Henry Robinson Luce was an American publisher known for launching and supervising magazines that influenced journalism and America’s reading habits.  Luce began by serving as the editor-in-chief for his school newspaper and continued as the managing editor of “The Yale Daily News.”

It was on this day, November 23, 1936, that Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Fortune magazines, launched the magazine Life.  His first magazine Time, summarized the week’s news.  Life was the first all-picture magazine of culture, politics, and society that dominated America in the time before televisions.  The magazine was so popular, it sold more than 13.5 million copies a week at one point. President Harry Truman, Sir Winston Churchill, and General Douglas MacArthur all serialized their memoirs in Life.

Luce continued to print the magazine Fortune which did an in-depth detail of the business world and economy, introducing ideas such as Keynesianism.  He also created the famous Sports Illustrated magazine which explores the world of sports and its key players.