Today in the history of the American comic strip: November 22

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.

11.22.1899: Walter Berndt, the creator of Smitty (1922-1973), is born in New York City.

11.22.1901: Roy Crane, the creator of Wash Tubbs (1924-1949), Captain Easy (1933-1988) and Buz Sawyer (1943-1989), is born in Abilene, Texas. Crane pioneered the adventure comic strip. He received a Newspaper Comic Strip award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1965.

11.22.1939: Walter Hoban, who introduced Jerry on the Job, dies at 49. Launched in 1913, his strip ran until the 1930s. 

11.22.1946: Ed Stein, the creator of Freshly Squeezed, is born. The short-lived strip focused on the concept of multi-generational families. 

11.12.1970: Bob Barnes dies in Carmel Valley, California, at 57. He was the creator of The Better Half, a strip about a married couple that ran for almost 60 years.

11.22.1976: Cathy Guisewite launches Cathy, a strip starring a conflicted young woman coping with the “four basic guilt groups" of life — food, love, family, and work. Guisewite retired the comic in 2010.

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.