Charles Schulz Day Comes to CA; DNC Raises $26.6 Million For Al Gore: Today In History

May 24, 2017, is the 144th day of the year, with 221 days remaining. The moon is in a waning crescent phase, with illumination at 3 percent and further decreasing until the new moon on May 25.

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It’s Charles Schulz Day, Charlie Brown!

“Peanuts” was a daily syndicated and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, running from Oct. 2, 1950 to Feb. 13, 2000, with television reruns subsequently continuing once the comic strip’s withdrew from publication.’

In 1967, the state legislature declared May 24 as Charles Schulz Day in California, where the cartoonist lived and worked until his death in 2000. California Gov. Ronald Reagan, 14 years before his election as the 40th president of the United States and leader of the free world, greeted Schulz at the state capitol in observance of the new proclamation.

Years later, Reagan personally called Schulz while the latter was in the hospital recovering from heart bypass surgery and wished the cartoonist well.

Reagan’s presidency was divided between the years before and after Iran-Contra. Watch an alternative take on the rise of the Reagan family. Warning: Video contains some strong language.

DNC raises $26.6 million for Al Gore’s presidential campaign

In 2000, the Washington Post and CBS News both reported on a single-night fundraising event in which the Democratic National Committee raised $26.5 million that went toward Vice President Al Gore’s presidential candidacy.

The amount set a new record, surpassing funds surrounding Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s simultaneous run for the presidency just a month before, and was described as a “salute” to the standing president, Bill Clinton, and Gore as Clinton’s chosen successor.

Ultimately, however, in November of the same year, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush was named the 43rd president of the United States, triumphing in the election with 271 electoral votes against Gore’s 266. Gore, however, won the popular vote with 50,999,897 votes against Bush’s 50,456,002.

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