1. In 1933, the first Newsweek cover was born.
2. Its only competition was Time magazine. Genius.
3. But even on Dec. 7, 1941, publishing once a week made it tough to get breaking news on the cover.
4. That didn't stop circulation from rising in the '40s.
5. Victory.
6. Followed by lots of fun and the Baby Boom.
7. Of Which Aaron Sorkin Would Approve.
8. Until an American tragedy marks the end of an era.
9. And begins a new one, with some pretty great music.
10. (Though we never really shook our lingering suspicions...)
11. Because it happened again.
12. And again.
13. Yet that didn't really stop us.
14. Demanding what was always ours.
15. Shooting for the, uh, stars. Or at least the moon.
16. Though the sky worked, too.
17. Of course, we all remember that in the '60s, lots of us we were flying very, very, very, very, very, very, very, yerv, very, vrey, verrrrrry high.............
18. A crash was to be expected, and one happened on Kent State's campus in 1970.
19. Woodward and Bernstein got to the bottom of it all.
20. Thankfully there were lots of distractions, like this hit show starring Rob Reiner, the director of When Harry Met Sally.
21. This music was also a hit.
22. This fashion designer was a hit.
23. This guy was A Big Hit
24. So what to expect in the '80s? Not this.
25. Or this.
26. We did love this.
27. But 41 really didn't love this.
28. Lots of people we loved still tragically died from this, and we swore to all them that we would find a cure.
29. The decade ended with Chinese students and workers in Tianemen Square.
30. The covers took us through the scandals and tragedies of the '90s.
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35. In 1996, Newsweek editors promised Hillary this was going to be a positive story about her. It wasn't.
36. And then in 1998, Newsweek broke this story.
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38.
39.
40. And Bill was really pissed at Newsweek. So he gave access to Time in 1999.
41. We made it to 2000.
42. And everyone had a glorious 19 months to be stuck in pre-9/11 thinking, a time when bad movies got made and bad covers got picked and THAT seemed like the real catastrophe.
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46. But if we're being honest, we kind of freaked out and panicked and did some very dumb things.
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48. That being said, Newsweek has always reminded us there are lots of dangerous foreigners out there.
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50.
51. But Newsweek has always been there to remind us that Jesus is out there, too.
52. And to point out The Next Big Thing
53. And the Next Really Big Thing!
54. Yes, always searching for the really big things.
55. With occaisional controversy.
56. Newsweek was there to close this chapter with us.
57. And got Andrew Sullivan to write awesome new covers. Rock.
58. Because the Newsweek cover at its best always captures our most historic moments as a people.
59. Cultural moments, as well.
60. And in a world without any more Newsweek covers to turn the page for us, to mark new chapters, to remind us of what's possible, and what's next...
61.
Special thanks to Sam Register, who keeps the best Newsweek Tumblr account around. Check it out.
With additional research by Rebecca Elliott.
Disclosure: Hastings worked for Newsweek from 2002-2008. He still loves the place.