On this day in 1702, Elizabeth Mallet began publishing the Daily Courant, England's first daily national newspaper. Today is also the birthday of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. The juxtaposition, it hurts. →[More:]
Where Elizabeth Mallet's paper was devoted to foreign news and free from editorializing the news (as compared to other local papers), Murdoch revived the two struggling Australian newspapers by "cranking up their coverage of sex and scandal."

Elizabeth Mallet (who went by Edward Mallet, so the public would take her paper seriously) sold her paper, and the Daily Current was later merged with the Daily Gazetteer. Murdoch is now CEO of News Corp., the world's third-largest media conglomerate (behind The Walt Disney Company and Time Warner).