Today in the history of the American comic strip: November 14

American cartoonists and writers may not have invented the comic strip, but some argue that the comics, as we know them today, are an American creation. Clearly, the United States has played an outsize role in the development of this underappreciated art form.

11.14.1901: Clarence Gray, the co-creator of Brick Bradford (1933-1987), is born in Toledo, Ohio.

11.14.1934: A villain named Zora Arson makes her first appearance in Chester Gould's Dick Tracy. The strip has featured a long list of colorful, often bizarre-looking, evildoers over the years.
 
11.14.1938: Smokey Stover, already three years into its run as a Sunday strip, adds a daily strip. The screwball comic ran until 1973.

 

11.14.1951: The football gag appears in Peanuts for the first time, with Violet yanking the ball away from Charlie Brown (but only because she thought he might kick her by mistake). Lucy Van Pelt assumed that role later on, repeatedly pulling the football intentionally, not accidentally.

11.14.2005: Dog eat Doug, by Brian Anderson, makes its newspaper debut. Dog Sophie and infant Doug share a love-hate relationship.

11.14.2014: Fantagraphics publishes How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels, by Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden. Library Journal described it as a “beautifully designed volume that’s as entertaining as it is informative and likely to join Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics in the pantheon of explanatory texts.”
 
11.14.2017: The Library of American Comics releases For Better or For Worse: The Complete Library, Vol. 1, the first of nine planned volumes reprinting Lynn Johnston’s strip.
 

Dog eat Doug

Most of the information listed here from one day to the next comes from two online sites -- Wikipedia, and Don Markstein's Toonopedia -- as well as 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics, edited by Maurice Horn. Note that my focus is on American newspaper comic strips (and the occasional foreign strip that gained popularity in the United States). Thus, comic books and exclusively online comics are not included here.