THIS DAY IN HISTORY NOVEMBER 23
FFirst issue of Life is published
On November 23, 1936, the first issue of the pictorial magazine Life is published, featuring a cover photo of the Fort Peck Dam by Margaret Bourke-White.
Life actually had its start earlier in the 20th century as a different kind of magazine: a weekly humor publication, not unlike today?s The New Yorker in its use of tart cartoons, humorous pieces and cultural reporting. When the original Life folded during the Great Depression, the influential American publisher Henry Luce bought the name and re-launched the magazine as a picture-based periodical on this day in 1936. By this time, Luce had already enjoyed great success as the publisher of Time, a weekly news magazine.
From his high school days, Luce was a newsman, serving with his friend Briton Hadden as managing editors of their school newspaper. This partnership continued through their college years at Yale University, where they acted as chairmen and managing editors of the Yale Daily News, as well as after college, when Luce joined Hadden at The Baltimore News in 1921. It was during this time that Luce and Hadden came up with the idea for Time. When it launched in 1923, it was with the intention of delivering the world?s news through the eyes of the people who made it.
Whereas the original mission of Time was to tell the news, the mission of Life was to show it. In the words of Luce himself, the magazine was meant to provide a way for the American people ?to see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events ? to see things thousands of miles away? to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed? to see, and to show?? Luce set the tone of the magazine with Margaret Bourke-White?s stunning cover photograph of the Fort Peck Dam, which has since become an icon of the 1930s and the great public works completed under President Franklin Roosevelt?s New Deal.
Life was an overwhelming success in its first year of publication. Almost overnight, it changed the way people looked at the world by changing the way people could look at the world. Its flourish of images painted vivid pictures in the public mind, capturing the personal and the public, and putting it on display for the world to take in. At its peak, Life had a circulation of over 8 million and it exerted considerable influence on American life in the beginning and middle of the 20th century.
With picture-heavy content as the driving force behind its popularity,the magazine suffered as television became society?s predominant means of communication. Life ceased running as a weekly publication in 1972, when it began losing audience and advertising dollars to television. In 2004, however, it resumed weekly publication as a supplement to U.S. newspapers. At its re-launch, its combined circulation was once again in the millions.
Citation Information
Article Title
First issue of Life is published
URL
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-issue-of-life-is-published
November 23, 2018
HOLLYWOOD 2012
Larry Hagman, star of ?Dallas? and ?I Dream of Jeannie,? dies
On this day in 2012, Larry Hagman, who starred in such television shows as ?Dallas? and ?I Dream of Jeannie,? dies at age 81 of complications from cancer at a hospital in Dallas. Hagman was best known for his role as the villainous Texas oil baron J.R. Ewing on ?Dallas,? which ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1499
Flemish pretender executed in London
Perkin Warbeck, who invaded England in 1497 claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV, is hanged for allegedly trying to escape from the Tower of London.Believed to be a native of Tournai in Belgium, Warbeck went to Ireland in 1491 and claimed he was Richard, duke of York, ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1979
IRA member sentenced for Mountbatten?s assassination
Thomas McMahon, a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is sentenced to life imprisonment for preparing and planting the bomb that killed Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others three months before.On August 27, 1979, Lord Mountbatten was killed when McMahon and other IRA ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1876
?Boss? Tweed delivered to authorities
William Magear ?Boss? Tweed, leader of New York City?s corrupt Tammany Hall political organization during the 1860s and early 1870s, is delivered to authorities in New York City after his capture in Spain. Tweed became a powerful figure in Tammany Hall?New York City?s Democratic ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1859
Billy the Kid born
The infamous Western outlaw known as ?Billy the Kid? is born in a poor Irish neighborhood on New York City?s East Side. Before he was shot dead at age 21, Billy reputedly killed 27 people in the American West.Billy the Kid called himself William H. Bonney, but his original name ...read more
WORLD WAR II 1940
Romania becomes an Axis ?power?
On this day in 1940, Romania signs the Tripartite Pact, officially allying itself with Germany, Italy, and Japan.As early as 1937, Romania had come under control of a fascist government that bore great resemblance to that of Germany?s, including similar anti-Jewish laws. ...read more
VIETNAM WAR 1972
Paris peace talks deadlocked
Secret peace talks resume in Paris between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese representative, but almost immediately reach an impasse.The sticking points were the implementation of the international supervisory force and Saigon?s insistence on the withdrawal of ...read more
VIETNAM WAR 1970
Laird discloses the details of the Son Tay Raid
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird discloses the November 21 U.S. raid on the North Vietnamese prison camp at Son Tay. On November 21, a combined Air Force and Army team of 40 Americans?led by Army Colonel ?Bull? Simons?conducted a raid on the Son Tay prison camp, 23 miles west ...read more
SPORTS 1984
BC wins on Hail Mary
On November 23, 1984, Boston College?s diminutive quarterback Doug Flutie throws a last-second 64-yard pass to beat the University of Miami 47-45. The 30,235 fans in the Orange Bowl had already begun to celebrate the victory they were sure their Hurricanes had won, and they were ...read more
PRESIDENTIAL 1804
Franklin Pierce is born
On this day in 1804, Franklin Pierce, America?s 14th president, is born in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.Pierce, described by biographers and contemporaries as a personable and sincere young man, worked as a lawyer before winning a seat in the New Hampshire state ...read more
OLD WEST 1903
Colorado governor sends militia to Cripple Creek
Determined to crush the union of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), Colorado Governor James Peabody sends the state militia into the mining town of Cripple Creek.The strike in the gold mines of Cripple Creek began that summer. William ?Big Bill? Haywood?s Western Federation ...read more
MUSIC 1936
Blues legend Robert Johnson makes first-ever recording
Bluesman Robert Johnson is recorded for the very first time in a San Antonio recording studio on November 23, 1936.The legend of Robert Johnson, arguably the most influential blues performer of all time, began growing in earnest only in the early 1960s, more than 20 years after ...read more
LITERARY 1874
Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, is published
On this day, Thomas Hardy?s novel Far from the Madding Crowd is published. In the novel, farm owner Bathsheba Everdene is courted by three suitors, each showing a different face of love and human nature. Although the book ends happily, it contains many of the tragic elements, ...read more
HOLLYWOOD 1990
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory creator Roald Dahl dies
On this day in 1990, Roald Dahl, the best-selling author of such children?s books as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, both of which were adapted for the big screen, dies at the age of 74 in Oxford, England. In addition to publishing a long list of ...read more
DISASTER 1980
Southern Italy rocked by earthquake
An earthquake strikes Southern Italy on this day 1980, killing more than 3,000 people. The casualty toll was so high in part because the tremor struck during Sunday night mass, as many residents sat in churches that crumbled in the quake.The 7.2-magnitude quake struck at 7:34 ...read more
CRIME 1959
The Birdman of Alcatraz is allowed a small taste of freedom
Robert Stroud, the famous ?Birdman of Alcatraz,? is released from solitary confinement for the first time since 1916. Stroud gained widespread fame and attention when author Thomas Gaddis wrote a biography that trumpeted Stroud?s ornithological expertise.Stroud was first sent to ...read more
the War of Northern Aggression 1819
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss born
On this day in 1819, Union General Benjamin Prentiss is born in Belleville, Virginia. Prentiss served in a variety of capacities during the war but is best known for defending Arkansas during the Vicksburg campaign.Prentiss was raised in Missouri and moved to Quincy, Illinois, as ...read more
COLD WAR 1981
Reagan gives CIA authority to establish the Contras
On this day, President Ronald Reagan signs off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gives the Central Intelligence Agency the power to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan rebels to conduct covert actions against the....read more
On November 23, 1936, the first issue of the pictorial magazine Life is published, featuring a cover photo of the Fort Peck Dam by Margaret Bourke-White.
Life actually had its start earlier in the 20th century as a different kind of magazine: a weekly humor publication, not unlike today?s The New Yorker in its use of tart cartoons, humorous pieces and cultural reporting. When the original Life folded during the Great Depression, the influential American publisher Henry Luce bought the name and re-launched the magazine as a picture-based periodical on this day in 1936. By this time, Luce had already enjoyed great success as the publisher of Time, a weekly news magazine.
From his high school days, Luce was a newsman, serving with his friend Briton Hadden as managing editors of their school newspaper. This partnership continued through their college years at Yale University, where they acted as chairmen and managing editors of the Yale Daily News, as well as after college, when Luce joined Hadden at The Baltimore News in 1921. It was during this time that Luce and Hadden came up with the idea for Time. When it launched in 1923, it was with the intention of delivering the world?s news through the eyes of the people who made it.
Whereas the original mission of Time was to tell the news, the mission of Life was to show it. In the words of Luce himself, the magazine was meant to provide a way for the American people ?to see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events ? to see things thousands of miles away? to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed? to see, and to show?? Luce set the tone of the magazine with Margaret Bourke-White?s stunning cover photograph of the Fort Peck Dam, which has since become an icon of the 1930s and the great public works completed under President Franklin Roosevelt?s New Deal.
Life was an overwhelming success in its first year of publication. Almost overnight, it changed the way people looked at the world by changing the way people could look at the world. Its flourish of images painted vivid pictures in the public mind, capturing the personal and the public, and putting it on display for the world to take in. At its peak, Life had a circulation of over 8 million and it exerted considerable influence on American life in the beginning and middle of the 20th century.
With picture-heavy content as the driving force behind its popularity,the magazine suffered as television became society?s predominant means of communication. Life ceased running as a weekly publication in 1972, when it began losing audience and advertising dollars to television. In 2004, however, it resumed weekly publication as a supplement to U.S. newspapers. At its re-launch, its combined circulation was once again in the millions.
Citation Information
Article Title
First issue of Life is published
URL
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-issue-of-life-is-published
November 23, 2018
HOLLYWOOD 2012
Larry Hagman, star of ?Dallas? and ?I Dream of Jeannie,? dies
On this day in 2012, Larry Hagman, who starred in such television shows as ?Dallas? and ?I Dream of Jeannie,? dies at age 81 of complications from cancer at a hospital in Dallas. Hagman was best known for his role as the villainous Texas oil baron J.R. Ewing on ?Dallas,? which ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1499
Flemish pretender executed in London
Perkin Warbeck, who invaded England in 1497 claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV, is hanged for allegedly trying to escape from the Tower of London.Believed to be a native of Tournai in Belgium, Warbeck went to Ireland in 1491 and claimed he was Richard, duke of York, ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1979
IRA member sentenced for Mountbatten?s assassination
Thomas McMahon, a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is sentenced to life imprisonment for preparing and planting the bomb that killed Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others three months before.On August 27, 1979, Lord Mountbatten was killed when McMahon and other IRA ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1876
?Boss? Tweed delivered to authorities
William Magear ?Boss? Tweed, leader of New York City?s corrupt Tammany Hall political organization during the 1860s and early 1870s, is delivered to authorities in New York City after his capture in Spain. Tweed became a powerful figure in Tammany Hall?New York City?s Democratic ...read more
GENERAL INTEREST 1859
Billy the Kid born
The infamous Western outlaw known as ?Billy the Kid? is born in a poor Irish neighborhood on New York City?s East Side. Before he was shot dead at age 21, Billy reputedly killed 27 people in the American West.Billy the Kid called himself William H. Bonney, but his original name ...read more
WORLD WAR II 1940
Romania becomes an Axis ?power?
On this day in 1940, Romania signs the Tripartite Pact, officially allying itself with Germany, Italy, and Japan.As early as 1937, Romania had come under control of a fascist government that bore great resemblance to that of Germany?s, including similar anti-Jewish laws. ...read more
VIETNAM WAR 1972
Paris peace talks deadlocked
Secret peace talks resume in Paris between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese representative, but almost immediately reach an impasse.The sticking points were the implementation of the international supervisory force and Saigon?s insistence on the withdrawal of ...read more
VIETNAM WAR 1970
Laird discloses the details of the Son Tay Raid
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird discloses the November 21 U.S. raid on the North Vietnamese prison camp at Son Tay. On November 21, a combined Air Force and Army team of 40 Americans?led by Army Colonel ?Bull? Simons?conducted a raid on the Son Tay prison camp, 23 miles west ...read more
SPORTS 1984
BC wins on Hail Mary
On November 23, 1984, Boston College?s diminutive quarterback Doug Flutie throws a last-second 64-yard pass to beat the University of Miami 47-45. The 30,235 fans in the Orange Bowl had already begun to celebrate the victory they were sure their Hurricanes had won, and they were ...read more
PRESIDENTIAL 1804
Franklin Pierce is born
On this day in 1804, Franklin Pierce, America?s 14th president, is born in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.Pierce, described by biographers and contemporaries as a personable and sincere young man, worked as a lawyer before winning a seat in the New Hampshire state ...read more
OLD WEST 1903
Colorado governor sends militia to Cripple Creek
Determined to crush the union of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), Colorado Governor James Peabody sends the state militia into the mining town of Cripple Creek.The strike in the gold mines of Cripple Creek began that summer. William ?Big Bill? Haywood?s Western Federation ...read more
MUSIC 1936
Blues legend Robert Johnson makes first-ever recording
Bluesman Robert Johnson is recorded for the very first time in a San Antonio recording studio on November 23, 1936.The legend of Robert Johnson, arguably the most influential blues performer of all time, began growing in earnest only in the early 1960s, more than 20 years after ...read more
LITERARY 1874
Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, is published
On this day, Thomas Hardy?s novel Far from the Madding Crowd is published. In the novel, farm owner Bathsheba Everdene is courted by three suitors, each showing a different face of love and human nature. Although the book ends happily, it contains many of the tragic elements, ...read more
HOLLYWOOD 1990
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory creator Roald Dahl dies
On this day in 1990, Roald Dahl, the best-selling author of such children?s books as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, both of which were adapted for the big screen, dies at the age of 74 in Oxford, England. In addition to publishing a long list of ...read more
DISASTER 1980
Southern Italy rocked by earthquake
An earthquake strikes Southern Italy on this day 1980, killing more than 3,000 people. The casualty toll was so high in part because the tremor struck during Sunday night mass, as many residents sat in churches that crumbled in the quake.The 7.2-magnitude quake struck at 7:34 ...read more
CRIME 1959
The Birdman of Alcatraz is allowed a small taste of freedom
Robert Stroud, the famous ?Birdman of Alcatraz,? is released from solitary confinement for the first time since 1916. Stroud gained widespread fame and attention when author Thomas Gaddis wrote a biography that trumpeted Stroud?s ornithological expertise.Stroud was first sent to ...read more
the War of Northern Aggression 1819
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss born
On this day in 1819, Union General Benjamin Prentiss is born in Belleville, Virginia. Prentiss served in a variety of capacities during the war but is best known for defending Arkansas during the Vicksburg campaign.Prentiss was raised in Missouri and moved to Quincy, Illinois, as ...read more
COLD WAR 1981
Reagan gives CIA authority to establish the Contras
On this day, President Ronald Reagan signs off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gives the Central Intelligence Agency the power to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan rebels to conduct covert actions against the....read more
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On this day in 1907, my father was born. 0
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