Birthday newspaper

Your Front Page: 12 November 1988

A personalised newspaper front page from the day you were born, printed in the style of your birth year.

Enter your date of birth

Your personalised birthday front page

Printed in the style of your birth year, a keepsake to frame, print or share.

Optional. Your birthplace names the masthead; it stays on this device.

The World Birthday Chronicle

Saturday, 12th November 1988Modern broadsheet

This week's news

1988 United States presidential election

United States. Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 1988. The Republican ticket of incumbent vice president George H. W. Bush and Indiana junior senator Dan Quayle defeated the Democratic ticket of Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis and Texas senior senator Lloyd Bentsen.

George H.W. Bush won a decisive victory to succeed Ronald Reagan, ensuring the continuation of Republican policies in the White House for another term.

Famous birthdays: born on this date

Russell Westbrook

Born 1988. American basketball player and all-time NBA leader in career triple-doubles

Sun Yat-sen

Born 1866. Chinese revolutionary and physician who helped overthrow the Qing dynasty and is honoured as the father of modern China

Auguste Rodin

Born 1840. French sculptor of The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell, often seen as the founder of modern sculpture

From the archives: also on this date

Washington Naval Conference

1921. The Washington Naval Conference was a disarmament conference called by the United States and held in Washington, D.C., from November 12, 1921, to February 6, 1922.

Treaty of Rapallo

1920. The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in the aftermath of the First World War.

Disney+

2019. Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming media service owned and operated by Disney Streaming, the streaming division of Disney Entertainment, a major business segment of the Walt Disney Company.

Your day in numbers

Star sign

Scorpio

Water sign, ruled by Pluto

Birthstone

Topaz

The birthstone for November

UK Number 1 single

“Orinoco Flow”

by Enya

World population

About 5.1 billion

People on Earth in 1988

The cost of living in Britain, 1988

Average house

£49,200

Typical UK home

Pint of beer

94p

In a UK pub

Loaf of bread

50p

Large white loaf

Average salary

£11,100

UK full-time, per year

Approximate UK averages at the time, in the money of the day.

How your birthday newspaper is made

Enter your date of birth and we will print a one-off newspaper front page for the day you were born. The headline is a real historical event from our archive, chosen from your exact birth date where we have one, then from the same week, then from the same date in an earlier year. The page also shows famous people born on your birthday, your star sign and birthstone, the UK number one single, the world population and the cost of living in Britain at the time.

  • The layout, typefaces and colours follow the newspaper style of your birth decade: dense broadsheets before 1940, classic bold headlines in the 1940s and 1950s, tabloid energy in the 1960s and 1970s, colour accents in the 1980s and 1990s, and clean full-colour pages from 2000 onwards.
  • Headlines and summaries come from our archive of historical events, built from Wikidata and reviewed by our editorial team. When a famous person linked to the story has a profile on our site, their Wikimedia Commons portrait appears with the photographer's credit; otherwise you see an original woodcut or halftone illustration.
  • Add your town or country of birth to name the masthead, for example The Manchester Birthday Chronicle. Your birthplace is stored only on your device.
  • Every front page has its own link, so you can send it to friends and family, and you can download it as a high-resolution image to print or frame.

Questions people ask

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a newspaper front page from the day I was born?
Enter your day, month and year of birth above and press the button. Your personalised front page appears instantly, with its own link you can share and a download button for a print-quality image.
Are the headlines real?
Yes. Every headline is a real historical event from our archive. If nothing in our archive happened on your exact birth date, we use an event from the same week, or the most recent event on the same date in an earlier year, and the label above the headline says which.
Why does my front page look different from a friend's?
The design changes with the decade you were born in, from ornate pre-war broadsheets to modern full-colour layouts, so each page looks like a newspaper from its own era.
Is the birthday newspaper free?
Yes. Creating, sharing and downloading your personalised birthday front page costs nothing.

Further reading

Reviewed by the Who Shares My Birthday editorial team.

Last reviewed: October 2026