History Main / NewspaperDating

* In ''FiftyFirstDates'', a character with memory loss doesn't know what year it is, until she sees a newspaper.

* Played with in ''ToSayNothingOfTheDog'' by Connie Willis. The main character needs to find out the exact date he landed in order to correctly fulfill his SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong mission. He finds a newspaper, but doesn't realize that it's several days old...

* In ''WesternAnimation/XMen'', when Bishop time-travels he simply picks up a newspaper and reads the date off the front page.

* In ''[=~Batman: The Brave and the Bold~=]'''s universe-jumping adventure, Batman discovers that he's travelled into the future ''as well as'' across universes from a newspaper.

* Done straight in [[{{Discworld}} Terry Pratchett]]'s ''JohnnyAndTheBomb''.
* Variation in the ''{{Animorphs}}'': Jake, while trapped in a post-apocalyptic New York City, tries to determine when humanity lost by the dates in a bombed-out magazine stand.

* ''{{Supernatural}}'':

* In ''XMenTheAnimatedSeries'', when Bishop time-travels he simply picks up a newspaper and reads the date off the front page.

* Played with in the ''BlakeAndMortimer'' book ''The Time Trap'': Mortimer finds himself alone in a post apocalyptic future. He finds an inscription in some ruins "2015-2050" and thus believes himself to be in the mid 21st century...until he meets someone else and mentions the date only to be informed he's actually in ''5060'': the ruins he was in were of a city destroyed in 2075. Mortimer is utterly stunned.

* Played with in the ''BlakeAndMortimer'' book ''The Time Trap'': Mortimer finds himself alone in a post apocalyptic future. He finds an inscription in some ruins "2015-2050" and thus believes himself to be in the mid 21st century...until he meets someone else and mentions the date only to be informed he's actually in the ''51st'' century: ''5060'' to be precise. Mortimer is utterly stunned.

* In ''Series/{{X-Men}}: the Animated Series'', when Bishop time-travels he simply picks up a newspaper and reads the date off the front page.

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** Kathy Nightingale does this in "Blink", though it's as much to convince her that she time-traveled at all as to determine the date.

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* ''JusticeLeague'' did this to confirm that they ''hadn't'' time traveled when they went to an alternate universe containing the Justice Guild, and ''[[JusticeLeagueUnlimited Unlimited]]'' did it in "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales".
* ''GIJoe'' also does it to confirm they haven't time-traveled, with the same result, in their universe-jumping adventure in the original series.

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* TheTerminator.

* Variation in the {{Animorphs}}: Jake, while trapped in a post-apocalyptic New York City, tries to determine when humanity lost by the dates in a bombed-out magazine stand.
* Toward the end of Robert Heinlein's ''Methuselah's Children'', the characters have returned to Earth in their stolen starship, but don't want to land until they know how much time has passed since they fled an oppressive government. One of the characters, Andy Libby, determines the approximate date by examining the relative positions of the planets in the Solar System. (75 years have passed.)

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* In ''Timesplitters: Future Perfect'', Cortez picks up a photo of the BigBad. The MissionControl proposes a complex scheme to determine when/where to send Cortez to, regarding the building heights and designs. Cortez waits through the speech, then reads out the date, time and place from the back of the photo.
* Deliberately subverted in ''The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure'', because newspapers only say what day of which month it is, not the year. Other documents that do suggest dates by year are wildly contradictory (e.g. a book given as a signed gift in the 1950s, yet published in 1978).
* In ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture, Layton first realizes how far into the future he is when he finds a newspaper and realizes that the date is 10 years into the future.

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* Parodied in ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''. The time traveler in question looks at a newspaper to see what year it is, and, well... [[http://drmcninja.com/comics/2010-02-10-17p29.jpg see for yourself.]]

* ''DoctorWho'':

[[quoteright:280:[[TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/NewspaperDateDrMN-scaled.jpg]]]]

* Parodied in ''TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''. The time traveller in question looks at a newspaper to see what year it is, and, well... [[http://drmcninja.com/comics/2010-02-10-17p29.jpg see for yourself.]]

[[TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/NewspaperDateDrMN-scaled.jpg]]
[[caption-width:280:[[WorstNewsJudgmentEver Slow news day much?]]]]

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* This is used to foil an attempted scam in [[http://notalwaysright.com/dont-commit-the-crime-if-you-cant-tell-time/11529 this]] ''NotAlwaysRight'' post.

* RobertAHeinlein, ''Time Enough For Love''. Lazarus Long travels back in time and reads a newspaper to learn the current date: August 1, 1916.

* In the ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Spectre of the Gun", Captain Kirk finds a copy of the Tombstone Epitaph dated October 26th, 1881. On [=YouTube=] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP03eWhP-vI here]], starting at 5:30.
** On Blu-Ray, you can read the articles. They're not from 1881. Given that they're not ''really'' in the Old West, this kinda works.
* Kathy Nightingale does this in the ''DoctorWho'' episode "Blink", though it's as much to convince her that she time-traveled at all as to determine the date.

*** Also used in "Daleks in Manhattan" where the Doctor attempts to work out the date from how complete the Empire State building is, whilst Martha picks up a newpaper from a bench behind them.

* JusticeLeague did this to confirm that they ''hadn't'' time traveled when they went to an alternate universe containing the Justice Guild, and [[JusticeLeagueUnlimited Unlimited]] did it in "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales". GIJoe did it for the same reason and with the same result in their universe-jumping adventure in the original series. In [=~Batman: The Brave and the Bold~=]'s universe-jumping adventure, Batman discovers that he's travelled into the future ''as well as'' across universes from a newspaper.

* Variation in a ''The Outer Limits'' episode. A group think they have been transported to an alien planet, but gradually figure out they are in the distant future. A look at the expiration date of a discarded candy bar wrapper confirms this. (By no means accurate, but close enough for their purposes).

* This trope is how the protagonists of [[FlashForward2009 Flash Forward]] find out that the eponymous flash forwards are supposed to show the future.

* JusticeLeague did this to confirm that they ''hadn't'' time traveled when they went to an alternate universe containing the Justice Guild, and [[JusticeLeagueUnlimited Unlimited]] did it in "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales". GIJoe did it for the same reason and with the same result in their universe-jumping adventure in the original series.

** As well as in its modern incarnation, ''{{Journeyman}}''.

* Happens in the ''{{Supernatural}}'' episode "In The Beginning". Dean realizes he's been sent back in time by the angel Castiel when he goes into a diner and sees the date on the newspaper of the man (who happens to be his father) next to him.

** Since it was on the Backwards-Earth, [[CompletelyMissingThePoint then shouldn't the date have looked more like EPP1? ]]

* JusticeLeague did this to confirm that they ''hadn't'' time traveled when they went to an alternate universe (the one with the Justice Guild, not the Justice Lords), and [[JusticeLeagueUnlimited Unlimited]] did it in "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales". GIJoe did it for the same reason and with the same result in their universe-jumping adventure in the original series.

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