First person: Peanuts 75th anniversary stirs lifelong memories

First person: Peanuts 75th anniversary stirs lifelong memories

On Oct. 2, 1950, Charles M. Schulz’s first Peanuts comic strip was published. Over the next nearly 50 years, he would go on to produce 17,897 strips, hand drawing and lettering each strip personally. From seven newspapers on that first day, Peanuts grew to be published daily in 2,600 papers, read by 355 million people in 21 languages across 75 countries. Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997 to celebrate his 75th birthday…