Today in the history of the American comic strip: May 30

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.

5.30.1948: Charlie Brown's name is used for the first time in Li'l Folks, a comic strip by Charles M. Schulz that preceded the launch of Peanuts.

5.30.1951: Schroeder makes his first appearance in Charles Schulz's Peanuts. The precocious pianist and avid Beethoven fan emerged as the object of Lucy van Pelt's unrequited infatuation.

5.30.1993: Marjorie Henderson Buell, the creator of Little Lulu, dies is Elyria, Ohio, at 88. The character debuted in The Saturday Evening Post several years before the development of the newspaper comic strip.

5.30.2022: The PBS NewsHour profiles cartoonist Will Henry, creator of the comic strip Wallace the Brave, which debuted online in 2015 and began appearing in newspapers in 2018.

Little Lulu

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.