Today in the history of the American comic strip: September 21

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.

9.21.1885: H.T. Webster is born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. His cartoon The Timid Soul introduced Caspar Milquetoast, whom Webster described as “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick.”

9.21.1893: Frank Willard, who gave us Moon Mullins (1923-1991), is born in Anna, Illinois. His strip depicted the lives of several lowbrow characters who live in a boardinghouse.

9.21.1949: Charles Boyce, the creator of Compu-toon, is born in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The comic ran in newspapers from 1994 to 1997.

9.21.1971: Zonker Harris shows up for the first time in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury, which debuted as a daily newspaper strip in 1970. 

9.21.1974: Paul Robinson, best known for his strip Etta Kett, dies in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, at 76. The long-running cartoon (1925-1974) about a teenager began as a way to teach teens about etiquette, hence its name.

9.21.1981: The Muppets comic strip debuts, six months after The Muppets Show ended its five-year run on television.

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.