This Day in History: October 17, 1887
Additional Date: October 17, 1887
The Star newspaper appeared for the first time in Johannesburg as The Eastern Star. It was founded in Grahamstown under that title on January 6, 1871, and was moved to the Witwatersrand sixteen years later by its owners, brothers Thomas and George Sheffield. In 1889, the name Eastern Star was changed to the one currently in use. The paper is distributed mainly in Gauteng and other provinces such as Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and KwaZulu-Natal, where readership seems to be growing daily.