Susquehanna River [1]
Susquehanna River in Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Country	USA
States	Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York
Tributaries
- left	Lackawanna River, Swatara Creek, Conestoga River
- right	Unadilla River, Chenango River, Chemung River, West Branch, Juniata River
Cities	Harrisburg, PA, Wilkes-Barre, PA, Binghamton, NY
Source	Otsego Lake
- location	Cooperstown, Otsego County, New York, USA
- elevation	1,180 ft (360 m)
- coordinates	42°42′02″N 74°55′10″W / 42.70056°N 74.91944°W / 42.70056; -74.91944
Secondary source	West Branch Susquehanna River
- location	Carrolltown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, USA
- elevation	1,980 ft (604 m)
- coordinates	40°35′55″N 78°42′56″W / 40.59861°N 78.71556°W / 40.59861; -78.71556
Mouth	Chesapeake Bay
- location	Cecil County / Harford County, at Havre de Grace, Maryland, USA
- elevation	0 ft (0 m)
- coordinates	39°32′35″N 76°04′32″W / 39.54306°N 76.07556°W / 39.54306; -76.07556
Length	464 mi (747 km)
Basin	27,500 sq mi (71,225 km2)
Discharge	for Conowingo Dam, MD
- average	40,080 cu ft/s (1,135 m3/s)
- max	1,130,000 cu ft/s (31,998 m3/s) June 24, 1972[2]
- min	2,990 cu ft/s (85 m3/s)
Discharge elsewhere (average)
- Danville, PA	29,000 cu ft/s (821 m3/s)
The Susquehanna watershed

The Susquehanna River ( /ˌsʌskwəˈhænə/) (Lenape: Siskëwahane ^[3]) is a river located in the northeastern United States. At 464 miles (747 km) long,^[4] it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States,^[5][6] and the longest river in the continental United States without commercial boat traffic.^[7] It flows through three states: New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. It forms from two main branches, with the "North Branch", which rises in upstate New York, regarded by federal mapmakers as the main branch.^[1] The shorter West Branch, which rises in western Pennsylvania, joins the main stem near Northumberland in central Pennsylvania.

The river drains 27,500 square miles (71,000 km²), including nearly half of the land area of Pennsylvania. The drainage basin (watershed) includes portions of the Allegheny Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains, cutting through water gaps in the lateral mountain ridges in a broad zigzag course to flow across the rural heartland of southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland. The river empties into the northern end of Chesapeake Bay, providing half of the Bay's freshwater inflow. Chesapeake Bay is in fact the ria of the Susquehanna.

Course[link]

Rising as the outlet of Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York, the north branch of the river runs west-southwest through dairy country, receiving the Unadilla River at Sidney and the Chenango in downtown Binghamton. At Athens Township (just south of Waverly, New York) in northern Pennsylvania, just across the New York state line, it receives the Chemung from the northwest and makes a right angle curve between Sayre and Towanda to cut through the Endless Mountains in the Allegheny Plateau. It receives the Lackawanna River southwest of Scranton and turns sharply to the southwest, flowing through the former anthracite industrial heartland in the mountain ridges of northeastern Pennsylvania, past Wilkes-Barre, Nanticoke, Berwick, Bloomsburg, and Danville. It receives the smaller West Branch from the northwest at Northumberland, just above Sunbury.

Harrisburg, with the state capitol dome, from across the Susquehanna River in Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

Downstream from the confluence of its branches it flows south past Selinsgrove, where it is joined by its Penns Creek tributary, and cuts through a water gap at the western end of Mahantongo Mountain. It receives the Juniata River from the northwest at Duncannon, then passes through its last water gap through Blue Mountain, just northwest of Harrisburg. It passes downtown Harrisburg (where it is nearly a mile wide), the largest city on the lower river, and flows southeast across South Central Pennsylvania forming the border between York and Lancaster counties, as well as receiving Swatara Creek from the northeast. It crosses into northern Maryland approximately 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Baltimore and is joined by Octoraro Creek. The river enters the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace, where Concord Point Light was built in 1827 to accommodate the increasing navigational traffic.^[8]

Geology[link]

The river is far older than the mountain ridges through which it turns, most of which were formed in uplift events of the early Cenozoic era. Like the Hudson, Delaware and Potomac rivers, the basin was well established in the flat plains that existed during the Mesozoic era.^[9]

Pollution[link]

Satellite photo of the Susquehanna (upper left) where it empties into Chesapeake Bay (center)

The environmental group American Rivers named the Susquehanna "America's Most Endangered River for 2005" because of the excessive pollution it receives. Most of the pollution in the river is caused by excess animal manure from farming, agricultural runoff, urban and suburban stormwater runoff, and raw or inadequately treated sewage. In 2003 the river contributed 44% of the nitrogen, 21% of the phosphorus, and 21% of the sediment flowing into Chesapeake Bay.^[10] It was designated as one of the American Heritage Rivers in 1997.^[11] The designation provides for technical assistance from federal agencies to state and local governments working in the Susquehanna watershed.

Etymology[link]

Before the arrival of the English colonists, the vicinity of this river in present day Maryland and Pennsylvania was the territory of the Susquehannock tribe. This tribal name is an exonym, reported by John Smith on his 1612 map, with the spelling "Sasquesahanough".^[12] It is understood to have come from a neighboring tribe, the Powhatan of tidewater Virginia, which was an Algonquian speaking tribe. However, some scholars^[who?] have suggested the possibility that it comes from a different Algonquian language. The meaning of the name is unknown; competing claims were reviewed in the early 1900's.^[13] Nowadays, there is an erroneous local legend that the name of the river comes from an Indian phrase meaning "mile wide, foot deep".^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

In the 1670s the Conestoga succumbed to Iroquois conquest and assimilation. In the aftermath, the Iroquois resettled some of the semi-tributary Lenape in this area, as it was near the western boundary of the Lenape's former territory, known as Lenapehoking.

The river has played an important role throughout the history of the United States. In the 18th century, William Penn, the founder of the Pennsylvania Colony, negotiated with the Lenape to allow white settlement in the colony between the Delaware River and the Susquehanna. In late colonial times, the river became an increasingly important transportation corridor with the discovery of anthracite coal by Necho Allen in its upper reaches in the mountains. In 1790, Colonel Timothy Matlack, Samuel Maclay and John Adlum were commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to survey the headwaters of the river and explore a route for a passageway to connect the West Branch with the waters of the Allegheny River.^[14] In 1792, the Union Canal was proposed linking the Susquehanna and the Delaware along Swatara Creek and Tulpehocken Creek. In the 19th century, many industrial centers grew up along the river.

Monument at the site of Gen. Clinton's dam at the source of the Susquehanna River on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York

In 1779 General James Clinton led an expedition down the Susquehanna after making the upper portion navigable by damming up the river's source at Otsego Lake, allowing the lake's level to rise and then destroying the dam and flooding the river for miles downstream. This event is described by James Fenimore Cooper in the introduction to his novel The Pioneers. At Athens, Pennsylvania, then known as Tioga or "Tioga Point", Clinton met up with General John Sullivan's forces, who had marched from Easton, Pennsylvania. Together on August 29, they defeated the Tories and Indians at the Battle of Newtown (near today's city of Elmira, New York). This became known as the "Sullivan-Clinton Campaign" or the "Sullivan Expedition".

Conflicting land claims by Pennsylvania and Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley along the Susquehanna led to the founding of Westmoreland County, Connecticut, and the Pennamite Wars, which eventually led to the territory being ceded to Pennsylvania.

The Susquehanna River holds importance for members of the Latter Day Saint movement as the location where Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery received the priesthood from heavenly beings and the place in which the first Latter Day Saint baptisms occurred. Smith and Cowdery said that they were visited on May 15, 1829, by the resurrected John the Baptist and given the Aaronic priesthood; following his visit, Smith and Cowdery baptized each other in the river. Later that year, they said they were also visited near the river by the apostles Peter, James and John. Both events took place in unspecified locations near the river's shore in either Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, or Broome County, New York.

During the Civil War's 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, the commander of the Department of the Susquehanna, Union Major General Darius N. Couch, resolved that Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia would not cross the Susquehanna. He positioned militia units under Maj. Granville Haller to protect key bridges in Harrisburg and Wrightsville, as well as nearby fords. Confederate forces approached the river at several locations in Cumberland and York counties but were recalled on June 29 when Lee chose to concentrate his army to the west.

In 1972, the remnants of Hurricane Agnes stalled over the New York-Pennsylvania border, dropping as much as 20 inches (510 mm) of rain on the hilly lands. Much of that precipitation was received into the Susquehanna from its western tributaries, and the valley suffered disastrous flooding. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was among the hardest hit communities. Chesapeake Bay received so much fresh water that it killed much of the marine life.

In March 2011, Crary Park in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania was inundated with a flood when the Susquehanna at Wilkes-Barre rose above 27 feet.^[15] Six months later, the entire town was "devastated" by a 42-foot record flood.^[16]

In June 2006, portions of the river system were affected by the Mid-Atlantic Flood of June 2006, a flood caused by a stalled jet stream-driven storm system. The worst affected area was Binghamton, New York, where record setting flood levels forced the evacuation of thousands of residents.

Boating[link]

The Susquehanna River has long been associated with boating because of the many migratory fish that are caught there. Many tourists and local residents use the Susquehanna in the summer for recreation purposes such as kayaking, canoeing, and motor-boating. Canoe races are held on various sections of the river every year like the amateur race held in Oneonta, New York.

Rowing and Paddling[link]

Rowing and Paddling on the Susquehanna River has a long history. Starting in 1874, rowers from Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania raced men from Sunbury. The General Clinton Canoe Regatta is the world's 2nd longest flat-water race and takes place each year in Bainbridge, New York on Memorial Day weekend. Binghamton University Crew, and Hiawatha Island Boat Club are also located on the river, in the Southern Tier of New York. General Clinton regatta is 63 miles (claimed 70) which is shorter than the 113 mile (clamed 120), non-stop, AuSable flat water canoe race held in Northen Michigan.

Bridges, ferries, canals and dams[link]

The Susquehanna River has played an important role in the transportation history of the United States. Prior to the 1818 opening of the Port Deposit Bridge, the river formed a barrier between the northern and southern states, crossable only by ferry. The earliest dams were constructed to support ferry operations in low water. The presence of many rapids in the river meant that while commercial traffic could navigate down the river in the spring thaws, nothing could move up. This led to the construction of two different canal systems on the lower Susquehanna; the first was the Susquehanna Canal, also called the Conowingo Canal or the Port Deposit Canal, completed in 1802 by a Maryland company known as the Proprietors of the Susquehanna Canal; the second was the much longer and more successful Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal. The canals required additional dams to provide canal water and navigation pools. As the industrial age progressed, bridges replaced ferries, and railroads replaced canals, often built right on top of the canal right of way along the river. Many canal remnants can be seen in Havre de Grace, Maryland, along US Route 15 in Pennsylvania, and in upstate New York at various locations. These latter remnants are parts of the upstream divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal, of privately funded canals, and of canals in the New York system.

Today, there are over two hundred bridges crossing the Susquehanna. The sole remaining ferry, the Millersburg Ferry at Millersburg, Pennsylvania, is a seasonal tourist attraction. The canals are gone or are part of historical parks, and dams are related to power generation or recreation. Perhaps the most famous of the bridges, the Rockville Bridge, crosses the river from Harrisburg to Marysville, Pennsylvania. The Rockville Bridge, when constructed, was the longest stone masonry arch bridge in the world. It was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1902, replacing an earlier iron bridge.

See also[link]

• City Island (Pennsylvania)
• Garrett Island (Maryland)
• Geography of Pennsylvania
• List of Maryland rivers
• List of New York rivers
• List of Pennsylvania rivers
• McCormick Island
• Spades Wharf Island

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Susquehanna River

• U.S. Geological Survey: PA stream gaging stations
• Susquehanna River Basin Commission
• American Rivers article: Susquehanna River "Most Endangered"^{[dead link]}
• History of the Susquehanna River Ark
• Hiawatha Island Boat Club – Owego, NY
• Binghamton University Crew – Binghamton, NY

v t e Susquehanna River system Maryland · Pennsylvania · New York · Counties · Municipalities · Crossings · Dams Streams shown as: Major tributaries · subtributaries · (subsubtributaries)   Lower Susquehanna River Chesapeake Bay (mouth) · Deer Cr. · Octoraro Cr. · West Br. · East Br. · Broad Cr. · Muddy Cr. · Pequea Cr. · Conestoga R. · Little Conestoga Cr. · Mill Cr. · Cocalico Cr. · (Hammer Cr.) · (Middle Cr.) · Muddy Cr. · Chiques Cr. · Little Chiques Cr.  · Codorus Cr. · South Br. · (East Br.) · Conewago Cr. (W) · Little Conewago Cr. · Bermudian Cr. · (South Br.) · Conoy Cr. · Conewago Cr. (E) · Swatara Cr. · Manada Cr. · Quittapahilla Cr. · Little Swatara Cr. · Paxton Cr.  · Yellow Breeches Cr. · Mountain Cr. · Conodoguinet Cr. · Middle Spring Cr. · Muddy Run ·  · Clark Cr. · Sherman Cr. · Juniata R. · Powell Cr. · Wiconisco Cr. · Mahantango Cr. · Pine Cr. · Mahantango Cr (Snyder County). · (North Br.) · (West Br.) · Mahanoy Cr. · Shenandoah Cr. · Penns Cr. · Middle Cr. · Pine Cr. · (Elk Cr.) · Sinking Cr. · Shamokin Cr. · West Br. Susquehanna R.   Juniata River Susquehanna R. (mouth) · Buffalo Cr. · Cocolamus Cr. · Tuscarora Cr. · East Licking Cr. · Lost Cr. · Jacks Cr. · Kishacoquillas Cr. · Honey Cr. · Aughwick Cr. · Blacklog Cr. · Little Aughwick Cr. · Sideling Hill Cr. · Raystown Br. Juniata R. · Great Trough Cr. · Yellow Cr. · Brush Cr. · Dunning Cr. · (Bobs Cr.) · Standing Stone Cr. · Shaver Cr. · Frankstown Br. Juniata R. · Beaverdam Br. · Clover Cr. · Piney Cr. · Little Juniata R. · Spruce Cr. · Bald Eagle Cr.   West Branch Susquehanna River Susquehanna R. (mouth) · Chillisquaque Cr. · Buffalo Cr. · White Deer Cr. · White Deer Hole Cr. · Muncy Cr. · Little Muncy Cr. · Loyalsock Cr. · Elk Cr. · Little Loyalsock Cr. · Lycoming Cr. · Larrys Cr. · Antes Cr. · Pine Cr. · Little Pine Cr. · (Texas Cr.) · (Blockhouse Cr.) · Slate Run · Babb Cr. · Marsh Cr. · West Branch Pine Cr. · Bald Eagle Cr. · Fishing Cr. · (Little Fishing Cr.) · Beech Cr. · Marsh Cr. · Spring Cr. · Young Womans Cr. · Kettle Cr. · Cross Fork · Lick Run · Sinnemahoning Cr. · First Fork · Bennett Branch · Driftwood Branch · Mosquito Cr. · Moshannon Cr. · Black Moshannon Cr. · Trout Run · Clearfield Cr. · Little Clearfield Cr. · Beaverdam Run · Anderson Cr. · Chest Cr.   Middle Susquehanna River West Branch Susquehanna R. · Roaring Cr. · Catawissa Cr. · Fishing Cr. · Little Fishing Cr. · Huntington Cr. · Nescopeck Cr. · Black Cr. · Big Wapwallopen Cr. · Little Wapwallopen Cr. · Harveys Cr. · Lackawanna R. · Spring Brook · Roaring Brook · Bowman Cr. · Tunkhannock Cr. · Martins Cr. · Nine Partners Cr. · Mehoopany Cr. · Meshoppen Cr. · White Cr. · Tuscarora Cr. · Sugar Run Cr. · Wyalusing Cr. · Wysox Cr. · Towanda Cr. · South Br. · Schrader Cr. · Sugar Cr. · Chemung R.   Chemung River Susquehanna R. (mouth) · Baldwin Cr. · Bentley Cr. · Seeley Cr. · South Cr. · Newtown Cr. · Cohocton R. · Meads Cr. · Mud Cr. · Campbell Cr. · Fivemile Cr. · Tioga R. · Canisteo R. · (Tuscarora Cr.) · (Bennetts Cr.) · (Canacadea Cr.) · Cowanesque R. · (Troups Cr.) · Crooked Cr. · Mill Cr.   Upper Susquehanna River Chemung R. · Cayuta Cr. · Wappasening Cr. · Pipe Cr. · Owego Cr. · Catatonk Cr. · Apalachin Cr. · Nanticoke Cr. · Choconut Cr. · Chenango R. · Tioughnioga R. · (Otselic R.) · Canasawacta Cr. · Genegantslet Cr. · Sangerfield R. · Snake Cr. · Salt Lick Cr. · Starrucca Cr. · Kelsey Brook · Unadilla R. · Butternut Cr. · Wharton Cr. · Ouleout Cr. · Otego Cr. · Charlotte Cr. · Schenevus Cr. · Cherry Valley Cr. · Oaks Cr. · Otsego Lake (New York) (source)

v t e American Heritage Rivers Rivers Blackstone & Woonasquatucket Connecticut Cuyahoga Detroit Hanalei Hudson Lower Mississippi Potomac New Rio Grande St. Johns Upper Mississippi Upper Susquehanna & Lackawanna Willamette

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register (it became The Times on 1 January 1788). The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.

The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (1838), The Straits Times (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the "London Times" or "The Times of London".^[2][3]

The Times is the originator of the ubiquitous Times Roman typeface, originally developed by Stanley Morison of The Times in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation for its legibility in low-tech printing. In November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, but switched to compact size in 2004 in an attempt to appeal more to younger readers and commuters using public transport. The Sunday Times remains a broadsheet.

Though traditionally a moderate newspaper and sometimes a supporter of the Conservatives, it supported the Labour Party in the 2001 and 2005 general elections.^[4] In 2004, according to MORI, the voting intentions of its readership were 40% for the Conservative Party, 29% for the Liberal Democrats, and 26% for Labour.^[5] The Times had an average daily circulation of 394,102 in March 2012.^[1] An American edition has been published since 6 June 2006.^[2]

History[link]

Front page of The Times from December 4, 1788.

1785 to 1890[link]

The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, with Walter in the role of editor. Walter changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name. Walter senior had spent sixteen months in Newgate prison for libel printed in The Times, but his pioneering efforts to obtain Continental news, especially from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers.

The Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of The Times were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers.

In 1809, John Stoddart was appointed general editor, replaced in 1817 by Thomas Barnes. Under Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of The Times rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City of London. Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, and gained for The Times the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform.").The increased circulation and influence of the paper was based in part to its early adoption of the steam-driven rotary printing press. Distribution via steam trains to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence.^[6]

The Times was the first newspaper to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. W. H. Russell, the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War, was immensely influential^[7] with his dispatches back to England.

In other events of the nineteenth century, The Times opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws^{[citation needed]} until the number of demonstrations convinced the editorial board otherwise, and only reluctantly supported aid to victims of the Irish Potato Famine. It enthusiastically supported the Great Reform Bill of 1832, which reduced corruption and increased the electorate from 400 000 people to 800 000 people (still a small minority of the population). During the American Civil War, The Times represented the view of the wealthy classes, favouring the secessionists, but it was not a supporter of slavery.

The third John Walter, the founder's grandson, succeeded his father in 1847. The paper continued as more or less independent, but from the 1850s The Times was beginning to suffer from the rise in competition from the penny press, notably The Daily Telegraph and The Morning Post.

During the 19th century, it was not infrequent for the Foreign Office to approach The Times and ask for continental intelligence, which was often superior to that conveyed by official sources.^[8]

1890 to 1981[link]

The Times faced financial extinction in 1890 under Arthur Fraser Walter, but it was rescued by an energetic editor, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell. During his tenure (1890–1911), The Times became associated with selling the Encyclopædia Britannica using aggressive American marketing methods introduced by Horace Everett Hooper and his advertising executive, Henry Haxton. Due to legal fights between the Britannica's two owners, Hooper and Walter Montgomery Jackson, The Times severed its connection in 1908 and was bought by pioneering newspaper magnate, Alfred Harmsworth, later Lord Northcliffe.

In editorials published on 29 and 31 July 1914, Wickham Steed, the Times's Chief Editor, argued that the British Empire should enter World War I.^[9] On 8 May 1920, also under the editorship of Steed, The Times in an editorial endorsed the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion as a genuine document, and called Jews the world's greatest danger. In the leader entitled "The Jewish Peril, a Disturbing Pamphlet: Call for Inquiry", Steed wrote about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

What are these 'Protocols'? Are they authentic? If so, what malevolent assembly concocted these plans and gloated over their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in part fulfilled, in part so far gone in the way of fulfillment?".^[10]

The following year, when Philip Graves, the Constantinople (modern Istanbul) correspondent of The Times, exposed The Protocols as a forgery, 'The Times retracted the editorial of the previous year.

In 1922, John Jacob Astor, son of the 1st Viscount Astor, bought The Times from the Northcliffe estate. The paper gained a measure of notoriety in the 1930s with its advocacy of German appeasement; then-editor Geoffrey Dawson was closely allied with those in the government who practised appeasement^{[citation needed]}, most notably Neville Chamberlain.

Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent, was a correspondent for the newspaper in Spain during the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s. Philby was admired for his courage in obtaining high-quality reporting from the front lines of the bloody conflict. He later joined MI6 during World War II, was promoted into senior positions after the war ended, then eventually defected to the Soviet Union in 1963.^[11]

Between 1941 and 1946, the left-wing British historian E.H. Carr was Assistant Editor. Carr was well known for the strongly pro-Soviet tone of his editorials.^[12] In December 1944, when fighting broke out in Athens between the Greek Communist ELAS and the British Army, Carr in a Times editorial sided with the Communists, leading Winston Churchill to condemn him and that leader in a speech to the House of Commons.^[13] As a result of Carr's editorial, The Times became popularly known during World War II as the threepenny Daily Worker (the price of the Daily Worker was one penny)^[14]

On 3 May 1966 it started printing news on the front page for the first time - previously the front page featured small advertisements, usually of interest to the moneyed classes in British society.^{[citation needed]} In 1967, members of the Astor family sold the paper to Canadian publishing magnate Roy Thomson, The Thomson Corporation merged it with The Sunday Times to form Times Newspapers Limited.

An industrial dispute prompted the management to shut the paper for nearly a year (1 December 1978 – 12 November 1979).

The Thomson Corporation management were struggling to run the business due to the 1979 Energy Crisis and union demands. Management were left with no choice but to save both titles by finding a buyer who was in a position to guarantee the survival of both titles, and also one who had the resources and was committed to funding the introduction of modern printing methods.

Several suitors appeared, including Robert Maxwell, Tiny Rowland and Lord Rothermere; however, only one buyer was in a position to meet the full Thomson remit, Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

1981 to present: Murdoch-era[link]

In 1981, The Times and The Sunday Times were bought from Thomson by Rupert Murdoch's News International.^[15] The acquisition followed three weeks of intensive bargaining with the unions by company negotiators, John Collier and Bill O'Neill.

After 14 years as editor, William Rees-Mogg resigned the post upon the completion of the change of ownership.^[16] Murdoch began to make his mark on the paper by appointing Harold Evans as his replacement.^[17] One of his most important changes was the introduction of new technology and efficiency measures. In March–May 1982, following agreement with print unions, the hot-metal Linotype printing process used to print The Times since the 19th century was phased out and replaced by computer input and photo-composition. This allowed print room staff at The Times and The Sunday Times to be reduced by half.^{[citation needed]} However, direct input of text by journalists ("single stroke" input) was still not achieved, and this was to remain an interim measure until the Wapping dispute of 1986, when The Times moved from New Printing House Square in Gray's Inn Road (near Fleet Street) to new offices in Wapping.^[18]

Robert Fisk,^[19] seven times British International Journalist of the Year,^[20] resigned as foreign correspondent in 1988 over what he saw as "political censorship" of his article on the shooting-down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988. He wrote in detail about his reasons for resigning from the paper due to meddling with his stories, and the paper's pro-Israel stance.^[21]

In June 1990, The Times ceased its policy of using courtesy titles ("Mr", "Mrs", or "Miss" prefixes) for living persons before full names on first reference, but it continues to use them before surnames on subsequent references. The more formal style is now confined to the "Court and Social" page, though "Ms" is now acceptable in that section, as well as before surnames in news sections.

In November 2003, News International began producing the newspaper in both broadsheet and tabloid sizes. On 13 September 2004, the weekday broadsheet was withdrawn from sale in Northern Ireland. Since 1 November 2004, the paper has been printed solely in tabloid format.

The Conservative Party announced plans to launch litigation against The Times over an incident in which the newspaper claimed that Conservative election strategist Lynton Crosby had admitted that his party would not win the 2005 General Election. The Times later published a clarification, and the litigation was dropped.

On 6 June 2005, The Times redesigned its Letters page, dropping the practice of printing correspondents' full postal addresses. Published letters were long regarded as one of the paper's key constituents. Author/solicitor David Green of Castle Morris Pembrokeshire has had more letters published on the main letters page than any other known contributor – 158 by 31 January 2008. According to its leading article, "From Our Own Correspondents", removal of full postal addresses was in order to fit more letters onto the page.

In a 2007 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which was investigating media ownership and the news, Murdoch stated that the law and the independent board prevented him from exercising editorial control.^[22]

In May 2008 printing of The Times switched from Wapping to new plants at Broxbourne on the outskirts of London, and Merseyside and Glasgow, enabling the paper to be produced with full colour on every page for the first time.

Some^[who?] allege that The Times' partisan opinion pieces also damage its status as 'paper of record,' particularly when attacking interests that go against those of its parent company – News International. In 2010 it published an opinion piece attacking the BBC for being 'one of a group of' signatories to a letter criticising BSkyB share options in October 2010.^[23]

In March 2012, it became the first British newspaper to formally endorse same-sex marriage.

Content[link]

Copies of The Times and supplements from December 2005

The Times features news for the first half of the paper with the leading articles on the second page, the Opinion/Comment section begins after the first news section with world news normally following this. The business pages begin on the centre spread, and are followed by The Register, containing obituaries, Court & Social section, and related material. The sport section is at the end of the main paper.

[edit] Times2

The Times's main supplement is the times2, featuring various lifestyle columns.^{[clarification needed]} It was discontinued on 1 March 2010 but reintroduced on 11 October 2010 after negative feedback. Its regular features include a puzzles section called Mind Games. Its previous incarnation began on 5 September 2005, before which it was called T2 and previously Times 2. Regular features include columns by a different columnist each weekday. There was a column by Marcus du Sautoy each Wednesday, for example. The back pages are devoted to puzzles and contain sudoku, "Killer Sudoku", "KenKen", word polygon puzzles, and a crossword simpler and more concise than the main "Times Crossword".

The supplement contains arts and lifestyle features, TV and radio listings and reviews.

[edit] The Game

The Game is included in the newspaper on Mondays, and details all the weekend's football activity (Premier League and Football League Championship, League One and League Two.) The Scottish edition of The Game also includes results and analysis from Scottish Premier League games.

Saturday supplements[link]

The Saturday edition of The Times contains a variety of supplements. These supplements were relaunched in January 2009 as: Sport, Weekend (including travel and lifestyle features), Saturday Review (arts, books, and ideas), The Times Magazine (columns on various topics), and Playlist (an entertainment listings guide).

Saturday Review is the first regular supplement published in broadsheet format since the paper switched to a compact size in 2004.

At the beginning of summer 2011 Saturday Review switched to the tabloid format

The Times Magazine features columns touching on various subjects such as celebrities, fashion and beauty, food and drink, homes and gardens or simply writers' anecdotes. Notable contributors include Giles Coren, Food and Drink Writer of the Year in 2005.

Online presence[link]

The Times and The Sunday Times have had an online presence since March 1999, originally at the-times.co.uk and sunday-times.co.uk, and later at timesonline.co.uk.^[24] There are now two websites: thetimes.co.uk is aimed at daily readers, and the thesundaytimes.co.uk site at providing weekly magazine-like content. There are also iPad and Android editions of both newspapers. Since July 2010, News International has required readers who do not subscribe to the print edition to pay £2 per week to read The Times and The Sunday Times online.^[25]

Visits to the websites have decreased by 87% since the paywall was introduced, from 21 million unique users per month to 2.7 million.^[26] In April 2009, the timesonline site had a readership of 750,000 readers per day.^[27] As of October 2011, there were around 111,000 subscribers to the Times' digital products ^[28]

Ownership[link]

John Walter, the founder of The Times

The Times has had the following eight owners since its foundation in 1785:

• 1785 to 1803 - John Walter;
• 1803 to 1847 - John Walter, 2nd;
• 1847 to 1894 - John Walter, 3rd;
• 1894 to 1908 - Arthur Fraser Walter;
• 1908 to 1922 - Lord Northcliffe;
• 1922 to 1966 - Astor family;
• 1966 to 1981 - Roy Thomson; and
• 1981 to present - News International (a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation, run by Rupert Murdoch).

Readership[link]

At the time of Harold Evans' appointment as editor in 1981, The Times had an average daily sale of 282,000 copies, in comparision to the 1.4 million daily sales of its traditional rival The Daily Telegraph.^[29] By November 2005 The Times sold an average of 691,283 copies per day, the second-highest of any British "quality" newspaper (after The Daily Telegraph, which had a circulation of 903,405 copies in the period), and the highest in terms of full-rate sales.^[30] By March 2012 The Times' average daily circulation had fallen to 394,102 copies, compared to The Daily Telegraph's 576,378, with the two retaining respectively the second-highest and highest circulations among British "quality" newspapers.^[1] In contrast The Sun, the highest-selling "tabloid" daily newspaper in the United Kingdom, sold an average of 2,614,725 copies in March 2012, and the Daily Mail, the highest-selling "middle market" British daily newspaper, sold an average of 1,952,524 copies in the period.^[1]

In a 2009 national readership survey The Times was found to have the highest number of ABC1 25–44 readers and the largest numbers of readers in London of any of the "quality" papers.^[31]

Typeface[link]

An example of the Times New Roman font

In 1908 The Times started using the Monotype Modern typeface.^[32]

The Times commissioned the serif typeface Times New Roman, created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype, in 1931.^[33] It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically antiquated.^[34] The font was supervised by Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times. Morison used an older font named Plantin as the basis for his design, but made revisions for legibility and economy of space. Times New Roman made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of The Times newspaper.^[35] After one year, the design was released for commercial sale. The Times stayed with Times New Roman for 40 years, but new production techniques and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 have caused the newspaper to switch font five times since 1972. However, all the new fonts have been variants of the original New Roman font:

• Times Europa was designed by Walter Tracy in 1972 for The Times, as a sturdier alternative to the Times font family, designed for the demands of faster printing presses and cheaper paper. The typeface features more open counter spaces.
• Times Roman replaced Times Europa on 30 August 1982.^[36]
• Times Millennium was made in 1991,^[36] drawn by Gunnlaugur Briem on the instructions of Aurobind Patel, composing manager of News International.
• Times Classic first appeared in 2001.^[37] Designed as an economical face by the British type team of Dave Farey and Richard Dawson, it took advantage of the new PC-based publishing system at the newspaper, while obviating the production shortcomings of its predecessor Times Millennium. The new typeface included 120 letters per font. Initially the family comprised ten fonts, but a condensed version was added in 2004.
• Times Modern was unveiled on 20 November 2006, as the successor of Times Classic.^[36] Designed for improving legibility in smaller font sizes, it uses 45-degree angled bracket serifs. The font was published by Elsner + Flake as EF Times Modern; it was designed by Research Studios, led by Ben Preston (deputy editor of The Times) and designer Neville Brody.^[38]

Political allegiance[link]

The Times had declared its support for Clement Attlee's Labour at the 1945 general election; the party went on to win the election by a landslide over Winston Churchill's Conservative government. However, the newspaper reverted to the Tories for the next election five years later. It supported the Conservatives for the subsequent three elections, followed by support for both the Conservatives and the Liberal Party for the next five elections, expressly supporting a Con-Lib coalition in 1974. The paper then backed the Conservatives solidly until 2001.

For the 2001 general election The Times declared its support for Tony Blair's Labour government, which was re-elected by a landslide. It supported Labour again in 2005, when Labour achieved a third successive win, though with a reduced majority.^[39] For the 2010 general election, however, the newspaper declared its support for the Tories once again; the election ended in the Tories taking the most votes and seats but having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form a government as they had failed to gain an overall majority.^[40]

This makes it the most varied newspaper in terms of political support in British history.^[41]

Sponsorships[link]

The Times, along with the British Film Institute, sponsors the "The Times" bfi London Film Festival.

The Times sponsors the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature at Asia House, London.

Notable people[link]

Editors[link]

Notable columnists and journalists[link]

Related publications[link]

[edit] Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) is a separately-paid-for weekly literature and society magazine.

[edit] The Times Science Review

Between 1951 and 1966 The Times published a separately-paid-for quarterly science review, The Times Science Review. Remarkably, in 1953 both the newspaper and its science supplement failed to report on the discovery of the structure of DNA in Cambridge, which was reported on by both the News Chronicle and The New York Times.

The Times started a new (but free) monthly science magazine, Eureka, in October 2009.

Times Atlases[link]

(Times Books Group Ltd)

• The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, 2007 ISBN 978-0-00-780150-3

In fiction[link]

• In the dystopian future world of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Times has been transformed into the organ of the totalitarian ruling party, its editorials—of which several are quoted in the book—reflecting Big Brother's pronouncements.
• Rex Stout's fictional detective Nero Wolfe is described as fond of solving the London Times' crossword puzzle at his New York home, in preference to those of American papers.
• In the James Bond series by Ian Fleming, James Bond, reads The Times. As described by Fleming in From Russia, with Love: "The Times was the only paper that Bond ever read."

See also[link]

Journalism portal

• List of newspapers by date

[edit] References

Further reading[link]

• Evans‏, Harold (1983). Good Times, Bad Times. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78295-9  - includes sections of black-and-white photographic plates, plus a few charts and diagrams in text pages.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Times