October 1, 1956: The Silver Age of Comics Begins

October 1, 1956: Showcase Comics #4 is published, featuring the debut of a new version of an established superhero, the Flash. This is considered to be the beginning of the Silver Age of Comic Books.

The Golden Age of Comics had ended 2 years earlier, with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredric Wertham, which resulted in the creation of the Comics Code Authority, designed to reduce the amount of violence and sexual innuendo (intended or perceived) in comic books. Sales tanked, so new heroes, and new versions of old heroes, were created.

The original version of the Flash was Jay Garrick, a college student in Keystone City, who inhaled "heavy water vapors," and gained super-speed as a result. The new version, introduced in Showcase #4, was Barry Allen, a "police scientist" in Central City, the kind of character who would later be represented by the likes of Gary Dourdan's Warrick Brown on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Pauley Perrette's Abby Sciuto on NCIS.

In other words, he  was old enough to have gotten his doctorate, and had been helping to solve crimes even before he got his powers. That happened when a lightning bolt crashed through the window of his lab, electrifying some chemicals, knocking them over, and dousing him in them.

The success of the new Flash led to a new version of Green Lantern in 1959, and a new version of the Atom in 1961. Also in 1961, DC would bring their old and new versions of heroes together with the story "The Flash of Two Worlds," introducing the concept of the multiverse, with the new versions on Earth-One and the old ones on Earth-Two; and Marvel Comics began their "Marvel Universe" with Fantastic Four #1.

In 1971, the Silver Age of Comics gave way to the Bronze Age, marked by the challenging of the Comics Code Authority with drug stories, first Spider-Man's "Green Goblin Reborn!" and then, a few weeks later, by the Green Lantern and Green Arrow story "Snowbirds Don't Fly." Comics became darker, even world-weary.

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October 1, 1956 was a Monday. Theresa May, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 2016 to 2019, was born.

There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball was between the regular season and the World Series (which the New York Yankees would win over the Brooklyn Dodgers), football was in midweek (there would be no Monday Night Football for another 14 years), and the NBA and NHL seasons hadn't started yet.