Charles Schulz: 100th Birthday of Peanuts Creator

Charles Monroe Schulz, born November 26, 1922 in Minneapolis, died February 12, 2000 in Santa Rosa, California. He created the Peanuts comic strip, published from October 2, 1950 to February 13, 2000, totaling 17,897 strips. Schulz served in the 20th Armored Division during WWII, participating in the Normandy landings, invasion of Germany, and liberation of Dachau. His character Charlie Brown reflects Schulz's own shy, lonely adolescence. The strip features autobiographical elements: the little red-haired girl is based on a woman who rejected his marriage proposal, and Peppermint Patty echoes his first wife, from whom he divorced in 1972. Schulz drew a strip every June 6 in memory of fallen comrades and every November 11 for Veterans Day. The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center opened in Santa Rosa in August 2002, featuring a large wooden sculpture by Yoshiteru Otani showing Snoopy's evolution and a doghouse "wrapped" by Christo. Sonoma County airport was renamed after Schulz, with a logo of Snoopy in sunglasses. In September 2022, the US Postal Service issued a series of stamps featuring Peanuts characters for Schulz's centennial. Umberto Eco considered Peanuts among the most important works of US literature, surpassing Salinger's characters. The strip's musical notes in Schroeder's panels correspond to precise Beethoven passages.