Today in the history of the American comic strip: June 16

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.

6.16.1874: Clare Victor Dwiggins is born in Wilmington, Ohio. He created several strips, including the long-running School Days.

6.16.1952: A science fiction strip titled Twin Earths hits the comics pages. Created by writer Oskar Zebeck and artist Alden McWilliams, it told of another Earth on the opposite side of the sun whose advanced civilization visits us.

6.16.1969: Ted Key’s Hazel, a single-panel cartoon about a live-in maid working for a middle-class family, makes the transition from The Saturday Evening Post to newspaper syndication.

Twin Earths

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.