America's first superhero, created by Nathaniel Hawthorne as The Grey Champion appears in New England Magazine.
1842
Wilson and Company reprints Rudolphe Topler's The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. Believed to be the first comic published in America.
1895A boy in a yellow nightshirt in a series of comics by Richard Outcault, which takes place in Hogan’s Alley is published by Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World, becomes very popular in 1897, known as “The Yellow Kid.” Outcault is then hired to draw the cartoon by William Hearst of New York Journal resulting in Pulitzer hiring George Luks t draw his own version of The Yellow Kid. The strips both end in 1989, after both are known to tell tales, rather than sticking to reporting facts, which in turn is known as “yellow journalism.”
1897
The Katzenjammer Kids appear in the New York Journal for the first time on December 12, starring a set of twin brothers, Hans and Fritz, telling a story in a series of panels. As the oldest strip in syndication, by Rudolph Dirks, it is still running today.
1901
The Scarlet Pimpernel, the story of a French hero during the Revolution who disguises himself as an English fop, runs on the London stage for 4 years as a smash hit, prompting endless series of sequels.
1905
Windsor McCay with the first continuing story in the form of a comic strip, noted as one of the most richly illustrated of all time begins running Little Nemo in Slumberland in the New York Herald.
1907
The first successful daily comic strip, known as A. Mutt, by Mutt and Jeff is made into a series of animated films in 1913 and the strips continue to be published through 1982.
1912
Under the Moons of Mars by Edgar Rice Burrough begins in Munsey's All-Story Magazine (six issues) which features a man who gains super powers by traveling to another planet.
1913Krazy Kat starring Ignatz Mouse, Krazy Kat, and Offissa Pup by writer and artist George Herriman which originated as filler drawings at the bottom of The Dingbat Family, is spun off into its own strip, though never very popular, it has a small and devoted following that fortunately, includes William Randolph Hearst, who owns King Features Syndicate, which carries the strip until Herriman's death in 1944.
1914
The first of Rube Goldberg's ridiculously complicated contraptions, the "Automatic Weight Reducing Machine," is published in the New York Evening Mail.
1919
Gasoline Alley the first strip ever to have characters who age in real time begins. Frank King's characters go to war, marry, have children, and so on. The strip is still running today.
1920
Chronicling the trials of a woman working to support her family Winnie Winkle debuts, featuring a working woman, while not the first comic to do so, it is the first to gain widespread attention and it lasts until 1996.
1924
Harold Gray begins Little Orphan Annie, a tale of rags to riches... to rags, to riches, and back again, as the indomitable orphan and millionaire Daddy Warbucks find each other and part over and over. Annie also finds success as a radio show, a Broadway musical, and a movie.
1925
Frank Armer adds Pep to his line featuring "snappy, spicy stories and art" Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson is cashiered from the US Army and takes to writing adventure pulp stories. In October he opens the Wheeler-Nicholson newspaper syndicate and attempts to peddle features and comics to newspapers across the country, including adaptations of Treasure Island and the Three Musketeers.
1926The first science fiction pulp magazine begins from Hugo Gernsback. Wheeler-Nicholson's syndicate goes bust and he temporarily, resurfacing as a pulp writer for Adventure and Argosy in Amazing Stories.
1927 
Frank Armer's Thrills, an adventure pulp magazine debuts and runs for atleast five issues.
1928
Amazing Stories, debuts Buck Rodgers.
1930
Chic Young begins Blondie. She marries Dagwood in 1933. In an unprecedented set of crossovers in 2005, dozens of comic strips join in celebrating its 75 years in print.
1933 Funnies on Parade, a collection of reprinted newspaper comic strips, is given away as an advertising promotion. It is the first to be printed in what becomes the standard size for modern comic books: 5.5" x 8". It's followed by Famous Funnies, a similar collection sold for ten cents.
1934 Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates begins. The popular strip features the adventures of Terry Lee in the Far East.
1937
The first issue of Detective Comics is released by the company that will eventually be named Detective Comics.
1938 Action Comics features the first superhero ever: Superman making its first appearance, but he isn't yet able to fly though he can run faster than a train, leap over tall buildings, and block bullets with his chest,. The character is a hit, and many more superhero comics follow.
1939
"The Bat-Man" makes his first appearance in Detective Comics. Unlike Superman, Batman has no powers; he fights crime using martial arts, technology, and his mind. Timely Comics releases Marvel Comics, including Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and several other heroes. Timely will eventually be renamed Marvel. DC introduces The Flash, a superhero who can run faster than the speed of light.
1940
Detective Comics presents Alan Scott, who makes a ring that allows him to use the light of the Green Lantern. Brenda Starr debuts. The star of the strip is a redheaded reporter who often visits exotic places. It's notable for being created by a woman, Dale Messick. The strip continues to be female-created, now being written by Mary Schmich and drawn by June Brigman.
1941
Steve Rogers is given super-soldier serum and a mighty shield in what will become the Marvel universe, becoming Captain America. Detective Comics introduces Wonder Woman, designed by psychiatrist William Marston to embody female ideals of heroism. Redheaded teenager Archie Andrews makes his first appearance in Pep Comics. In 1945, the publisher will change its name from MLJ Comics to Archie Comics.
1947 Donald Duck's Uncle Scrooge makes his first comic book appearance.
1948 The daily Pogo comic strip starts by Walt Kelly. The Pogo Possum character had been introduced in the first issue of the Animal Comics comic book in 1941, but gained fame for his topical political humor in the newspaper strips.
1949
Casper, had been introduced in a cartoon in 1945, the Friendly Ghost, then gets his own comic book fur years later.
1950
Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts, the most profitable comic strip of all time, begins its 50-year run. He'd wanted to name it Li'l Folks, but the United Feature syndicate changed its name over Schulz's objections. Spinoffs of the comic, which features Charlie Brown and Snoopy, will include many animated TV specials and a Broadway musical, not to mention every imaginable merchandising tie-in. The strip ends the day Schulz dies, but newspapers continue to reprint the older installments.
1954
The Comics Code Authority is created in response to public and Congressional objections to comic books featuring tales of crime and horror.
1959
Detective Comics introduces Supergirl, cousin of Superman.
1961 Marvel presents Stan Lee's The Fantastic Four, a superhero group consisting of Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Thing, and The Human Torch. Unusually, the team members didn't hide their real identities (Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm). Reed and Susan would marry in 1965.
1962 Marvel adds another two superheroes: Spider-Man and The Hulk. Bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker gains the proportionate strength of a spider, and designs his own webshooters. He soon learns that with great power comes great responsibility. Dr. Banner, belted by gamma rays, turns into the Hulk, a giant green monster with matching purple pants.Archie Comics debuts Sabrina, the Teenage Witch in the back of Archie's Madhouse. She'll get her own title in 1971, eventually starring in several cartoon shows and a live-action TV series.
1963
Josie McCoy is introduced by Archie Comics in She's Josie. In 1969, she'll become the head of a rock band, in Josie and the Pussycats. Marvel Comics starts its first series of mutants, the X-Men, led by Professor X. The other founding members are Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Iceman.
1964
Daredevil, the Man Without Fear, appears in his own Marvel Comics title. This superhero was blinded by radioactive waste, which heightened his other senses. In the DC universe, the Teen Titans makes its first appearance, consisting of Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, and Wonder Girl.
1968
Tom Wilson create Ziggy, an executive at the American Greetings card company. He'll get his own daily newspaper panel in 1971.
1970The first strip to be carried by Universal Press Syndicate, Doonesbury begins appearing in daily newspapers by Garry Trudeau's combining the ongoing stories of various characters aging in real time with political satire, and becomes the first comic strip to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, in 1975.
1974
Wolverine makes his first appearance, as a Canadian superhero fought by the Hulk, later joining the X-Men and getting his own monthly title.
1976
Cathy Guisewite introduces Cathy, a comic strip loosely based on her own life. The Everywoman main character struggles with "the four basic guilt groups: Food, Love, Mother, and Career."
1978
Garfield begins his long nap in the nation's newspapers. The strip becomes one of the most widely syndicated—and merchandised—of all time.
1979
Telling the story of the Patterson family, Lynn Johnston's creation, For Better or For Worse comic strip debuts, with characters aging in real time. The strip becomes known for its realistic portrayal of life events and is eventually nominated for a Pulitzer, a rare distinction especially for a non-political comic strip.
1980
The Far Side, a strange but popular daily panel, makes its first appearance in the San Francisco Chronicle on New Year's Day. Bloom County begins in December. While modeled on Doonesbury to some extent, the strip has a wackier tone and includes talking animals. Its two most famous characters are Opus the penguin and Bill the Cat. (Ironically, Bill—specifically created as an unmerchandisable parody of Garfield—turns out to be highly mechandisable himself.) The strip wins a Pulitzer in 1987.
1984
Pat Brady's Rose Is Rose begins its run in syndication, a consistently cheerful comic about everyday life, it often shifts to fanciful—sometimes surreal—points of view.
1985
Calvin and Hobbes, the adventures of an imaginative boy and his stuffed tiger, begins its daily newspaper run. Author Bill Watterson becomes known for his refusal to merchandise the wildly popular characters in any way, and for insisting —in later years—that the Sunday strips be run in his preferred format or not at all. While the strip ends in 1996, it is still rerun in many papers.
1986
The very first version of Maus, Art Spiegelman's story based on his father's Holocaust experiences, appeared on three pages of Funny Aminals in 1972. It got underway in earnest in 1980, when a 10-page installment appeared in Raw magazine. In 1986, the revised first six installments are published as a graphic novel: Maus: A Survivor's Tale. A second volume is published in 1991 as Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. The combined work wins a special Pulitzer Prize. In addition to being a powerful story, Maus helps graphic novels begin to gain respectability among mainstream readers and critics.
1987
Greg Evans' Luann appears on the comic pages, chronicling the life of teenager Luann DeGroot. While a lighthearted strip in general, it's addressed heavy topics such as drugs, drunk driving, and cancer. It's also the first strip ever to feature a character getting her first period.
1988
FoxTrot, Bill Amend's comic strip about the Fox family, begins.
1989
Neil Gaiman begins The Sandman, published by DC Comics. Along with Swamp Thing, it is used to launch the Vertigo line of comics aimed at adults. The popular and complex series runs for 75 issues, with the occasional followup miniseries or graphic novel.
1990
Baby Blues, a comic strip, about the ups and downs of child-rearing, is written by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott debuts with the birth of Zoe MacPherson to parents Wanda and Darryl.. Characters in the strip age one year for every two or three that pass in real life.
1995 Stone Soup begins to be served. Jan Eliot's strip is one of the few to be centered around a single mother, Val Stone. A widow and full-time worker, Val has two children, Holly and Alix (aged 13 and 9). At the start of the strip, she lives with her mother, and her sister, a divorcé with a toddler, Max. While the characters don't age, Joan eventually marries their next door neighbor, Wally, who's taken in his teenaged nephew, Andy.
1997
Zits, begins a strip about the family and friends of 15-year-old Jeremy Duncan which makes frequent use of surreal imagery reflecting and exaggerating characters' points of view, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman.
1999 The Boondocks, by Aaron McGruder, begins syndication in more than 150 newspapers. The strip stars African American children in a mostly white area. Its bitingly satirical commentary on racial and political issues has earned it both praise and protests.
2001
Pearls Before Swine, which has been published on the Web since 1999, begins appearing in newspapers on December 31. The strip, written by Stephan Pastis, features Pig, Rat, Zebra, Goat, and The Fraternity of Crocodiles. The characters are aware that they're in a comic strip, one which often parodies other strips and the medium itself. The simplistic art style plays off a quickwitted and quirky comic sensibility.
2002 The first American edition of Shonen Jump, dated January 2003, is released the preceding December. This 288-page digest of Japanese comic books, or manga, includes installments of Yu-Gi-Oh! and One Piece. The first issue sells almost 300,000 copies, a definite success, and another installment follows each month thereafter. The magazine is a spinoff of Japan's Weekly Shonen Jump, which has been running since 1968. Pages in the American edition are read "backward," from right to left, so that the artwork appears as it did in the original Japanese version.
2005 The publishers of Shonen Jump introduce Shojo Beat, a manga digest targeted at older teens, particularly teenaged girls. ("Shonen" means "boy," and "shojo" means "girl.") The tagline is "Manga from the heart."
2007 Captain America is shot and killed by his nemesis, Red Skull.
References:
http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/dchistory/DCHISTORY-1.htm http://www.crumbproducts.com/history/timeline.htm http://www.gayleague.com/gay/timeline/timeline3.php http://www.supermansupersite.com/timeline.html
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