History of Public Notice
The history of public notice begins long before the emergence of newspapers. The concept itself has existed since early civilizations posted notices in public squares. This crude method was eventually refined with the publication of the first English language newspaper in 1665. This was a court newspaper called The Oxford Gazette. Later, after being renamed The London Gazette, this official newspaper carried not only notices from the King’s Court, but also public notices from London officials and even from outlying regions.[i] The American system is modeled closely after the British system. While state governments had been publishing public notices in newspapers throughout colonial times, it was not long before the newly-created federal government followed suit. In 1789, the Acts of the First Session of the First Congress required the Secretary of State to publish all bills, orders, resolutions and congressional votes in at least three publicly available newspapers. [ii]
[i] Charles Allen, A Series of Articles on Public Notice (1947).
[ii] See id. at 1.