Today in the history of the American comic strip: July 7

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.

7.7.1902: Ed Dodd, the creator of Mark Trail, is born in Lafayette, Georgia. The strip he launched in 1946 remains in syndication.

7.7.1902: George Herriman, the genius behind Krazy Kat, marries his childhood sweetheart, Mabel Lillian Bridge, in Los Angeles.

7.7.1937: Al Capp and Raeburn Van Buren launch Abbie an’ Slats. It ran from 1937 to 1971.

7.7.1946: Al Vermeer debuts Priscilla’s Pop, a gag-a-day strip that survived until 1983.

7.7.1977: Roy Crane, the creator of Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy,and Buz Sawyer, dies in Orlando, Florida, at 75.

7.7.1997: Zits, created by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, debuts. It focuses on the life of high-school student Jeremy Duncan. The National Cartoonists Society awarded Scott and Borgman its Newspaper Comic Strip award in 1998, 1999 and 2009.

7.7.1986: Bill Schorr retires Conrad after a four-year run. The strip was about a frog who claimed to be an enchanted prince.

7.7.2010. Barney & Clyde premieres. Created by Gene Weingarten, Dan Weingarten and David Clark, it deals with the friendship between a billionaire and a homeless man.

Zits

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.