Portrait of Bil Keane

Birthday profile

Bil Keane

Bil Keane, American cartoonist (died 2011)

Born
October 5, 1922
Died
November 8, 2011
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1922

About Bil Keane

William Aloysius Keane was an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus. He began it in 1960 and his son Jeff Keane continues to produce it. William Aloysius Keane (October 5, 1922 – November 8, 2011) was an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus. While in high school, he signed his work "Bill Keane", but omitted the second L from his first name early in his career, in order "to be distinctive". From 1946 to 1959 Keane worked as a staff artist for the Philadelphia Bulletin, where he launched his first regular comic strip Silly Philly. His first cartoon was published on May 21, 1936, on the amateur page of the Philadelphia Daily News.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Bil Keane timeline

  1. William Aloysius Keane (October 5, 1922 – November 8, 2011) was an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus.
  2. His first cartoon was published on May 21, 1936, on the amateur page of the Philadelphia Daily News.
  3. From 1946 to 1959 Keane worked as a staff artist for the Philadelphia Bulletin, where he launched his first regular comic strip Silly Philly.
  4. He began it in 1960 and his son Jeff Keane continues to produce it.

The world when Bil Keane was born

Bil Keane was born in 1922. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1922

  • #1 song"Chicago" – Fred Fisher
  • Top movieNosferatu
  • Best-selling bookUlysses – James Joyce

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGene Sarazen wins the U.S. Open at age 20
  • Top headlineMussolini marches on Rome and seizes power in Italy
  • Technology milestoneBBC begins radio broadcasts
  • Defining fadCrossword puzzles
  • Notable inventionWater skiing invented in Minnesota
  • World population1.90 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWarren G. Harding
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • U.S. population110.0M

1922 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Bil Keane's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19222026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Average home$5,600$435,000
Average income$3,270$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population110.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.