Star Tribune through the years

May 25, 1867: The Minneapolis Tribune prints its first issue, under publisher Col. William S. King. Early stockholders include Dorilus Morrison, a businessman and Minneapolis' first mayor, and W.D. Washburn, a flour-mill industrialist and lawyer.

1891: After financial difficulties and several ownership changes, the paper is purchased for $450,000. One of the two buyers is William J. Murphy, who published a paper in Grand Forks, N.D.

Aug. 19, 1920: The Minneapolis Star publishes its first issue.

June 1935: The Cowles family, publisher of the Des Moines Register, buys the Minneapolis Star, an evening paper that's No. 3 in circulation behind the Tribune and the Minneapolis Journal, another evening paper.

Aug. 1, 1939: Cowles family buys the Journal.

May 1, 1941: The Cowles' Star and Journal Co. merges with Minneapolis Tribune Co., still owned by the Murphy family. The Cowles family now owns the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, the evening Star-Journal and the evening Minneapolis Times (which ceased publication in 1948).

Nov. 13, 1946: The Tribune and Star increase price from 3 cents to 5 cents. A front-page item in the Tribune blames material and production costs.

May 1948: Nat Finney, in the Minneapolis Tribune Washington bureau, wins a Pulitzer Prize for outstanding national affairs reporting for his stories about the Truman administration's efforts to impose secrecy on the affairs of federal civilian agencies in peacetime.

May 18, 1948: Sid Hartman's first byline in the Minneapolis Tribune. (His first column for the Minneapolis Daily Times was Sept. 11, 1945.)

1956: The Star becomes the first major newspaper to regularly publish full-color news photos.

1959: Minneapolis Star's Bill Seaman wins a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the aftermath of a crash in which a 9-year-old boy died.

April 1982: Citing declining circulation, the Minneapolis Star ceases publication. The staffs of the Star and Tribune combine to produce a daily morning paper, the Star and Tribune. An afternoon edition continued for several months but was discontinued.

April 12, 1990: Star Tribune reporters Lou Kilzer and Chris Ison win the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for "Fire in St. Paul," which exposed a thriving industry that profited from arson and suspicious fires, with the assistance of firefighters.

June 1995: Subscriber-based Star Tribune Online service launches on Interchange network, plus initial creation of an Internet site.

June 18, 1996: Startribune.com launches on the World Wide Web.

March 19, 1998: Shareholders approve $1.4 billion sale of Cowles Media Co., parent company of the Star Tribune, to McClatchy Newspapers of Sacramento, Calif. The price is believed to be the biggest ever paid for a company whose primary asset is a newspaper.

Dec. 26, 2006: McClatchy Co. announces the surprise $530 million sale of the Star Tribune, its largest newspaper, to Avista Capital Partners, a New York-based private investment group.

Sept. 28, 2009: The Star Tribune emerges from bankruptcy. The reorganization plan provides for a small group of debt investors, including Wayzata Investment Partners, to take over 95.5 percent of the company.

Jan. 7, 2010: Former Time Inc. executive and Fridley native Michael Klingensmith is named Star Tribune publisher.

July 2012: Wayzata Investments acquires a controlling interest in the Star Tribune by buying the portion held by Credit Suisse for $32 a share. The transaction valued the Star Tribune's equity at $49 million and put the "enterprise value" at $125 million.

April 15, 2013: The Star Tribune wins two Pulitzer Prizes. Brad Schrade, Jeremy Olson and Glenn Howatt win the local reporting award for a series about deaths of children in home day care. Steve Sack, with the Star Tribune since 1981, wins for his editorial cartoons.