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When Newspapers Mattered

'Dewey Defeats Truman'

'Dewey Defeats Truman'

President Harry S. Truman triumphantly displays the headline from the Chicago Daily Tribune on Nov. 3, 1948, after winning re-election. Perhaps the most famous newspaper flub in history, the erroneous headline came about when the paper's conservative editors, confident that New York governor Thomas Dewey would defeat the man they called a "nincompoop," went to press before all the results were in.

In this photo: Harry Truman

Photo: W. Eugene Smith./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Nov 02, 1948