Today in the history of the American comic strip: January 28

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. 

1.28.1986: Allen Saunders, who wrote Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth, and Kerry Drake, dies in Maumee, Ohio, at 86.

1.28.1996: Jerry Siegel, the co-creator (with Joe Shuster) of Superman, dies in Los Angeles, California. He was 81. Superman appeared in comic books before making the leap to newspapers.

1.28.1996: Burne Hogarth dies in Paris, France. Hogarth drew the Tarzan Sunday page from 1937 to 1945, and again from 1947 to 1950. 

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.