Franklin (Peanuts)

Franklin Armstrong is a character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Introduced on July 31, 1968, Franklin was the first African-American character in the strip. He goes to school with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. In his first story arc, he met Charlie Brown when they were both at the beach. Franklin's father was a soldier fighting in Vietnam, to which Charlie Brown replied "My dad's a barber...he was in a war too, but I don't know which one." Franklin later paid Charlie Brown a visit and found some of Charlie Brown's other friends to be quite odd. His last appearance was in 1999, the year before Schulz's death.

Publication history

A Los Angeles schoolteacher named Harriet Glickman wrote to Schulz on April 15, 1968, urging him to introduce a black character into Peanuts. This began a correspondence between Schulz and Glickman that led to Schulz's creation of Franklin. In an interview in 1997, Schulz discussed receiving a letter from a Southern editor "who said something about, 'I don't mind you having a black character, but please don't show them in school together.' Because I had shown Franklin sitting in front of Peppermint Patty. [...] I didn't even answer him." Franklin's skin color was mentioned in The Charlie Brown Dictionary, a picture dictionary using the Peanuts characters; he was referred to in the definition of "black" in showing a picture of him talking on the telephone, where the color of the telephone is black. The description also says that "black may also refer to Franklin's skin tone, which is also known as a Negro person."

Franklin (CTrain)

Franklin is a stop on the Northeast Line (Route 202) of the CTrain light rail system in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The station opened on April 27, 1985 as part of the original Northeast line.

The station is located in the median of Memorial Drive, just West of the intersection with 28 Street SE. The station is 4.7 km (2.92 mi) from the City Hall Interlocking. Pedestrian bridges connect the station to either side of Memorial Drive. Stairs, escalators, as well as an elevator provide access down to the center-loading platform. The station serves residential neighbourhoods to the south (Albert Park/Radisson Heights) and industrial areas to the north. 578 parking spaces are available for commuters.

As part of Calgary Transit's plan to operate 4-car trains by the end of 2014, all 3-car platforms are being extended. Franklin station also had new furnishings installed, in addition to a platform extension. Construction was completed in the late Summer/Fall of 2013.

In 2005, the station registered and average transit of 4,700 boardings per weekday.

Franklin (New Zealand electorate)

Franklin was a rural New Zealand parliamentary electorate. It existed from 1861 to 1996 during four periods.

Population centres

The original electorate from 1861 to 1881 included the South Auckland towns of Papatoetoe, Papakura, Pukekohe and Waiuku, and west of Waiuku to the West Coast. When reconstituted in 1890 the northern boundary was north of Papakura, and (with the growth of Auckland) now excluded Papatoetoe.

In December 1887, the House of Representatives voted to reduce its membership from general electorates from 91 to 70. The 1890 electoral redistribution used the same 1886 census data used for the 1887 electoral redistribution. In addition, three-member electorates were introduced in the four main centres. This resulted in a major restructuring of electorates, and Franklin was one of eight electorates to be re-created for the 1890 election.

The 1981 census had shown that the North Island had experienced further population growth, and three additional general seats were created through the 1983 electoral redistribution, bringing the total number of electorates to 95. The South Island had, for the first time, experienced a population loss, but its number of general electorates was fixed at 25 since the 1967 electoral redistribution. More of the South Island population was moving to Christchurch, and two electorates were abolished, while two electorates were recreated. In the North Island, six electorates were newly created, three electorates were recreated (including Franklin), and six electorates were abolished.