Peanuts Particulars
The first Peanuts comic strip appeared in newspapers on October 2,
1950, featuring Charlie Brown and two unnamed children.
The strip
was called "Good Ol' Charlie Brown."
Snoopy, Charlie Brown's dog, first appeared two days later.
Other
regular characters appeared in the following years:
 Schroeder (the piano player): May 30, 1951- Lucy van Pelt (Charlie Brown's football-holding foil): March 3, 1952
- Linus van Pelt (Charlie Brown's blanket-holding best friend): Sept.
19, 1952
- Pigpen (the one always surrounded by a cloud of dirt): July 13,
1954
- Sally Brown (Charlie Brown's sister): Sept. 1, 1958
- Peppermint Patty (tomboy friend of "Chuck"): Aug. 22, 1966
- Woodstock (Snoopy's bird friend): April 4, 1967
- Franklin (the first African-American character): July 31, 1968
- Marcie (Peppermint Patty's bespectacled friend): June 18, 1968
- Rerun van Pelt (brother of Lucy and Linus): March 26, 1973
That first Peanuts strip appeared in seven newspapers: The Washington
Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Minneapolis Star/Tribune, The
Allentown Call Chronicle, The Bethlehem Globe-Times, The Denver
Post, and The Seattle Times.
The last Peanuts strip appeared in
hundreds and hundreds of newspapers on February 13, 2000 and included a heartfelt thanks from Schulz himself.
In
between, Charles Schulz created 17,897 comic strips.
Schulz drew inspiration for much of the comic strip from his own life:
 He had friends named Charlie Brown, Linus, Schroeder, and
Sherman.- Schulz's parents were a barber and a housewife, just like Charlie
Brown's.
- Schulz was shy and withdrawn, just like Charlie Brown.
- Schulz's daugher Meredith was the inspiration for Lucy.
- Charlie Brown's object of affection the Little Red-haired Girl was
based on someone from Schulz's own life, who rejected Schulz's
marriage proposal but was a lifelong friend.
- Schulz, when young, had a dog, named Spike (a pointer).
- Spike, Snoopy's brother, lived in Needles, California, where Schulz
and his family lived from 1928 to 1930.
- Schulz had a lifelong fondness for ice sports. Figure skating and
ice hockey are recurring sports in Peanuts.
- As a child, Schulz was on a baseball team that once lost a game
40-0.
Through the more than 60 years that Charles M. Schulz drew the comic
strip Peanuts, the characters have "said" famous things.
Among them
are these:
 Lucy: Happiness is a warm puppy. - Charlie Brown: In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.
- Charlie Brown: Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like
unrequited love.
- Snoopy: I feel sorry for someone who has to win at everything.
- Lucy: All I need is a little love now and then, but some chocolate will do
for now.
- Lucy: I never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once, but I was
wrong.
- Linus: Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life.
- Snoopy: Dear IRS. Please remove me from your mailing list.
- Sally: I think I've discovered the secret of life. You just hang around until
you get used to it.
- Snoopy: To live is to dance. To dance is to live.
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