CSotD: Bicentennial Flashback
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The Bicentennial was a big deal and we prepared for it all year. Time magazine even put out a special edition, based on the news of that week in 1776, not only covering the political activities in the Colonies but, as the magazine might have, what was going on around the world in science and culture that week. It was an impressive snapshot of Jefferson’s world and a good chance for Americans to gain some perspective on the entire moment, not just the happenings in Philadelphia that week.
It seemed everyone stepped up to the plate in 1976. Maybe we felt better about our country in those days, but let’s not forget that we had recently experienced Vietnam and Watergate. Still, the system had survived those moments, and we had Gerry Ford, a quiet, decent man, in the White House. Neither the Nixon pardon nor the ridicule of Chevy Chase could completely tear him down.
And the cartooning world got a special bonus: July 4, 1976 fell on a Sunday, giving cartoonists a big canvas with which to work. We’ll see tomorrow if July 5, 2026 sees a similar outpouring, but here’s what newspaper readers woke up to a half century ago.
Alas, I didn’t find many color plates, since most archives don’t go back that far, but use your imaginations. In the days before the Internet, we were still pretty good at doing that.
There were several strips created specifically for the Bicentennial, most like this one, with colonial characters exhibiting contemporary consciousness. The lead-up to the Civil War centennial had given us Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, but I don’t remember much of that heft this time around. Still, some of them snuck in a little history and that was a benefit of the celebration.
Another color example, since Doonesbury maintains a significant backlog, and, as you can see, Trudeau also marked the history, and wasn’t content to just fire off a few fireworks.
He also did enough colonial-era dailies to fill a book.
Canyon and Drake took a more conservative view of the day’s political significance, though Kerry Drake maintained his crime-fighting bent by acknowledging that the nation’s history is an ongoing process.
Ripley, of course, devoted its usual presentation of interesting facts to ones relevant to the Bicentennial.
Nor was it much of a surprise that Rick O’Shay skipped the daily strip’s semicomical goings on and brought in Hipshot Percussion for one of his Sunday reveries, a good use of that usual pattern.
And more, in alphabetical order:
And to top it off, here’s something from a concept album released in 1961, well before the Bicentennial, but of which, by then, many of us knew every word. For the benefit of a younger audience, we should note that it’s a satirical reference to the then-recent McCarthy era, and that, neither in 1961 nor 1976, there was no reason to be too careful what you signed.
Sometimes history not only repeats, but also rhymes:
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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