Good grief. Has Charlie Brown really been around for 76 years?
On October 2, 1950, a new comic strip appeared in just seven American newspapers.
Its name was Peanuts.
Charles M. Schulz’s first Peanuts strip featured Charlie Brown alongside two characters named Shermy and Patty.
Snoopy wasn’t there yet. The world’s most famous beagle made his first appearance two days later, on October 4.
From those modest beginnings came Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Woodstock and countless failed attempts by Charlie Brown to kick that football.
There was the kite-eating tree, Linus’s security blanket and Snoopy sitting on top of his doghouse imagining himself as everything from a writer to a First World War flying ace.
The strip eventually spread to thousands of newspapers around the world, while its characters moved into books, television specials, films and the memories of generations of children.
On October 2, 1985, Hollywood star Rock Hudson died from an AIDS-related illness at the age of 59.
Hudson had been one of Hollywood’s great leading men, starring in films including Giant and Pillow Talk.
His announcement months earlier that he had AIDS brought unprecedented mainstream attention to a disease still surrounded by fear, misinformation and stigma.
His friend and former Giant co-star Elizabeth Taylor became one of the most prominent campaigners for AIDS research and compassion for people living with HIV/AIDS.
On October 2, 1943, Australia’s 9th Division captured Finschhafen in New Guinea after fighting Japanese forces in the area.
Its capture gave Allied forces an important base for the Huon Peninsula campaign that followed.
Here’s today’s birthday challenge.
A former schoolteacher who became the frontman of one of the biggest bands of the late 1970s and ’80s was born on October 2, 1951.
Sting turns 75 today.
Born Gordon Sumner in Wallsend, England, he found fame with The Police before building a hugely successful solo career.
Did you read Peanuts in the newspaper? Who was your favourite: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus or someone else?
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