Welcome to our front door

A front page is like a front door -- if it's unwelcoming, you might not come inside.

At the Chicago Sun-Times, the front page is our chance to invite you in, to call you in. And, yes, to get you to buy the paper.

Every day for 60 years, our editors and designers have debated what should go on that front page and what tone the page should set.

Make a mistake, and the paper looks foolish. Make the right call, and that front page can become a part of history.

To mark the newspaper's 60th birthday, we've collected classic Sun-Times front pages, from Richard Speck's arrest to Neil Armstrong's moonwalk to A.J. Pierzynski's ecstatic World Series title reaction.

One of our most memorable Page Ones followed one of our country's worst days -- Sept. 11, 2001. Design director Eric White, who helped put the page together, recalls prayers and a moment of silence in the newsroom -- and a determination to make the front page historic.

"On a day like Sept. 11, you're looking for something to stand the test of time," White says, "that has a sense of history to it, that captures on some level the drama of the day."