Today in the history of the American comic strip: May 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.

5.10.1885: Harry J. Tuthill, creator of The Bungle Family, is born in Chicago, Illinois. His gag-a-day comic ran from 1918 to 1945.

5.10.1900: Alley Oop creator V. T. Hamlin is born in Perry, Iowa. Launched in 1932, his strip remains in syndication.

5.10.1941: Somebody’s Stenog (short for stenographer), which A. E. Hayward introduced in 1918, is discontinued. It was one of the first daily strips focusing on an independent woman. 

5.10.1943: Jack Sparling unveils Claire Voyant, whose eponymous main character has extrasensory powers. The strip only survived until 1948.

5.10.1965: The Born Loser, created by Art Sansom, begins its run, as a daily. Sansom and his son Chip, who began assisting on the strip in 1989, received a Newspaper Comic Strip award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1987, and again in 1990.

5.10.2016: Fantagraphics Books publishes The Complete Peanuts: 1999-2000, the last in a multi-volume, multi-year set that was rolled out in 2004.

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.