Today in the history of the American comic strip: September 22

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.

9.22.1901: Frederick Burr Opper’s Alphonse and Gaston, featuring two absurdly polite and deferential characters, makes its first appearance in William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal.

9.22.1952: H.T. Webster dies. His cartoon The Timid Soul introduced Caspar Milquetoast, whom Webster described as “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick.”
 

Alphonse and Gaston

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.