About
News UK
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17
November
1969
First issue of The Sun published in tabloid format and under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch.
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Stephanie Rahn becomes the first topless page 3 girl in The Sun. Page 3 had been published since the first issue but the girls had been clothed.
17
November
1970
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The new Sun Bingo red card is launched, promising a £1 million prize. Four days later the first winner of a £1 million prize in newspaper bingo is announced as Derek Parsons, a 39 year old businessman from Bristol. He shared the prize with his 22 year old secretary, Miss Sarah Rose, to whom he was getting engaged.
20
August
1984
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The Sun raises £1.3 million in response to the Zeebrugge ferry disaster [the Herald of Free Enterprise left port with its bow doors open on March 6 killing 193 passengers and crew, 75 of whom were The Sun readers taking advantage of a £1-a-passenger offer for a trip to the Continent]. £700,000 comes from sales of the Ferry Aid single Let It Be which reaches number 1 on April 4 staying there for 2 more weeks.
01
March
1987
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25
January
1988
The Sun launches its Lotto game offering a £30,000 jackpot which rose by £2,000 each day it was not won. [It was first announced on January 18. By February 4 over 4 million entries had been received. The final entry of 4,305,162 was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as being the largest ever entry in a newspaper competition.]
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The Sun appoints Kenneth Donlan as its Ombudsman, the first such post holder on a national newspaper.
16
January
1989
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25
February
1991
The Sun launches its first “Holiday for…” offer. [Readers could get a 5-day holiday at a Holimarine Holiday Park for £6.50 by collecting four tokens in the paper and sending them off with the booking form coupon.]
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The Sun publishes its Scottish edition supporting independence.
23
January
1993
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The Sun launched on the Internet.
12
March
1997
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14
April
1999
The Sun launches “The Bun at War”, the first ever dedicated internet war edition paper, for the troops in the Balkans.
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The Sun launches its Sun Mobile WAP site.
14
January
2005
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16
June
2010
The Sun iPad edition launched.
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Christmas Day iPad edition of The Sun is published [no print editions published].
25
December
2010
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26
February
2012
The Sun launches a Sunday edition.
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The Sun’s new multimedia studios, based in Thomas More Square, are officially opened by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is the start of a project to provide in-house facilities for our titles to enable them to generate unique audio-visual content for our digital platforms.
22
January
2013
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01
August
2013
Sun+ is launched and the title’s website provides paid-for only content from this date.
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The Sun website becomes free to access.
30
November
2015
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The Sun launches Jabs Army, a campaign to recruit readers to volunteer to work in vaccination centres to help with the Covid vaccination rollout programme. By January 21 it had surpassed its 50,000 target.
01
January
2021
