Today in the history of the American comic strip: February 10

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.

2.10.1858: Walt McDougall is born in Newark, New Jersey. McDougall illustrated Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, a comic strip that L. Frank Baum wrote to promote one of the Oz books.

2.10.1917: Sidney Smith's Old Doc Yak, a strip about a talking goat, makes its last appearance as a daily comic, but the Sunday strip continued for some time.

2.10.1947: Charles Voight, the creator of Betty, dies. His glamor-girl strip ran from 1920 to 1943.

2.10.1957: On Stage launches. Created by Leonard Starr, the strip later changed its name to Mary Perkins, On Stage. It ran until 1979. 

2.10.1980: Norman W. Marsh, creator of the Dan Dunn detective strip, dies at 81 in California.
 
2.10.1991: Lincoln Peirce's Big Nate, already in print as a daily strip, adds a Sunday feature. The comic follows the adventures of a spirited sixth-grader in the fictional town of Rackleff, Maine.

2.10.1996: Secret Agent X-9 ends its 62-year run. The strip was created by writer Dashiell Hammett (yes, the Dashiell Hammett) and artist Alex Raymond.

2.10.2008: They’ll Do It Every Time makes its last appearance as a Sunday strip, shortly after the daily strip was discontinued.

2.10.2019: Wiley Miller’s Non Sequitur comes under attack because it contains a semi-legible scribble that appears to read “Go f—- yourself Trump.” Miller later apologized, but at least a dozen newspapers dropped the strip in the days that followed.
 

Big Nate

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.