2005:
Disney's On The Record - a touring musical stage show - begins performances at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The new Disney album Disney Bossa Nova is released. The CD performed in the suave, romantic musical style of bossa nova, contains 14 tracks.
1946:
Actor-singer Tim Curry, the voice of SIR (Simulated Intelligence Robotics) for Walt Disney World's now extinct Alien Encounter attraction, is born in Cheshire, England. His Disney voice credits include Teacher's Pet, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, and Gargoyles. (Movie fans know Curry best for his role of Doctor Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.)
1961:
Dr. Glenn C. Franklin becomes the 25-millionth Disneyland guest!
1987:
Animator Milt Kahl, one of Walt's "Nine Old Men," passes away in Mill Valley, California of pneumonia. Often considered the finest draughtsman of the Disney animators, he contributed to such classic films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Mary Poppins, and The Jungle Book. (He will be named a Disney Legend in 1989.)
Team Mickey's Athletic Club shop opens at the Walt Disney World Village in Florida.
1996:
Original Mouseketeer Annette Funicello and 60s teen idol Frankie Avalon make a special appearance in an afternoon parade at Disneyland.
1997:
Earth Day is celebrated at the Disney Village Marketplace in Florida.
1998:
"My Date with the President's Daughter" airs on The Wonderful World of Disney.
2001:
Starting on this day, Disney's Animal Kingdom celebrates Earth Day 2001 with "Artistry of the Earth" featuring exhibitions of wildlife paintings and photography and African furniture, butterfly releases, and specialty pin-trading.
2002:
Epcot hosts the 2002 International Flower & Garden Festival at Disney World.
(It will run through June 6th.) Davy Jones of The Monkees leads off a lineup
of musical acts that will perform at Epcot as part of the Flower Power concert series during the festival.
2003:
Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom hosts the first of five Grad Nights.
2004:
Jiminy Cricket, along with representatives from the Walt Disney
World Community Relations department and Walt Disney World Ambassador, Sara Bishop, drop in on a fifth-grade class from West Gate Elementary School in West Palm Beach to tell the students that they are going to be honored at the Walt Disney World Resort in May as the winners of a statewide environmental education program called Jiminy Cricket's Environmentality Challenge. The program encourages students to think and act environmentally at home, at school and in the community.
1957:
Shirley Temple takes part in the rededication of Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland. In attendance is Walt Disney and Temple's oldest daughter Linda, son Charles, and youngest daughter Lori. (Back in 1939 child star Shirley Temple had presented Walt with an honorary Academy Award - one big Oscar & seven little ones - for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.)
1925:
Animator, television producer, and film director Iwao Takamoto is born in Los Angeles,
California. He will first enter the cartoon world as an assistant animator at Walt Disney Studios in 1947.
Takamoto will eventually become an assistant to the legendary Milt Kahl and work as an animator on such titles as
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Lady and the Tramp. He will leave Disney in
1961 and join Hanna-Barbera Productions where he will help create Scooby-Doo!
The Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund was established in 1995
(on Earth Day) as a
a global awards program
for the study and
protection of the world's wildlife and ecosystems.
"They'd take a lot of drawings from my animation and make a model sheet of those. It was much better that way because the model department ... they couldn't really draw that well anyway. When something gets into animation, it forces itself into a different design. Especially heads. Faces. Because to articulate them, there were certain things that just didn't work." -Milt Kahl
2008:
Disney Channel debuts "Greece Lightning," the 25th episode of the animated series Phineas and Ferb.
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2009:
Disney World's Space Mountain shuts down for major renovations. It is the first time Space Mountain has temporarily closed for improvements since the popular attraction first opened at Disney World in 1975. The renovations include new track inside the enclosed coaster (although the layout of the track will remain the same), a new enclosure for the ride's queuing area, and a new ceiling. Fans of the ride can look forward to a Space Mountain that’s a bit more 21st century ... and a lot less 70s Sci-Fi!
"From the late '50s up until the 1960s and '70s, he became pretty much the de facto Disney designer. His drawing style pretty much influenced every feature that came out of Disney." -animator Floyd Norman on Milt Kahl
2006:
The "Happiest Balloon on Earth" takes to the skies over the San Francisco Bay Area. The tour (an 11-week trek throughout the western United States and Canada celebrating Disneyland's 50th anniversary) makes its fifth city stop at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, California.
