Stewart James was the first magician to perform a newspaper headline prediction. (Note that this is particular to the content of a headline, not the outcome of a public or news event.) James set up his publicity stunt with reporters in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, on September 1938. The prediction was opened and confirmed one year later. Theodore Annemann mentioned James's effect in The Jinx, No. 64, Oct. 28, 1939, p. 448. Abbott's Magic marketed James's “Headline Sensation” a few months after, in late 1939; see Tops, Vol. 4, No. 12, Dec. 1939, p. 38; see also p. 23 for a reproduction of the news report on the stunt. James tells the whole story of his “Headline Sensation” and its method in Stewart James in Print: The First Fifty Years, 1989, p. 211.

See also Fogel's Headline Prediction