Before Walt Disney made his empire, he owned a struggling cartoon studio under contract to Universal Studios, pumping out Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. But Oswald belonged to Universal, not Disney, and when Universal pulled the rights to Oswald over a budget dispute, Disney was left with nothing. It was around the same time he created Mortimer Mouse – soon renamed “Mickey” – as a new character to build his studio around. Mickey made his debut in a series of animated cartoons, and soon grew popular enough to be in newspaper comics.

On this day, January 13, in 1930, Mickey Mouse appeared for the first time in national newspapers, drawn by the remaining artists under Disney’s employment and with a plot designed by Disney himself. The daily strip was initially arranged in a story format, but quickly changed to daily, disconnected, comic plots.

Walt Disney took to heart the lesson of owning the rights to one’s work. Mickey Mouse and all associated characters became copyrighted and trademarked, giving Disney perpetual control over the characters’ use.  The Disney corporation lobbied intensively to extend the American and European Copyright Term Extension Act, to prevent the earliest Disney cartoons from falling into the public domain.