[4] Benjamin Franklin encouraged Mesplet to found the newspaper to persuade Canadians to join the American Revolution.

[5] A secret resolution of Congress dispatched Mesplat and his printing equipment to Canada in February 1776 "to establish a free press...for the frequent publication of such pieces as may be of service to the cause of the United Colonies.

"[6] Mesplet, an immigrant from France, had previously lived in Philadelphia and supported the Americans when they occupied Montreal during the war.

The newspaper was shut down in 1779 when Mesplet and the editor, Valentin Jautard, were arrested for sedition and imprisoned for three years.

The columns were originally written in French and translated to English by Valentin Jautard, who served as editor until his death in 1787.

[7] On April 25, 1849, The Gazette published a special edition in which its editor-in-chief, James Moir Ferres, called the "Anglo-Saxon" residents to arms after Royal Assent of a compensation law for Lower Canada.

[11] The Gazette was second in circulation to the Montreal Star, which sold more newspapers in the city and had a significant national reputation in the first half of the 20th century.

The Montreal Daily News adopted a tabloid format and introduced a Sunday edition, forcing The Gazette to respond.

After the Montreal Daily News closed in 1989, after less than two years in operation, The Gazette kept its Sunday edition going until August 2010.

In recent years, The Gazette has stepped up efforts to reach bilingual francophone professionals and adjusted its coverage accordingly.

Gerry Nott, publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, now also oversees The Gazette, the Windsor Star and Postmedia's flagship title, the National Post.

[13] On May 5, 2014, it was announced that printing of The Gazette would be contracted out to Transcontinental Media in August 2014 and that the existing Notre-Dame-de-Grâce facility would be closed, resulting in a loss of 54 full-time and 61 part-time positions at the paper.

As part of the relaunch, the paper was officially renamed the Montreal Gazette, reflecting its longstanding common name outside its city of publication (as well as its Web domain, montrealgazette.com).