Researched and Compiled by Bill Lucey, June 25, 2006, revised May 23, 2010

From: The New York Times: A Chronology: 1851-2010

Researched and Compiled by Bill Lucey, June 25, 2006, revised May 23, 2010

July 22, 1871: The Times expose the crooked dealings of Tammany Hall's William Marcy Tweed, or "Boss Tweed", who, along with others, had been stealing millions from the New York City Treasury, according to documents presented to the paper by his enemies. The story displayed figures from the Controller's books showing large chunks of money were being diverted to the Tammany Ring. George Miller, a carpenter, according to the ledger, was to have received $360,747 for repairing a courthouse, which was never completed. Miller never received a dime. The checks were actually endorsed by firms in partnership with Tweed.

The deception evident in these revelations marked the beginning of the end for Tweed and his underhanded operation. He was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to prison.

This page one story ran under a three-column headline and is believed to have been the paper's first display heading. The first Times article to report Tweed's malfeasance appeared July 8th.

NOTE: Tweed's associates offered The Times $5 million if they would kill the story. The Times refused.

August 14, 1900: Adolph Ochs officially takes control of The Times when the Equitable Life Insurance Society votes to give him the controlling stock in the company after showing a profit for three consecutive years.

April 8, 1904: "Long Acre Square" is re-named "Times Square" after the New York City Board of Alderman passes an ordinance.

NOTE: On May 1, 1894, The Times report the triangle bordering 32nd and 34th Streets and Broadway and Sixth Avenue was named "Greeley Square", home to Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. Less than a year later, on February 5, 1895, the New York City Board of Alderman passed a similar ordinance naming the area around Broadway and 35th and 36th Street "Herald Square" in honor of James Gordon Bennett Jr. and his New York Herald.

April 23, 1913: The Times writes on the unveiling of The New York Times Index, a quarterly publication that will provide readers for the first time with citations (date, page, column, along with a brief summary) to articles previously published. Items are to be indexed by name and subject and will include cross-references, making it an indispensable news source for tracking current events.
NOTE: In 1886, Henry J. Raymond and others published the "Index to The New York Times For 1865", containing 182 pages of news references. Earlier indexes were made available for staff members only.

1927: To entice libraries into archiving their paper, The Times calls itself "The Paper of Record".

May 7, 1935: Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Adolph Ochs son-in-law, is elected president and publisher of The New York Times Company by the board of directors. In conjunction with that announcement, a new position -general manager- was created and filled by Ochs nephew, Julius Ochs Adler.

November, 1935: Back issues of The New York Times from 1914-1927 become available on microfilm.

February 6, 1937: The Times begins the first of 50 editorials ("Remaking The Judiciary") attacking President Franklin Roosevelt on his court-packing scheme.

September 28, 1981: The Times report on their new online computerized system, which allows for full-text searching of articles dating back to June 1, 1980. Each item will contain a brief description of its contents. Also listed will be the page and column number including whether the article is accompanied with a graph, photo, or map.

As part of the new system, The Times introduces two techniques for finding articles: "free-text" and "controlled" searching. Free text searching involves finding an article using words or phrases contained within the article. Controlled searching is retrieving articles through a subject and geographic directory.

February 6, 1983: Lexis Nexis announce they will make full-text articles of New York Times available to subscribers, 24 hours after publication. The full-text archive extends back to June 1, 1980. Articles in abstract form are accessible from January 1, 1969 through June 1, 1980.

NOTE: Beginning in November of 1979, full-text articles of the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, the Economist, the Associated Press, and Reuters were made available through Lexis Nexis. In 1978, The Toronto Globe and Mail, was the first newspaper worldwide to offer full-text access to its editorial content through a commercial database: The Globe and Mail.

June 28, 1992: Forecasting the end of print newspapers as we know them, The Times profile Roger Fidler, director of new media technology at Knight- Ridder, who envisions the coming (in about 5 years) of an electronic newspaper, which will give readers access to selected stories using a "lightweight pen" from a computer screen at a nominal cost.

NOTE: Senator Al Gore, while chairing the Senate subcommittee on science technology and space, advocated building a new nationwide network for storing computer information in a July 15, 1990 Washington Post article. Gore wrote that the network had the potential of reaching into homes and "providing anyone with a personal computer access to a whole universe of electronic information."

December 6, 1993: The New York Times Company and Dow Jones & Company agree to a deal that makes The Times news stories available on Dow Jones computer service, marking the first time the daily content of The Times becomes accessible to subscribers of an electronic news service on the same day of publication.










Who do you have to blow around here to get a roundabout named after you I wonder?




And oh, by the way Bill---it's Assurance Society, not Insurance Society. Big difference. Look it up. Since I know how the Times is a stickler for pre-cis-ion.