• The Pulitzer Prize is named after nineteenth-century journalist Joseph Pulitzer, whose work in establishing the New York World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reshaped the newspaper profession.
• In his will, Joseph Pulitzer established the Pulitzer Prizes to foster excellence. Pulitzer specified awards in journalism, letters and dramas, education and travelling scholarships. Pulitzer also called for changes to be made to the award structure. He established an advisory board to oversee the Pulitzer Prizes, with Columbia University as the administrator.
• The first Pulitzer Prizes were bestowed in 1917.
• Formal announcements of the Pulitzer Prizes are made each April by the president of Columbia University, on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize board.
• More than 2,000 entries are submitted annually in the competitions.
• Each year, 90 judges are appointed to serve on 20 separate juries, and make three nominations in each of the 21 current categories for the Pulitzer Prizes.
• Members of the Pulitzer board and the juries are chosen based on professional excellence and affiliation, diversity in terms of gender, ethnic background, geographical distribution, and in the choice of journalists and size of newspaper.
• The Pulitzer Prize for photography was established in 1942 and has been presented in each subsequent year except 1946.
• Milton Brooks, of the Detroit News, won the first Pulitzer Prize for photography for his photo entitled "The Picket Line."
• For a photograph, or series of photographs, to be nominated, they must have appeared in a newspaper.
• In 1968, the board established two Pulitzer Prizes for photography, Spot or Breaking News and Feature, both of which are judged by the same jury.
• The Pulitzer Prize for photography is awarded to a distinguished example of work in black and white or color, which may consist of a single photograph or multiple photographs, a single sequence or an album.
• Stanley J. Forman, of the Boston Herald American, is the only two-time consecutive winner of the Pulitzer Prize for photography in the Spot News category — in 1976 for “The Boston Fire” and in 1977 for “The American Flag” (brandished as a lance by an unidentified youth during disorders).

For more information about Joseph Pulitzer or the Pulitzer Prize, visit the Web site at www.pulitzer.org.