Joseph Pulitzer, a British Editor, and the First Crossword Puzzle

In ‘This Week in History,’ a struggling newspaper became the nation’s largest and gave the world its first crossword puzzle.

The introduction and publication of crossword puzzles helped create a loyal readership for newspapers. Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock

The New York World newspaper had a tumultuous beginning. It was founded by Alexander Cummings in 1860 as a Christian-centric penny paper. When the Civil War began the following year, the newspaper became one of many pro-Lincoln publications. It was not a profitable paper, and by 1863, it was sold to a consortium of New York City Democrats, who used it as an anti-Lincoln publication.

In May of 1864, a man pretending to be a member of the Associated Press delivered a fabricated story that Lincoln was planning to enlist 400,000 more volunteers for the Union Army via “immediate and peremptory draft.” Most of the city newspapers checked the validity of the claim. The New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce did not, and printed the story.