TIME Media

Read the First-Ever Issue of TIME

First cover of TIME
TIME The first cover of TIME, from Mar. 3, 1923

On Mar. 3, you can flip through its 92-year-old pages

Click here to read the full issue.

The first issue of TIME, dated Mar. 3, 1923, lacked the distinctive red border for which the magazine has come to be known. The cover subject was the now-obscure Joseph G. Cannon (the former House Speaker). The whole thing was only 32 pages, including the front and back covers. There are only a few photographs or illustrations, and nary a chart or graphic in sight.

And yet it’s recognizable as what it still is today: a look at the week’s news, from a serious look at national affairs to pages of arts reviews to a tongue-in-cheek wrap-up of weird local tidbits. The magazine contains word of the first helicopter, a possible change in divorce laws, the release of the film Adam’s Rib, a new one-cent cigarette tax in Indiana and the latest figures in German reparation payments—not to mention a critical trashing of The Waste Land.

TIME subscribers can access that issue in the TIME Vault, complete with the original layouts, art and advertisements. To access the issue, simply click here

Tap to read full story

Your browser is out of date. Please update your browser at http://update.microsoft.com


YOU BROKE TIME.COM!

Dear TIME Reader,

As a regular visitor to TIME.com, we are sure you enjoy all the great journalism created by our editors and reporters. Great journalism has great value, and it costs money to make it. One of the main ways we cover our costs is through advertising.

The use of software that blocks ads limits our ability to provide you with the journalism you enjoy. Consider turning your Ad Blocker off so that we can continue to provide the world class journalism you have become accustomed to.

The TIME Team