--- title: The First Issue of TIME: How to Read It Online description: On Mar. 3, the magazine's birthday, you can check out the whole issue canonical: https://time.com/4237445/read-first-issue-free/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-02T19:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:23:14.107Z article:section: History og:title: The First Issue of TIME: How to Read It Online og:description: On the magazine's birthday, you can check out the whole issue og:url: https://time.com/4237445/read-first-issue-free/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde9a70679ce3751c/698780d10b72e3298a6ddd9c/1101230303_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: First cover of TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The First Issue of TIME: How to Read It Online twitter:description: On the magazine's birthday, you can check out the whole issue twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde9a70679ce3751c/698780d10b72e3298a6ddd9c/1101230303_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Read the First-Ever Issue of TIME by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Mar 2, 2016 7:00 PM UTC  The first cover of TIME, from Mar. 3, 1923 The first cover of TIME, from Mar. 3, 1923TIME by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Mar 2, 2016 7:00 PM UTC [Click here to read the full issue.](http://time.com/vault/issue/1923-03-03/page/1/) The first issue of TIME was published 93 years ago, and a lot has changed in the decades since. The first-ever issue of the magazine was dated Mar. 3, 1923, and it was shorter and far less colorful than the magazine readers might recognize today. Many of the names it features have been largely forgotten, while others—William Howard Taft, Mussolini, Charlie Chaplin—remain well-known. TIME subscribers can always access that issue—and every other one—in the TIME Vault (and non-subscribers can peruse it too, until they hit their article threshold). **_To access the issue, simply click_** [**_here_**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1923-03-03/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4237445/read-first-issue-free/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4237445/read-first-issue-free/"},"headline":"How to Read the First-Ever Issue of TIME","datePublished":"2016-03-02T19:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:23:14.107Z","description":"On the magazine's birthday, you can check out the whole issue","url":"https://time.com/4237445/read-first-issue-free/","keywords":["Media"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde9a70679ce3751c/698780d10b72e3298a6ddd9c/1101230303_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde9a70679ce3751c/698780d10b72e3298a6ddd9c/1101230303_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"First cover of TIME","caption":"First cover of TIME","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/media/","name":"Media"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4237445/read-first-issue-free/","name":"How to Read the First-Ever Issue of TIME"}}]}] ```