As the Orlando Sentinel celebrates its 150th birthday this year, here’s a look back at key dates in the history of the newspaper.
1876 – Rufus Russell starts the weekly Orange County Reporter, Orlando’s first newspaper, on June 6.
1884 – The Orange County Reporter’s building, archives and records are destroyed by a massive downtown Orlando fire.
1885 – Latimer Clark Vaughn starts the weekly South Florida Sentinel, which begins publication in Orlando on March 4.
The weekly South Florida Sentinel begins publication in Orlando in 1885. It ceased publication in late 1903 when its owner left to go to Miami to start the Miami Record, which became the Miami Herald. The Sentinel was revived in 1907. (Sentinel file)
1891 – Samuel R. Hudson buys the Reporter and makes it Orlando’s first daily newspaper. Unfortunately, Orlando can’t yet support a daily publication, so the Reporter later resumes weekly printing.
1896 – T.P. Warlow Sr., W.F. Barnes and W. H. Jewell begin publication of the tri-weekly Orlando Star newspaper.
1898 – Following an economic downturn and a devastating freeze that ruins the local citrus industry, the Sentinel and Reporter consolidate operations and become the Sentinel-Reporter. This marriage would last until 1905, when they would go back to separate titles.
1903 – The Orlando Star starts printing daily and becomes the Evening Star.
1905 – The Reporter becomes a daily evening newspaper in October.
1906 – The Reporter and Star are combined and begin publishing each evening as the Daily Reporter-Star in February.
Members of the combined Reporter-Star newspaper staff stand outside their downtown Orlando building in this undated photo. (Sentinel file)
1913 – Josiah Ferris, owner of the weekly South Florida Sentinel, decides to experiment with Orlando’s first daily morning newspaper during the Orange County Fair. Launched on Feb. 11, the Daily Sentinel is a success from the start. By December, it is renamed the Morning Sentinel.
1925 – Texas publisher Charles E. Marsh buys the Orlando Morning Sentinel.
1931 – At the height of the Great Depression, Marsh acquires the Reporter-Star and joins it with the Orlando Sentinel. Martin Andersen arrives to be managing editor of the newspapers and eventually becomes publisher.
1945 – Andersen purchases the Sentinel and Reporter-Star.
Martin Andersen became the owner of the Orlando Sentinel and Reporter-Star in 1945 (Sentinel file)
1946 – “Reporter” is dropped from the Reporter-Star’s name and the newspaper becomes the Orlando Evening Star.
1951 – The Sentinel and Star move to a new downtown Orlando home at 633 N. Orange Avenue.
Orlando Sentinel Archives/Orlando Sentinel
This picture from August 1951 shows the Sentinel’s new building at 633 N. Orange Ave. Back then the building was home to the Orlando Morning Sentinel and the Orlando Evening Star. (Orlando Sentinel archive)
1965 – Andersen sells the Sentinel and Star to Chicago’s Tribune Co.
1973 – Orlando Sentinel and the Orlando Evening Star merge into one newspaper, becoming the Sentinel Star. It’s a morning newspaper with an updated afternoon edition
1982 – The Sentinel Star is renamed The Orlando Sentinel.
1988 – The Orlando Sentinel wins its first Pulitzer Prize for “Florida’s Shame,” an editorial series on mismanaged growth in Central Florida written by Jane Healy.
Jane Healy won the Orlando Sentinel’s first Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for her “Florida’s Shame” editorial series. (Sentinel file)
1993 – The Sentinel wins its second Pulitzer for an investigative series on the unjust seizure of cash from motorists by the Volusia County Sheriff’s drug squad, written by Jeff Brazil and Steve Berry.
1995 – The Sentinel becomes one of the first newspapers to go digital with “Orlando Sentinel Online” on America Online.
1996 – OrlandoSentinel.com launches on the world wide web.
1997 – Orlando Sentinel and Time Warner Communications launch Central Florida News 13, the area’s first 24-hour news station.
2000 – Orlando Sentinel wins its third Pulitzer prize for editorial writing by John Bersia titled “Fleeced in Florida,” about the state’s unregulated cash-advance businessesthat prey on people in desperate financial situations.
Orlando Sentinel editor L. John Haile, right, applauds editorial writer John Bersia, left, who won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing on April 10, 2000. Bersia won the prize for his series of editorials against predatory lending practices in Florida, called “Fleeced in Florida.” (Sentinel file)
2007 – Real estate mogul Sam Zell acquires Tribune Co., including the Sentinel, in an $8.7 billion privatization deal. Because of the transaction’s high debt load, Tribune enters into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008. It would emerge from Chapter 11 four years later.
2015 – GrowthSpotter.com is launched by the Sentinel focusing on area development and real-estate news.
2017 – The Sentinel is named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in breaking news for its coverage of the Pulse nightclub massacre.
2020 – In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sentinel leaves its downtown headquarters at 633 N. Orange Avenue.
Members of the Orlando Sentinel newsroom gathered on Friday Aug. 28, 2020, to say goodbye to 633 N. Orange building that had been the newspaper’s home since 1951. The staff had been working remotely since March when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. (Sentinel file)
2021 – The Sentinel and Tribune Publishing are acquired by Alden Global Capital and become part of its media holdings, which include Media News Group.