September 8 Illinois History Minute

It’s September 8th. And on this day in 1930, Chicago-born cartoonist Chic Young launched Blondie, a comic strip whose title character began as a scatterbrained Prohibition-era flapper, but evolved into a level-headed housewife, married to scatterbrained Dagwood Bumstead. Chic Young’s son Dean Young oversees the strip today.

On this day in 1986, a Chicago talk show host made her national premiere. After hosting a top-rated local show, Oprah launched a nationally-syndicated show, also produced in Chicago, that became the highest-rated daytime talk show in television history.