SmallerOnTheOutside wrote: But, then again, I don't know much about the mechanics.
Which is why you like this idea. It's a non-starter for me for both the reason that it'll take quite a bit of work to implement technically, but also because it goes completely against the new design ethic. The front page is being converted into something that merely directs people to other places, not something that imparts actual info.
Now, it is possible that long term the individual gateway pages might include a feature like you suggest. So it might be that we'd eventually have a "this day in comics history" thing at Gateway:Comics.