Today in the history of the American comic strip: May 5

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.

5.5.1856: W. W. Denslow is born in Philadelphia. The famed illustrator, who worked with author L. Frank Baum to illustrate The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, also created the comic strip Billy Bounce in 1901. It was one of the earliest strips in which the protagonist had superpowers.

5.5.1895: The Yellow Kid appears in color for the first time in Hogan's Alley, a strip that ran in the New York World.

5.5.1905: Floyd Gottfredson is born in Kaysville, Utah. In 1930 he began a 45-year stint working on the Mickey Mouse comic strip.

5.5.1946: George Baker’s Sad Sack, which began as a military strip about an unhappy draftee, is made available to general-circulation newspapers.

5.5.1954: A movie based on Prince Valiant, and carrying the same name, is released. 

5.5.1958: The Strange World of Mr. Mum debuts. Irving Phillips created the surreal strip, which ran until 1974.

5.5.1965: Peanuts fans first learn that Snoopy has several brothers and sisters.

5.5.1975: Garry Trudeau, the creator of Doonesbury, becomes the first comic strip artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. 

5.5.1975: Kim Rosenthal, a Jewish-raised Vietnamese orphan, makes her first appearance in Doonesbury. She later became Mike Doonesbury’s second wife.

Hogan's Alley

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.