It’s Your Birthday, Charlie Brown!

Cartoonist Charles Schulz was born on this day in 1922.

The creator of Charlie Brown and the beloved Peanuts gang, Writer’s Almanac tells us that Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota where, in many ways, he was a real life Charlie Brown:

Every Sunday, Schulz and his father read the "funny pages" together, and the boy hoped to become a cartoonist someday. But he had a tough time in school -- he felt picked on by teachers and other students. He was smart enough to skip ahead a couple of grades, but that only made it worse. He wished someone would recognize his artistic talent, but his cartoons weren't even accepted by the high school yearbook. 

As Almanac tells us, “Peanuts was eventually syndicated in more than 2,500 newspapers worldwide, and there were more than 300 million Peanuts books sold, as well as 40 TV specials, four movies, and a Broadway play.

Canadian readers should note that today is also the birthday of long-time children’s television host, Mr. Dressup. Ernie Coombs, who died in 2001, would have turned 85 today.