Today in the history of the American comic strip: November 19

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.

11.19.1951: Ben Katchor is born in New York City. He’s best known for his acclaimed cartoon Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, which embodies Katchor’s love of the fading small-business community in New York City. The strip debuted in 1988.

11.19.1961: Charlie Brown first pines for the Little Red-Haired Girl, whom he continues to love through the end of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, in 2000.
 
11.19.1970: Mark Slackmeyer, onetime college radical turned radio personality, appears in Doonesbury for the first time.

Doonesbury

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.