Publick Occurrences

Although it appeared only once, on September 25, 1690, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick is considered the first newspaper published in the British American colonies that would later become the United States. Publick Occurrences, published in Boston, consisted of three pages of information (approximately 7½ inches by 11½ inches in size) followed by a blank fourth, which the publication’s prospectus intimated was left blank so that people who had more news or more accurate information could add it to the paper and then pass it on.

Publick Occurrences was not the first newssheet to appear in Boston. Beginning in 1667, a series of one-time broadsheets appeared in Massachusetts, mostly related to European events that were considered to be of significance to colonials. In 1689, printer ...