Today in the history of the American comic strip: February 18

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.

2.18.1924: Edgar Martin transforms an earlier comic into Boots and Her Buddies, a strip about a young woman and her social life, which ran until 1969.

2.18.1931: Johnny Hart, the creator of B.C. and co-creator (with Brant Parker) of The Wizard of Id, is born in Endicott, New York. He received a Newspaper Comic Strip award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1967, and again in 1989.

  

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.