Snoopy, the wildly creative and narcissistic pup from the Peanuts comic strip, is having a big week. First he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where he joins his creator, Charles Schulz, and on Friday, The Peanuts Movie opens in wide release. The pup has enjoyed a lengthy career in ink and on screen for plenty of TV specials, and now a feature film. But Snoopy’s legacy lives on in plenty of under-the-radar ways as well. To celebrate the unofficial Week Of the Beagle, here are some fun facts you might not know about Woodstock’s best bud:
1. Snoopy was inspired by the Schulz' family dog named Spike.
2. The cartoon dog didn’t verbalize his thoughts until two years after he first appeared in the strip.
3. In 2009, Google featured Snoopy and Woodstock in its doodle.
4. In 2001, Snoopy made it onto a stamp, in character, as the World War I Flying Ace.
5. Snoopy loaned his name to the lunar module for the Apollo 10.
6. Snoopy has at least six cousins: Spike, Belle, Marbles, Olaf and Andy.
7. Over the years, Snoopy has taken on more than 100 alter-egos including an astronaut and a ballerina.
8. In a strip drawn in 1954, we learn that Snoopy’s doghouse is large enough to hold four children.
9. The Royal Guardsmen song “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966, right behind “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees.
10. Snoopy was almost named Sniffy, but Schulz learned that another comic strip already had a dog with that name and so he changed his mind.