You can access historical newspapers in library databases as well as digitized collections that are available online.
There are two simple ways to search. You can narrow down to a specific newspaper (publication), or you can do a keyword search and narrow to a date range.
Global Newsstream, Newspaper Source Plus, and Ethnic NewsWatch are three library databases you can use to find newspapers. Their interfaces look different, but they have similar search features.
Narrow down to a specific publication
Look for an option to search by publication. You can type in the name of the publication to search.
The next important piece of information is the date coverage. This will tell you how far back full-text coverage goes for a specific publication.
Keyword search and date range limit
Alternatively, you can search for a topic and limit to a specific date range.
After you type in your keyword topic search, look on the left or the right hand side of the page for an option to limit the date range.
Collections of online digitized historical newspapers
There are options for finding historical newspapers online. Links to various web sites that include digitized newspapers. Some of these papers are freely available and others require a subscription.
Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers A collection from the Library of Congress. Search American newspapers from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Wikipedia list of newspaper archives A list of historical newspapers organized by country.
ICON: International Coalition on Newspapers: Newspaper Digitization Projects A collection of links to historical newspapers worldwide.
Google News Archive Google newspaper digitization project. Google is no longer adding content but the archive remains available.