Ripley is in part to thank for making the U.S. national anthem official!
On November 3, 1929 — just a week after the stock market crash — Ripley made a shameless statement in his first Sunday panel for Randolph Hearst: “America Has No National Anthem.” The sensitive, writhing public went catatonic as Ripley correctly asserted that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was nothing more than an unofficial anthem, with the melody lifted from an old English drinking song. But it took a little more than a year for Congress to pass a one-sentence bill, and on March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed into law “The Star-Spangled Banner” as America’s national anthem — all thanks to Mr. Ripley.
November 21, 2024
Cartoon of the Day
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Robert Ripley began the Believe It or Not! cartoon in 1918. Today, Kieran Castaño is the eighth artist to continue the legacy of illustrating the world's longest-running syndicated cartoon!