World Almanac

The World Almanac and Book of Facts is a US-published reference work and is a bestselling almanac conveying information about such subjects as world changes, tragedies, sports feats, etc.

It has been published yearly from 1868 to 1875, and again every year since 1886. It was number 1 on the Washington Post bestseller list on November 27, 2011. The 2017 edition () has 1,008 pages.

The first edition of The World Almanac was published by The New York World newspaper in 1868 (the name of the publication comes from the newspaper itself, which was known as "The World"). Published just three years after the end of the US Civil War and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, its 120 pages of information touched on such events as the process of Reconstruction and the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.

Publication was suspended in 1876, but in 1886 newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who had purchased The New York World and quickly transformed it into one of the most influential newspapers in the country, revived The World Almanac with the intention of making it "a compendium of universal knowledge." The World Almanac has been published annually since.

In 1894, when it claimed more than a half-million "habitual users," The World Almanac changed its name to The World Almanac and Encyclopedia. This was the title it kept until 1923, when it became The World Almanac and Book of Facts, the name it bears today.

In 1906, the New York Times, reporting on the publishing of the 20th edition, said that "the almanac has made for itself a secure position, second only to the forty-year-old Whitaker's Almanac of London, with which alone it can be compared."

From 1890 to 1934, the New York World Building was prominently featured on the cover of the almanac. In 1923, the name changed to its current name, The World Almanac and Book of Facts.

Calvin Coolidge's father read from The World Almanac when he swore his son into office. Since then, photos have shown that Presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton have also used The World Almanac as a resource.