Monday, August 10, 2015

Happy birthday Snoopy! 5 things you didn't know about Charlie Brown's beagle

The most famous beagle around is celebrating his birthday today!

Snoopy first appeared in an Oct. 4, 1950 Peanuts comic strip. Design-wise, he was not quite the beagle we know and love today. The series first established Snoopy's birthday in 1968.

So yeah, he's an old dog. But he is always learning new tricks!


How much do you know about everyone's favorite beagle (by the way, we explain how Snoopy is a beagle in this post back in 2013. It's one of our most popular! Check it out).

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Here are five things you may not have known about Snoopy.

1) Snoopy's doghouse burned down once. In 1966, Charles Schulz's art studio was destroyed by fire. Some time later, Schulz did a comic strip about it.
Courtesy Charles Schulz Museum.
2) Snoopy is NASA's mascot for workplace safety. Following the Apollo I tragedy, where three astronauts were killed in a fire on the rocket, Schulz approved a NASA plan to create a workplace safety program around Snoopy, including posters, decals and even pins. Snoopy actually went to the moon. The Apollo 10 Lunar Module was even nicknamed Snoopy, while the command module was nicknamed Charlie Brown.

The Snoopy module in lunar orbit. (Photo courtesy NASA)
3) Snoopy (and his siblings) are from a puppy farm. Snoopy came from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. His siblings are Spike, Belle, Olaf, Andy and Marbles in the comics. In the TV special Snoopy's Reunion, which Schulz did not consider canon to the comic strip, Snoopy has two more siblings, Rover and Molly. Also, the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm was shut down years later, and a parking garage is where the farm once stood.

4) Charlie Brown is not Snoopy's first owner. Snoopy's original owner is a girl called Lila. We meet her in Snoopy, Come Home. Snoopy goes to visit Lila when she becomes seriously sick. He even decides to move back in with her, but dogs aren't allowed in her apartment building.

Lila and Snoopy in Snoopy, Come Home.
5) Snoopy is not the first dog Schulz drew and published. The first dog Schulz drew was his family dog, a black and white mutt named Spike. Spike appeared in Ripley's Believe it Or Not! when Schulz was a teen. Schulz said the dog was notorious for eating all kinds of wacky things, digesting them and never getting sick. Spike is the inspiration for Snoopy.
Photo courtesy Charles Schulz Museum.
 In honor of Snoopy's birthday, Fox Family Entertainment, the studio behind the new Peanuts movie coming in November, has a new video that teaches us how to draw Snoopy. Give it a shot and share it with the hashtag #DrawSnoopy.


And, say happy birthday to Snoopy!

Head to your favorite social media channel and be sure to include the hashtag #HappyBirthdaySnoopy!

2 comments :

  1. Hey...so where is YOUR Snoopy drawing?!? We shared ours! BOL

    ReplyDelete

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