Today in the history of the American comic strip: December 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.

12.19.1918: Robert Ripley introduces Champs and Chumps, a sports comic that became the precursor to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! By October 1919, Ripley had broadened the cartoon’s focus beyond sports, and he changed its name.

12.19.1919: E.C. Segar launches Thimble Theatre in the New York Journal. Ten years later, Popeye joins the lineup. Later still, the strip is renamed Popeye.

12.19.2014: Annie, yet another film adaptation of the 1977 Broadway musical, is released. The Broadway show was adapted from Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie.
 

Popeye

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.