Today in the history of the American comic strip: January 2

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.

1.2.1857: Frederick Burr Opper, the creator of Happy Hooligan (1900-1932) and a pioneer in the development of comic strips, is born in Madison, Ohio.

1.2.1896: Lank Leonard, the creator of Mickey Finn (1936-1976),  is born in Port Chester, New York.

1.2.1933: Nancy, niece of the star in Ernie Bushmiller's Fritzi Ritz strip, makes her first appearance in that strip, which she eventually comes to dominate.

1.2.1951: Gasoline Alley, a movie based on the comic strip, is released. A second film, Corky of Gasoline Alley, came out the same year.
 
1.2.1982: Fred Harman, co-creator of the Western strip Red Ryder (1938-1965), dies in Phoenix, Arizona, at 79.

1.2.2011: Dale Messick's Brenda Starr calls it quits after more than 70 years of chasing the news. Glamorously, of course.

1.2.2012: Gil, a strip created by Norm Feuti, debuts. Gil is a chubby, elementary-school student who lives with his divorced mother but visits his father every week.

1.2.2016: The husband and wife team of Terry and Patty LaBan discontinue Edge City, a strip about a Jewish couple with two children in elementary school. The comic ran for 16 years.

Brenda Starr, Reporter

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.