THE Sun – what better name for a newspaper that rises each morning and brightens your day?
For me and its millions of readers, the “super, soaraway Sun” doesn’t just dish up the day’s news; it spices it up with informative debate, a much-needed pinch of irreverence, lashings of fun and, most importantly, garnishes it with a stunning front page that grabs everyone’s attention.
For 50 years The Sun's iconic front pages have dazzled millions of readers
Since it hit the newsstands on November 17, 1969 – the day after The Clangers first aired on BBC1 – The Sun has informed and entertained its readers, irritated the ruling class and delighted in disrupting the status quo.
Owner Rupert Murdoch’s mission was simple: to challenge our more staid, ‘Establishment’ rivals with a more brash, populist approach – and attract young readers.
The Sun cost 5p the day it launched, and blew the cobwebs away on Fleet Street.
“Horse Dope Sensation” was the first front-page splash – an exclusive confession from trainer Roy Pettitt that he’d been drugging racehorses to make them run faster.
On the same page, a young woman called Lady Leonora Grosvenor was denying the rumours that she was about to become engaged to 21-year-old Prince Charles.
Inside the first edition, there was an interview with then PM Harold Wilson, a spread on the Rolling Stones, a feature about sexy underwear and a back-page lead about football hooliganism
These days, royal gossip is commonplace. But in 1969 it was unheard of to step outside the restrictive confines of who-was-cutting-what-ribbon to report “tittle-tattle”.
On Page Two, the editorial read: “On Page One every day, you will see the slogan ‘Forward With The People’… We want The Sun to be the people’s newspaper. Let us go forward together.”
It was speaking to its readers, rather than at them, and its rallying cry was answered by a battalion of loyal Sun devotees who, even now, are as much a part of the newspaper’s success as the people who work here.
Inside the first edition, there was an interview with then PM Harold Wilson, a spread on the Rolling Stones, a serialisation of racy novel The Love Machine, a feature about sexy underwear, a column by George Best, full-page ads for cigarettes and petrol, and a back-page lead about football hooliganism.
Rupert Murdoch holding the first tabloid of The Sun in November 1969Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Launch editor Larry Lamb called it “the Cinderella of Fleet Street” whilst Mr Murdoch referred to it as “bloody chaos”. But it was also groundbreaking, cheeky and exciting.
Executives at our rival, the Daily Mirror, held a party the same day where its chairman Hugh Cudlipp reportedly sneered: “That’s no threat to anybody.” But three days later The Sun’s sales had already doubled to 1.6million. History was about to be made.
EYE-CATCHING
That feeling has endured to this day with The Sun’s eye-catching and often unique headlines succinctly reflecting the mood of its readers on a particular topic, or simply brightening their day with an off-the-wall story or funny pun.
Today, to kick off our week of 50th birthday celebrations, we bring you 50 of The Sun’s memorable front pages.
Ask anyone to recall a Sun headline and, chances are, it will be the 1986 splash “Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster” which became a global icon of tabloid culture.
Another was the famous “Gotcha” – when the British Navy torpedoed an Argentine cruiser in the Falklands War.
For me, “Up Yours Delors” was the perfect Sun headline – a two-fingered salute to the President of the European Commission who, in 1990, was pushing for a single currency.
Journalists at work at The Sun's Bouverie Street office in October 1970Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
“At the stroke of noon tomorrow, we invite all true blue Brits to face France and yell ‘Up Yours, Delors,’” the front-page article urged, to wake him up “to the fact that he will NEVER run our country”.
Equally, in April 1992, the majority of polls conceded that Labour leader Neil Kinnock was set to become Prime Minister.
Then, on election day, The Sun’s front page superimposed Kinnock’s head on a lightbulb with the headline: “If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.”
He lost. Make of that what you will, but even if it didn’t influence the outcome, it ruffled political feathers and made those in the Westminster bubble acknowledge that having a newspaper as powerful and outspoken as The Sun on their side was an asset.
It requires deep wells of creativity to elevate the potentially humdrum into something that grabs attention on the newsstands
Some headlines write themselves, particularly when it’s a serious news story. But other times, it requires deep wells of creativity to elevate the potentially humdrum into something that grabs attention on the newsstands.
“Zip Me Up Before You Go Go” – about George Michael’s arrest in a public toilet – was a brilliant example.
So too was “Don’t Cry For Me, Argie Cleaner” when footballer Carlos Tevez was given community service for driving offences.
Some headlines, such as “Wacko Jacko” – when Michael Jackson was photographed lying in an oxygen capsule – slipped into modern parlance, whilst others skilfully encapsulated a story with little more than a clever image – a red hairdryer to mark the retirement of Man Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson springs to mind.
For The Sun’s reporters and photographers, the thrill of seeing your byline on that iconic front page never dissipates.
My first, in 1987, was “Elkie’s Nanny In Shark Attack”, a rather lame tale that involved a barracuda nipping singer Elkie Brooks’s childminder on holiday. Well, it was a slow news day.
My most recent was “My Babs Has Alzheimer’s” relaying the sad news, with her permission, that actress Dame Barbara Windsor is living with dementia. The exclusive topped news bulletins that day and, consequently, donations to The Alzheimer’s Society rocketed.
Some headlines slipped into modern parlance, whilst others skilfully encapsulated a story with little more than a clever image
Since then, the paper – along with the charity, Barbara and her husband Scott – has campaigned for the government to sort out the social care crisis, lending its powerful voice to the countless people facing financial difficulty whilst looking after a loved one.
So happy birthday to the campaigning, informative, irreverent and agenda-setting phenomenon that is The Sun. Here’s to the next 50 years.
The Sun's 50 Greatest Front Pages: 1969 - 2019
HORSE DOPE SENSATION - November 17 1969
Fifty years ago, the first tabloid Sun ran a trainer’s confession that he doped horses, plus speculation about Prince Charles’s love life. The paper’s rapport with working-class readers was instant, and the 850,000 circulation doubled in three days, rocking Fleet Street
CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS? - January 11 1979
PM Jim Callaghan returned from a 1979 foreign summit to industrial carnage, but dismissed it. Our famous headline summed up Labour’s complacency. The 'Winter of Discontent' deepened as binmen and even gravediggers went on strike, leaving bodies unburied
CHARLIE'S GIRL - September 18 1980
Sun royal photographer Arthur Edwards’ iconic, backlit picture of 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer properly introduced Prince Charles’ future wife – and her stunning legs – to the world in 1980. Arthur recalled: “I remember thinking at the time, my God, that’s a good one!”
GOTCHA - May 4 1982
One of The Sun’s most controversial headlines came when the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk during the Falklands War. When it emerged hundreds of Argentinian soldiers had died, the splash was changed for later editions to: ‘Did 1,200 Argies Drown?’
L’AMBUSH - January 12 1984
In 1984 Britain became involved in a row with France over quotas of our lamb being sold across the Channel. When British truckers were attacked by armed French farmers, our headline was perfect – L’AMBUSH. It had lamb, ambush, and even sounded French
I'VE WON THE SUN £1M - August 24 1984
In 1984, sign maker David Parsons of Bristol scooped £1million on Sun Bingo – the biggest competition prize ever won in Britain. This enraged Daily Mirror owner Robert Maxwell, who had pledged to create the first bingo millionaire. David split the cash with girlfriend Sarah Rose
A NEW SUN IS RISING TODAY - January 27 1986
In 1986 The Sun HQ moved from Central London to hi-tech offices in Wapping, East London, sparking a bitter 13-month strike which ended with the defeat of the all-powerful unions. The first paper to be printed at Wapping marked a turning point in the news industry
FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER - March 13 1986
The most famous Sun headline of all. Comedian Starr was said to have snacked on a live hamster in a sandwich, though he later denied it. The splash appeared on T-shirts and Starr called it “the greatest piece of publicity I ever had”. He died in May this year, aged 76
WACKO JACKO - September 15 1986
In 1986 superstar Michael Jackson was pictured sleeping in an oxygen chamber in a bid to defy ageing. The Sun dubbed him Wacko Jacko, a nickname which lasted throughout his career. Jackson, who died in 2009, remains controversial amid allegations of child sex abuse
WEREWOLF SEIZED IN SOUTHEND - July 24 1987
Many of the best headlines aren’t puns but simply tell an extraordinary story straight. A super-strong Essex man was held after a four-hour battle with eight police in which he howled on all fours, foamed at the mouth and rammed his head through a wooden door
UP YOURS DELORS - November 1 1990
In this iconic 1990 front page The Sun stuck two fingers up at Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission, who was pressing for ever-closer political integration between EU states. Sun readers were growing increasingly uneasy over the path Brussels was taking
SUPPORT OUR BOYS AND PUT THIS FLAG IN YOUR WINDOW - January 16 1991
The Sun front page on the eve of the first Gulf War, 16 January 1991, called on readers to show their support for our troops as they joined a US-led alliance of 35 nations to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. 53,000 British military personnel took part in Operation Desert Storm
A SEA OF WHITE FLAGS - February 25 1991
In February 1991, thousands of Iraqis laid down arms in the “mother of all surrenders” in Kuwait. The Sun’s front page was ground-breaking, with the headline superimposed on the picture. This design device, previously only seen in magazines, was then adopted by other papers
THERE ARE NO VIRGINS IN ESSEX - January 1 1992
A splash out of nothing for a quiet New Year’s Day, at the height of the early 90s “Essex girl” joke fad. When the Editor discovered no virgins from Essex had called a special phone line, he decided it was the best bet for Page One. The word NO was made bigger to make it fit
IT'S PADDY PANTSDOWN - February 6 1992
When Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown confessed in 1992 to a five-month affair with his former secretary Tricia Howard, The Sun gave the story a classic headline which stuck as Paddy’s nickname for years. He was pictured with his loyal wife Jane, who stood by him
IF KINNOCK WINS TODAY... - April 9 1992
With the 1992 General Election on a knife-edge, and Labour’s Neil Kinnock confident of becoming PM, The Sun made its position clear with this iconic front page. John Major’s Tories won a slender majority. Was it The Sun wot won it? We’ll never know for sure
NOW WE'VE ALL BEEN SCREWED BY THE CABINET - September 17 1992
The Black Wednesday financial crisis, which saw the Pound withdrawn from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, cost Britain more than £3billion. John Major’s days as PM already looked numbered. The Sun’s headline linked events to backbench sleaze stories
MAN WHO MADE LOVE TO PAVEMENTS - February 19 1993
Great 1993 example of a straight headline telling of an extraordinary court case, that of a seemingly respectable electrician in Worcestershire who was repeatedly caught having sex with footpaths. Bonus points for the sub-heading: ‘He even had a go at an underpass’
I WAS CARLOS THE JACKAL'S DRIVING INSTRUCTOR - August 18 1994
Mild-mannered Ron Fisher revealed that international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, who had just been seized in Sudan, had been a pupil at his driving school in Thanet, Kent. Ron said Venezuelan Carlos, now serving life for murder, was a lousy pupil who kept ogling women
ALL OUR HEARTS GO OUT TO YOU - September 8 1997
Princess Diana’s 1997 death in a Paris car crash shocked the world, and the poignant images of Princes William and Harry, and their father Prince Charles, watching her coffin leave Westminster Abbey were heartbreaking. The Sun reflected the mood of the nation
ZIP ME UP BEFORE YOU GO GO - April 9 1998
Award-winning headline after George Michael was arrested in Los Angeles for a lewd act in a public toilet. George was never far from controversy throughout his pop career and was jailed in 2010 for crashing his Range Rover while stoned. He died on Christmas Day, 2016
IS THIS THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN BRITAIN? - June 24 1998
The Sun had backed Tony Blair in the 1997 General Election and Labour won by a landslide. But the following year he seemed determined for Britain to dump the Pound and join the European single currency, so we made our concerns clear on this striking front page
THIS PARTY IS NO MORE..IT HAS CEASED TO BE - October 6 1998
Tory leader William Hague’s party was written off as a “dead parrot” in this Monty Python-inspired splash in 1998, the year after Labour’s Tony Blair became PM. A searing front page editorial slammed the Tories as “the cream of Britain; Thick, rich and full of clots”
ECLIPSE - August 12 1999
This dramatic front page marking the total solar eclipse of 1999 was the first time The Sun splash had no headline at all – although the tiny “thought” under the masthead read “and the moon.” The understated classic won Front Page of the Year at the British Press Awards
I'M ONLY HERE FOR DE BEERS - November 8 2000
A gang’s bid to snatch £350million of diamonds from the Millennium Dome inspired this award-winning page. Crooks used a digger to smash their way in and planned to nab a priceless 203-carat De Beers gem and 11 others, then flee by boat. Cops foiled the raid
CROOK CHEAT LIAR TRAITOR - January 19 2001
Former Liverpool goalie Bruce Grobbelaar was finally nailed as a cheat who took bribes to fix matches while at Southampton. He had sued The Sun, whose video evidence was used in two trials which failed to reach a verdict. But the Appeal Court overruled his libel victory
THE END - May 8 2001
In a classic caper involving a private jet, the Home Secretary and a huge team of Sun journalists, Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs touched down in Britain after we brought him back from his Brazilian bolthole to face justice after 35 years. He was immediately arrested
THE OOMPAH STRIKES BACK - August 31 2001
The England football team, facing Germany in a World Cup qualifier, were put up in a hotel next to a noisy Munich bierkeller. To make it fair, The Sun sent Page 3 girls and an oompah band to wake up the German side at 5am. The stunt worked a treat – England won 5-1
DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD - September 12 2001
Everyone remembers where they were on September 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda attacked the USA in four hijacked jets, including two which hit New York’s World Trade Center. Some 2,996 people were killed. This image of the Twin Towers is still shocking now, 18 years later
WORLD'S TALLEST BLOKE LIVES IN NEASDEN - February 18 2002
Somalian Hussain Bisad, then the world’s tallest man at 7ft 9ins, was the subject of this memorable Sun exclusive in 2002 after fleeing his war-torn homeland and settling in North West London. He also held the record for the world’s largest hands and had size 26 feet
TYRANT'S IN HIS PANTS - May 20 2005
After the fall of Iraq, The Sun’s exclusive picture showed murderous dictator Saddam Hussein – responsible for the deaths of millions of people – as a banal, fat old man in white Y-fronts while detained by US troops in prison, awaiting execution. He was hanged in 2006
FANTASHTIC! - September 13 2005
England won the 2005 Ashes series 2–1, with Michael Vaughan’s men overcoming an Australia side packed with legends like Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff’s boozy celebrations afterwards became the stuff of legend
GOODNIGHT FROM HIM - October 5 2005
It’s unusual for a front page about a celebrity’s death not to feature a picture of the star. But this tribute to comic Ronnie Barker in 2005 broke that rule to dazzling effect. The idea was revisited when Ronnie Corbett died in 2016 with the headline “..and it’s goodnight from me”
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE KOREA? - October 10 2006
When despot Kim Jong-il carried out North Korea’s first nuke test, talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? was a TV hit. That lent itself to a great headline which, coupled with a photo of Kim’s puppet from satirical movie Team America, made a classic front page
AT PEACE ON MOTHER'S DAY - March 23 2009
Reality star Jade Goody had a rollercoaster ride in the spotlight after appearing in Big Brother in 2002, but her death from cervical cancer at 27, leaving two sons on Mother’s Day, touched the nation and prompted 40,000 Sun readers to back a smear test campaign
DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A BLOODY WAR ON? - August 28 2009
This striking front page from 2009, featuring the faces of 207 dead British soldiers, screamed at PM Gordon Brown and his government to wake up to the reality of the savage war in Afghanistan. The Sun has always proudly championed our Forces and fought their corner
SUNNY OUTLOOK... - June 29 2010
Fabio Capello’s England crashed out of the 2010 World Cup after finishing runners-up to the USA in a supposedly easy group, then getting hammered 4-1 by Germany in the Round of 16. The nation had expected more. Sun front page when they came home was damning
BIN BAGGED - May 3 2011
For 13 years America hunted the man behind the mass slaughter of the 9/11 attacks. The dramatic operation in which he was killed inspired one of The Sun’s most memorable headlines. Osama bin Laden was a Saudi millionaire’s son who formed al-Qaeda in 1988
THAT'S FOR LOCKERBIE - October 21 2011
This graphic photo of Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi, after he was caught and killed by rebels, made a stark and memorable splash. Gaddafi was behind the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed 270 people at Lockerbie, the biggest terror attack on British soil
MY HEART STOPPED FOR 40 SECONDS - February 26 2012
The Sun on Sunday’s launch was announced in 2012, six months after the closure of the News of the World. Staff worked around the clock to have the first edition ready in just one week. It had an interview with Amanda Holden about the traumatic birth of her second child
WOW! - July 28 2012
London 2012 Olympics got off with a bang as a breathtaking opening ceremony impressed doubters and won plaudits around the world. The Sun’s splash took one of the Olympic rings and used it to spell out the word everyone was thinking, with Olympic torch in the background
DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGIE CLEANER - April 4 2013
When Manchester City star Carlos Tevez was given community service for driving offences, a graphic mock-up of the Argentinian as a street cleaner and a headline borrowed from Evita made a fun splash which had Sun readers singing the famous song on their way to work
MUNCHKIN FURY AT MAGGIE DING DONG SONG - April 13 2013
After Lady Thatcher’s death in 2013, left-wing protesters sang Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong the witch is dead” to mock the former PM. The Sun found the last two surviving munchkin actors from the 1939 movie in the US, and found that they were none to happy
THE HAIRDRYER - May 9 2013
When Sir Alex Ferguson quit as Manchester Utd manager in 2013 it was the end of an astonishing era. This Sun front page paid tribute not just to his sporting success but his legendary, explosive dressing room rants known affectionately as the 'hairdryer treatment'
THE SON - July 23 2013
When Wills and Kate announced the birth of their first child, soon to be named Prince George, we did something unprecedented on our front page - changed the name of the paper! Mystery remains as to what the front page would have been if George was a girl
UNITED AGAINST I.S. - October 8 2014
After the first suspected Islamic State cell in Britain was raided by police in West London in 2014, The Sun called upon readers of all faiths to stand united against fundamentalists amid fears of growing racial tension and increasing attacks on Muslims. The image was striking
THEIR ROYAL HEILNESSES - July 18 2015
The Queen and Queen Mother give Nazi salutes in a world exclusive picture which gave a fascinating insight into the Royals in the early 1930s. The Queen’s uncle Edward, a Nazi sympathiser who became King Edward VIII, is pictured with them behind young Margaret
LORD COKE - July 26 2015
In 2015 The Sun on Sunday exposed Lord Sewel, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, for snorting cocaine with two prostitutes. Other pictures showed him wearing a bra. Sewel, Chairman of the Privileges and Conduct Committee, quit in disgrace within 24 hours
SCHADENFREUDE - June 28 2019
When Germany were knocked out of the 2018 World Cup in Russia by South Korea, there was one word which neatly summed up many England fans’ feelings of satisfaction - and that word was German. England went on to reach the semis for the first time since 1990
HEY DUDE - July 24 2019
When Boris Johnson was elected Tory leader and soon-to-be PM in July this year, he used the acronym DUDE in his speech to the nation, standing for Deliver Brexit, Unite the country, Defeat Corbyn...and Energise. It inspired this Beatles-inspired singalong front page headline
