By Lady Williamson
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Li’l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared across multiple newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe. It featured a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. Written and drawn by Al Capp (1909–1979), the strip ran for 43 years – from August 13, 1934, through November 13, 1977. The Sunday page debuted six months after the daily, on February 24, 1935. It was originally distributed by United Feature Syndicate and, later by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate.
Comic strips typically dealt with northern urban experiences before Capp introduced Li’l Abner, the first strip based in the South. The comic strip had 60 million readers in over 900 American newspapers and 100 foreign papers in 28 countries.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- William Caxton (printer) –
- Lucy Stone (women’s rights activist) –
- Goldwin Smith (historian & journalist) –
- Annie Oakley (sharpshooter) –
- Alfred Hitchcock (filmmaker) –
- Sir Basil Spence (architect) –
- Fidel Castro (politician) –
- Don Ho (musician) –
- John Slattery (actor) –
- Debi Mazar (actress) –
Died
- Eugene Delacroix (painter) –
- Florence Nightingale (pioneer of modern nursing) –
- Herbert George [“H. G.”] Wells (English writer) –
- Mickey Mantle (baseball player) –
- Julia Child (chef and author) –
- Sandy Allen (world’s tallest woman, 7 foot, 7 inches tall) –
- Les Paul (guitar pioneer) –
- Johnny Pesky (baseball player) –
Events
- Canada first used to indicate region–
- Oregon Institute (later named Willamette University) opened in Salem, Oregon–
- Andrew Campbell discovered the Luray Caverns in Virginia, when cold air from a sinkhole on a large hill extinguished his candle–
- Last spike driven for first stage of Esquimalt-Nanaimo Railway in Cliffside, B.C.–
- Samuel Leeds Allen granted patent for Flexible Flyer sled–
- L’il Abner comic strip debuted–
- The Walt Disney classic, Bambi, opened this day at Radio City Music Hall in New York City–
- Canso Causeway, linking Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, opened–
- A plane flew into a hurricane for the first series of bumpy flights for the National Hurricane Research Project, then part of the U.S. Weather Bureau–
- The East German government closed the border between east and west sectors of Berlin with barbed wire fencing to discourage further population movement to the west. Later in the week a concrete wall was erected to strengthen the barrier between official crossing points–
- 3-year-old Jamie Gavin became the youngest heart/lung transplant patient–
- American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 10th and 11th Olympic gold medals making him the most decorated Olympian in history–
Weather
- Blue sun observed widely in the South, thought to presage Nat Turner slave uprising: phenomenon continued for several days–
- Hurricane Connie hit the North Carolina coast with winds up to 87 miles per hour–
- Four people were injured when lightning hit and shattered a utility pole in Belmont, New Hampshire–
- Nine people were injured after a lightning strike at a day camp in Pelham, New Hampshire–
- A small tornado hit Meredith, New Hampshire–
- Hurricane Charley struck Florida–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
