: Front page of The New York Times newspaper with headlines announcing the sinking of the ‘Titanic’ ocean liner, dated Tuesday. (Photo by Blank Archives/Getty Images)

Surprisingly, ‘they were the only newspaper to announce that the Titanic had sunk, on the day the ship sank.’ After the Titanic’s wireless messages were cut off, most other newspapers led with headlines proclaiming the Titanic’s marvelous construction had kept her afloat, that the passengers were all being transferred to other ships, and that everybody was safe. However, only The New York Times guessed correctly that; “The silence meant she had gone to the bottom.”

© 2019 History by Day all rights reserved