History of Newspaper & Printing

Nespaper History

• 59 B.C.: Acta Diurna the first newspaper is published in Rome.
• 1556: First monthly newspaper Notizie Scritte published in Venice.
• 1605: First printed newspaper published weekly in Antwerp called Relation.
• 1631: The first French newspaper published, the Gazette.
• 1645: Post-och Inrikes Tidningar is published in Sweden and is still being published today, making it the world's oldest newspaper.
• 1690: The first newspaper is published in America, Publick Occurrences.
• 1702: The first English language daily newspaper is published called the Daily Courant. The Courant was first published (periodical)in 1621.
• 1704: Considered the world’s first journalist, Daniel Defoe publishs the Review.
• 1803: First newspapers published in Australia, the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser.
• 1830: Number of newspapers published in the U.S. is 715.
• 1831: The famous abolitionist newspaper The Liberator is first published by William Lloyd Garrison.
• 1833: The New York Sun newspaper costs one cent - the beginning of the penny press.
• 1844: First newspaper published in Thailand.
• 1848: The Brooklyn Freeman newspaper is first published by Walt Whitman.
• 1850: P.T. Barnum starts running newspaper ads for Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale" performances in America.
• 1851: The Post Office starts offering a special cheap newspaper rate.
• 1855: First newspaper published in Sierra Leone.
• 1856: The first full-page newspaper ad is published in the New York Ledger. Large type newspaper ads are made popular by photographer Mathew Brady. Machines now mechanically fold newspapers.
• 1860: A "morgue" in newspaper terms means an archive. The New York Herald starts the first morgue.
• 1864: William James Carlton of J. Walter Thompson Company begins selling advertising space in newspapers. The J. Walter Thompson Company is the longist running American advertising agency.
• 1867: The first double column advertising appears for the department store Lord & Taylor.
• 1869: Newspaper circulation numbers published by George P. Rowell in the first Rowell's American Newspaper Directory.
• 1870: Number of newspapers published in the U.S. is 5,091.
• 1871: First newspaper published in Japan - the daily Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun. Famous newspaper interview with explorer Stanley Livingston published.
• 1873: First illustrated daily newspaper published in New York.
• 1877: First weather report with map published in Australia. The Washington Post newspaper first publishes with a circulation of 10,000 and a cost of 3 cents per paper.
• 1879: The benday process improves newspapers. The first whole page newspaper ad placed by an American department store (John Wanamaker) is run.
• 1880: First halftone photograph (Shantytown) published in a newspaper.
• 1885: Newspapers are delivered daily by train.
• 1887: The San Francisco Examiner published.
• 1893: The Royal Baking Powder Company becomes the biggest newspaper advertiser in the world.
• 1903: The first tabloid style newspaper, the Daily Mirror is pblished.
• 1931: Newspaper funnies now include Plainclothes Tracy starring Dick Tracy.
• 1933: A war breaks out between the newspaper and radio industries. American newspapers try to force the Associated Press to terminate news service to radio stations.
• 1954: There are more radios than there are daily newspapers.
• 1955: Teletypesetting is used for newspapers.
• 1967: Newspapers use digital production processes and began using computers for operations.
• 1971: Use of Ooffset presses becomes common.
• 1977: First public access to archives offered by Toronto Globe and Mail.

Printing History

• 618 to 906: T’ang Dynasty - the first printing is done in China using ink on carved wooden blocks begins to make multiple transfers of an image to paper.
• 868: The Diamond Sutra is printed.
• 1241: Koreans print books using movable type.
• 1300: The first use of wooden type in China.
• 1309: Europeans first make paper. However, the Chinese and Egyptians had started making paper centuries previous.
• 1338: First papermill opened in France.
• 1390: First papermill opened in Germany.
• 1392: Foundries that can produce bronze type are opened in Korea.
• 1423: In Europe block printing is used to print books.
• 1452: In Europe, metal plates are first used in printing. Gutenberg begins printing the Bible which he finishes in 1456.
• 1457: First color printing by Fust and Schoeffer.
• 1465: Drypoint engravings invented by Germans.
• 1476: William Caxton begins using a Gutenberg printing press in England.
• 1477: Intaglio is first used for book illustration for a Flemish book called Il Monte Sancto di Dio.
• 1495: First papermill opened in England.
• 1501: Italic type first used.
• 1550: Wallpaper introduced in Europe.
• 1605: First weekly newspaper published in Antwerp.
• 1611: King James Bible published.
• 1660: Mezzotint invented in Germany.
• 1691: First papermill opened in the American colonies.
• 1702: Multi-colored engraving invented by German Jakob Le Blon. The first English language daily newspaper is published called the Daily Courant.
• 1725: In Scotland stereotyping invented by William Ged.
• 1800: Iron printing presses invented.
• 1819: Rotary printing press invented by Napier.
• 1829: Embossed printing invented by Louis Braille.
• 1841: Type-composing machine invented.
• 1844: Electrotyping invented.
• 1846: Cylinder press invented by Richard Hoe. Cylinder press can print 8,000 sheets an hour.
• 1863: Rotary web-fed letterpress invented by William Bullock.
• 1865: Web offset press can print on both sides of paper at once.
• 1886: Linotype composing machineinvented by Ottmar Mergenthaler.
• 1870: Paper is now mass-manufactured from wood pulp.
• 1878: Photogravure printing invented by Karl Klic.
• 1890: Mimeograph machine introduced.
• 1891: Printing presses can now print and fold 90,000 4-page papers an hour. Diazotype invented (print photographs on fabric).
• 1892: 4-color rotary press invented.
• 1904: Offset lithography becomes common. The first comic book is published.
• 1907: Commercial silk screening invented.
• 1947: Phototypesetting made practical