Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 6

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.

4.6.1926: Prolific comics artist Gil Kane is born in Riga, Latvia. He and Ron Goulart launched Star Hawks, a science fiction strip, in 1977. It ran until 1981. Kane received a Newspaper Comic Strip award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1977.

4.6.1931: A Chicago radio adaptation of Little Orphan Annie goes national on NBC’s Blue Network. It attracted about six million fans, and remained on the air until 1942.

4.6.1936: Lank Leonard’s Mickey Finn debuts as a daily strip. The storyline centered on likable Irish-American cop Michael Aloysius "Mickey" Finn. A Sunday feature began the following month.

4.6.1944: Rose O’Neill, best known as the creator of The Kewpies, dies in Springfield, Missouri. She became the first published female cartoonist in the United States.

Mickey Finn

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.