History Main / NewspaperDating

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with personal]] ads, or with AuthenticationByNewspaper, or with two people dating and it having something to do with a newspaper.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E59AHundredYardsOverTheRim A Hundred Yards over the Rim]]", Chris Horn, who is from 1847, realizes that he is in the future when he sees a calendar dated 1961 in Joe's diner.

* Marty does this in the [[Film/BackToTheFuture first]] and second ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' movies. Played with in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', where the newspaper confirms Marty has the right date, he's just in a different timeline. And then there's a ClickHello.

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

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' does a somewhat serious take on the joke version of this: In order to demonstrate the extent of her remaining memory after waking from a cold-sleep, Faye identifies a series of slightly futuristic-looking objects on the table next to her. Her lawyer then makes a point of showing her just how far into the future she's been thrown by demonstrating that the items are not a TV, a water pitcher, and a phone but rather a miniature washing machine, a device for washing faces, and a thermometer.
* Played straight in ''Manga/{{Dazzle}}'', [[spoiler: as this is the way Rahzel finally realized she's been send in the past.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Parodied in "Another Five Short Graybles" with the obviously fake newspaper Jake creates to 'prove' he went to the future.

** In "Legends" Green Lantern does this to confirm they haven't time traveled when they arrive in an alternate Earth that looks like TheFifties. [[spoiler:However he later finds a ''real'' newspaper that reveals [[LotusEaterMachine the city they're in was destroyed in a nuclear war]] forty years ago.]]
** In "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales", some bandits who make the mistake of trying to rob our heroes have a newspaper in one of their saddlebags informing them it's 1879.
* On the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "The Old, Grey Hare", Elmer is sent to [[{{Zeerust}} the far-off year of 2000 AD]], which he figures out from a conveniently placed newspaper. He also learns that, among other things, television has been replaced by smellovision.

* In the episode "Agent Doof" of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Candace attempts to use this to convince her Mom that Phineas and Ferb were turned into babies when the pictures she sends are mistaken for old, scrounged-up baby photos.

* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/CloseEnough'' episode "Time Hooch". After Josh and Alex time-travelled due to the titular whiskey, they find a newspaper of the moon landing in 1969. Alex concludes that they've time travelled to three years ago, when he collected '60s stuff.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' did this to confirm that they ''hadn't'' time traveled when they went to an alternate universe containing the Justice Guild, and ''Unlimited'' did it in "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales".

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Kyon uses this method at one point during ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' to figure out what year he is in [[spoiler: after using Nagato's escape program]]. He considers asking WhatYearIsThis, but swiftly discards the idea after realizing how demented he would look to others and instead heads for a convenience store to check the newspapers.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' did this to confirm that they ''hadn't'' time traveled when they went to an alternate universe containing the Justice Guild, and ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited Unlimited]]'' did it in "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales".

* At the end of issue 6 of ''WebComic/StrongFemaleProtagonist'', [[spoiler:the real professor who was supposed to be teaching Alison's college philosophy class]] walked into the classroom, to the confusion of all students present. When asked what happened to [spoiler:Professor Gurwara]], he responded that he had never heard of anyone by that name, and, when Alison challenged him on the date, he looked at his newspaper and collapsed with shock upon discovering that he had lost around a month and a half of his life.

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

->''"Having crammed on time travel movies before their first time heist, ... [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve]] knows the best way to find the date and place is to look for a stray newspaper."''

* A more short term version appears in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima.'' [[spoiler:Chao]] sends Negi and his friends a week into the future to the point that she has already won the battle. They realize something is up (the massive SchoolFestival has disappeared), but they don't figure out what happened until Yue sees the date on a newspaper. Chisame finds out separately over the internet.

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Not to be confused with personal ads, or with AuthenticationByNewspaper.

* In a variation in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', the four find out that they're in an alternate New York, “New Zork,” in 1954, from a license plate. Given [[Music/TheBeatles what they did in New York had taken place in 1964]], they feel pretty safe in wandering around without fear of being mobbed. That is, until Ringo, lagging behind the others, plucks a newspaper out of the trash and finds to his horror that in this universe, the “Beagles” have ''just'' arrived in the city.... [[HilarityEnsues Cue the ensuing of hilarity.]]

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12296472/1/Against-My-Nature Against My Nature]]'' Harry realizes it's 1925 when he sees a ''Daily Prophet'' article about Grindlewald.

%%* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''.
* In ''Film/TimeAfterTime'', after H. G. Wells demonstrates his time-machine to his skeptical 20th Century girlfriend by taking her a few days into the future, she confirms that his time-machine works when she sees a newspaper dated a few days later. [[spoiler:She then reads about her own murder on the front page.]] Earlier in the movie, when he arrives in 1979, he already knows ''when'' he is, but makes use of a newspaper to find out ''where'' he is (apparently not having realized he'd traveled from London to San Francisco).

** Averted in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E8FuturesEnd Future's End", the ship time traveled back to Earth in 1996, which they find out just by doing an astrometric reading. And in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E23Fury Fury]]", having travelled back to a past Voyager, Kes just asks the ship's computer for the date.

** In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS4E3InTheBeginning 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 next to him (who happens to be his father). He also does it when he is raised from the dead in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS4E1LazarusRising Lazarus Rising]]" due to time flowing much slower in Hell than on Earth.

->''"Having crammed on time travel movies before their first time heist – [[ComicBook/TheHulk Bruce’s]] advice be damned – [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve]] knows the best way to find the date and place is to look for a stray newspaper."''

* Played straight in ''Manga/HatenkouYuugi'', [[spoiler: as [[http://mangafox.me/manga/hatenkou_yuugi/v13/c094/4.html this is the way Rahzel finally realized she's been send in the past.]]]]