New Year 2006: The Year of the Dog

Well.

Are you up yet? Good. It's time for a lesson, very loosely connected to comic books as it may be. The year 2006 is a Year of the Dog, according to the traditional Chinese calendar, which is built on a 12-year cycle. (By the way, the Chinese New Year is celebrated by 1/4 of the world!) Is there any particular thread or zeitgeist that we can trace through the past century's Dog Years?

Here is a brief list of events from previous Years of the Dog:

1922:

• Comic Monthly magazine reprint of comic strips foreshadows comic books.
• RCA radio-faxes a photo across the Atlantic Ocean in six minutes.
• Orphan Annie enters the comic pages.
• Movie tickets sold weekly in the U.S.: 40 million.

1934:

• Wurlitzer and Seeburg make eye-catching jukeboxes.
• Flash Gordon docks on the comic pages. The movie serial follows in two years.
• Terry and the Pirates, including the Dragon Lady, battle in a comic strip.
• Half of the homes in the U.S. have radios.

1946:

• University of Pennsylvania's ENIAC heralds the modern electronic computer.
• U.S. nationwide telephone numbering plan.
• RCA, NBC demonstrate rival color television systems.
• U.S. Army Signal Corps reports bouncing radar signal off moon, getting echo.

1958:

• Videotape delivers color.
• Stereo LP records go on sale.
• The Smurfs, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo.
• Seymour Cray at Control Data builds a transistorized computer.
• Experiments begin to create the modem.
• Defense Department creates ARPA, forerunner of the Internet.
• Billboard's "Hot 100" chart lists the hits.

1970:

• Big Bird of Sesame Street gets a Time cover.
• Bar codes debut.
• In Germany, a videodisc is demonstrated.
• Mini-Moog synthesizers sold to touring rock bands.

1982:

• From Japan, a camera with electronic picture storage, no film.
• Tron from Disney is both feature film and arcade video game.
• The one-button point-and-click mouse is born.
• Commodore 64 introduced; popular with game players.
• Vectrex video game computer is introduced
• 5.5 million PCs have been sold.

1994:

• After 25 years, U.S. government privatizes Internet management.
• WWW growth mushrooms. Pizza Hut starts taking orders on the Web.
• The Zip drive, with removable storage of up to 100 MB.
• Chain bookstores outsell independents in the U.S. for the first time.
• Almost 1/3 of all American homes has a computer.

Hmmmmm. To answer my own question, Nope.

Welcome to 2006... glad you could make it. Welcome to the Year of the Dog.

Happy New Year!

(And, yes, I know that the Year of the Dog doesn't actually start until January 29th... don't spoil my fun.)