Noah Webster Launches the American Minerva

On December 9, 1793, Noah Webster put out the first issue of the American Minerva, a Federalist evening paper based in New York City. Webster hadn't planned on becoming a newspaperman: Alexander Hamilton lent him $1,500 to make the move to the city and take the editor's chair, part of a push by Federalist backers to get a loyal press voice into print. The Minerva became New York's first daily newspaper, and its debut issue carried what's often called the first known newspaper editorial. Webster ran the paper for four years, grinding out the equivalent of twenty volumes of articles and editorials before handing it off. It kept publishing under later names, settling into the Commercial Advertiser in 1797, and survived in one form or another for well over a century.