When was Joseph Pulitzer born?

Joseph Pulitzer (born April 10, 1847- died Oct. 29, 1911) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who helped establish the pattern of the modern newspaper. In his time he was one of the most powerful journalists in the United States.

Reared in Budapest, Pulitzer sought a military career and emigrated to the United States in 1864 as a recruit for the Union Army in the American Civil War (1861– 65).

After the war he went to St. Louis and bought a share of the Westliche Post paper but soon resold it at a profit. Pulitzer become active in politics, and he was elected to the Missouri state legislature in 1869.

In 1879 he bought both the St. Louis Dispatch, and the St. Louis Post, merging the two papers as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It continues as St. Louis' daily newspaper.

On Oct. 5, 1882, Pulitzer’s chief editorial writer shot to death a political opponent of the Post-Dispatch. Public discontent and his own ill health prompted Pulitzer to shift his newspaper interests to New York City, and on May 10, 1883 he purchased the World. He turned that paper into the leading journalistic voice of the Democratic Party in the United States. Pulitzer later founded the Evening World in 1887.

In his will Pulitzer endowed the Columbia University School of Journalism (opened 1912) and established the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes, awarded annually since 1917.