November 7 in History
1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published
Published on this day in 1665 as The Oxford Gazette, The London Gazette, one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the Kingdom, is one of the oldest surviving English newspapers and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK. The Gazette’s origins date back to the Great Plague of London, when Charles II and the Royal Court moved to Oxford and courtiers were unwilling to touch London newspapers for fear of contagion. The Gazette was ‘Published by Authority’ by Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, with the first issue of The London Gazette (labelled No. 24) being published on February 5, 1666. The Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense: it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office took over the publication of the Gazette in 1889. Publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector in 2006, under government supervision, when HMSO was sold and renamed The Stationery Office
-Wikipedia