Oldest in English

In Worcester, England, war-tired Britons unfolded their newspapers and read:

P: "Advice is received that the [U.S.] Congress . . . have declared war against Great Britain."

P: "It appears highly probable that [the enemy] will attempt an invasion of this country. Let him come."

P: "The combined squadrons of France and Spain . . . were engaged by the British fleet."

P: "Success . . . has crowned the efforts of the Allies on the continent."

Thus did some Britons read, when these events occurred, the news of: 1) the American Revolution; 2) the projected Napoleonic invasion of England; 3) the Battle of Trafalgar; 4) the Battle of Waterloo. Their paper was Berrow's Worcester Journal, founded in 1690, now the oldest surviving English-language newspaper in the world.

Last week, as Worcester, Mass, celebrated "All-British Week," its citizens got a sample of this venerable sheet. The Worcester, Mass. Telegram reprinted a specially-edited front page of the English paper, flown to the U.S. by bomber. For the occasion, as a supreme hands-across-the-sea gesture, Berrow's abandoned a 254-year-old custom, cleared the classified ads off its front page, substituted news.

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