(The headline is a quote by Philip Elmer-DeWitt)
By Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Bill Clinton said, “Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.” Yes, we all know that newspaper headlines sell papers. They offer a glimpse at the past. Shown below are some famous headlines from 1912 to 2021.
“TITANIC SINKS. GREAT LOSS OF LIFE” 1912
(The London Herald)
“GREAT DEPRESSION. WALL ST. IN PANIC AS STOCKS CRASH” 1929
(Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
“WAR! OAHU BOMBED BY JAPANESE PLANES” 1941
(Honolulu Sar-Bulletin)
“DEATH CLAIMS ROOSEVELT” - Cerebral hemorrhage
cuts down President in Warm Springs Home” 1945
(The Macon Telegraph)
“ATOMIC BOMB HITS JAPAN” 1945
(Los Angeles Times)
“TODAY V-E DAY - Truman Slated to Go on Air at 9 A.M.”
(The Boston Daily Globe) 1945
“DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” 1948
(incorrect banner heading from Chicago Daily Tribune)
“PONTIFF 19 YEARS; End Comes Quietly in Papal
Bedroom at Summer Palace Pope Pius XII at Age of
82…” 1958
(New York Times)
“PRESIDENT KENNEDY SLAIN. ALSO HITS TEXAS
GOVERNOR” 1963
(The Cleveland Press)
“ROBERT KENNEDY DEAD - Victim of Assassination Just Like Brother” 1968
(The Arizona Republic)
“MAN WALKS ON MOON” 1969
(Daily Mirror)
“INDICT 6 NIXON PLUMBERS’” 1973
(New York Post)
“RICHARD NIXON SAYS I’M NOT A CROOK” 1973
(ABC News)
OJ SIMPSON - The spectacular fall of ‘The Juice’ 1995
(BBC News)
“DIANA DEAD” 1997
(Sunday Mirror)
“HERE HE IS. After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela walks free at 3 pm today.” 1990
(Johannesburg’s Sunday Star)
‘HIJACKED JETS DESTROY TWIN TOWERS
AND HIT PENTAGON IN DAY OF TERROR” 2001
(The New York Times)
“THE TERMINATOR” BECOMES THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA” 2003
“HISTORY - OBAMA’S SWEEPING VICTORY” 2008
(Newsday)
“NELSON MANDELA 1918-2013. FAREWELL DEAR FRIEND” 2013
(Daily News)
“17 Killed in mass shooting at high school in Parkland, Florida” 2018
(Sun-Sentinel)
“DONALD TRUMP IMPEACHED: America’s 45th President becomes 3rd to be impeached by the House of Representatives” 2019
(Chicago Tribune)
“STARBUCKS PLANS TO STOP SELLING PRINT NEWSPAPERS” 2019
(The New York Times)
“TIMES and POST WILL NO LONGER DARKEN WHITE HOUSE DOORSTEP” (Officials in the West Wing announced that copies of The Washington Post and The New York Times would no longer be delivered to the White
House.) 2019
“FREE to the right person: 1 newspaper in Alaska Town”
(Publisher Larry Persily is willing to give away The Skagway News to the right person or couple who are willing to move to Skagway, Alaska. The paper has a circulation of about 500.) 2019
“State Population to double by 2040; babies to blame.”
(The Sacramento Bee) :-) 2019
“KOBE BRYANT dead in California helicopter crash” 2020
(New York Post)
“BEWARE ‘ELECTION STRESS DISORDER’” 2020
(The New York Times)
“Alex Trebek dead: ‘Jeopardy host and trivia master was 80.” 2020
(LA Times)
“Derek Chauvin guilty of killing George Floyd” 2021
(USA Today)
‘Our President Wants Us Here’: The Mob That Stormed the Capitol” 2021
(The New York Times)
“BILL AND MELINDA GATES DIVORCING” 2021
(New York Daily News)
“Harry and Meghan To Give Up Official Work for Royal Family” 2021
(The New York Times)
(Feb.) “U.S. Reaches 500,000 COVID Deaths” 2021
(The New York Times) FYI: By May, the number of deaths rose to 580,000.
“Hong Kong Puts War on ‘Fake News’ in Writing” 2021
(The New York Times)
“A 23-Ton Chinese Rocket Will Crash on Earth Soon.
It Probably Won’t Hit You.” 2021
(The New York Times)
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MARJORIE GOTTLIEB WOLFE agrees with Joseph Pulitzer: “What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive originality, good literary style, clever condensation, and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.”