The Sun newspaper is first printed

It Does Have Its Knockers

Happy birthday to The Sun newspaper, which was first printed on this day in 1964. Though it was a rather different beast when it initially appeared. Replacing the flagging Daily Herald, it was a stablemate of the Daily Mirror and was a classy-looking broadsheet on launch. It’s first slogan was ‘A paper born of the age we live in’ and it vowed to be completely independent of political party or trade union influence. Which, obviously, failed.The paper was soon struggling, losing millions and selling less than the Herald. In 1969, the young(ish) Australian owner of The News of the World, Rupert Murdoch, purchased the Sun for £800K. He transformed it from a broadsheet to a tabloid, with the first headline declaring ‘Horse Dope Sensation’, setting the tone for the sensationalist, soaraway Sun of later years. Page 3 girls were introduced the following year and finally, in 1978, The Sun overtook its closest rival The Mirror in the circulation war.