Today in the history of the American comic strip: December 25

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.

12.25.1890: LeRoy Robert Ripley, the creator of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, is born in Santa Rosa, California.
 

12.25.1901: Stephen Slesinger, who co-created Red Ryder and created King of the Royal Mounted, is born in New York. 

12.25.1911: Burne Hogarth is born in Chicago, Illinois. Hogarth drew the Tarzan Sunday page from 1937 to 1945 and again from 1947 to 1950. 

12.25.1913: Elliot Caplin, the co-creator of The Heart of Juliet Jones and the younger brother of Li’l Abner’s Al Capp, is born in New Haven, Connecticut.

12.25.1958: Rick Stromoski is born in Edison, New Jersey. He created the Soup to Nutz strip, and collaborated with Steve McGarry to produce a second strip, Mullets.
 

12.25.2008: The Spirit, a superhero film based on Will Eisner’s comic strip of the same name, is released.

12.25.2019: Lee Mendelson dies in Hillsborough, California, at 86. He was instrumental in bringing A Charlie Brown Christmas to television in 1965 and wrote the lyrics to the song Christmas Time Is Here.

Red Ryder

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.