Capp, Al

1909 – He was Alfred Gerald Caplin born on the 28th day of September this year in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He was an American cartoonist best known for the satiric comic strip, Li'l Abner.

1918 - He lost his right leg in a trolley accident at the age of nine. Capp spent five years at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut without receiving a diploma. The cartoonist liked to tell how he flanked geometry for nine straight terms.

1934 - Leaving Joe Palooka, he sold Li'l Abner to the United Features Syndicate and the feature was launched on Monday August 13 of this year.

1940 - On this year, a motion picture adaptation starred Granville Owen as Li'l Abner, with Buster Keaton taking the role of Lonesome Polecat. A successful musical comedy adaptation of the strip opened on Broadway November 15, 1956 and had a long run of 693 performances.

1947 - He also wrote the comic strips Abbie and Slats and Long Sam. He won this year’s National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for the comic strip Li'l Abner.

1957 - In one run of strips in this year, Capp satirizes the comic strip Mary Worth as "Mary Worm", depicting the title character as a nosy do-gooder. Allan Saunders, the creator of the Mary Worth strip, returned Capp's fire with the introduction of the character "Hal Rapp", a foul-tempered, ill-mannered cartoonist.

1971 – He was charged with attempted adultery by complaint of a female student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It developed that there were similar accusations from other campuses. He pleaded no contest and withdrew from public speaking.

1979 – He died of emphysema on the 5th day of November this year in South Hampton, New Hampshire. Also in this year he won 1979 Elzie Segar Award posthumously.