1852:
Alice Liddell - the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - is born in London, England.
1907:
Sales & public relations representative and Disney Legend Cyril Edgar is born in London, England. In April 1971, he will be named European Supervisor in charge of sales for the entire continent.
1937:
Surf guitarist Dick Dale, whose rendition of Camille Saint-Saen's Aquarium
can be heard while riding Disneyland's Space Mountain, is born in Boston,
Massachusetts. He also performed live on top of Space Mountain in 1998 for the re-opening of Disneyland's Tomorrowland!
1949:
Seal Island - Disney's first True-Life Adventure featurette - is released (although it had been previewed in theaters back in December 1948). Directed by James Algar, the documentary studies the saga of life on Seal Island, one of the tiny specks of land in the Bering Sea.
1962:
Samuel Lord Black, rendering software engineer for such animated features as
The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Monsters, Inc. is born in Ontario, Canada.
1965:
The Orlando Sentinel reports rumors of an "East Coast Disneyland."
1977:
Space Mountain opens in Disneyland. (The attraction will have an official grand opening later in the month.) Also opening is the Starcade, part of the Space Mountain complex.
1989:
The Disney Channel airs episode 9 of MMC. Today is Party Day!
1994:
Actor Alexander Gould - the voices of Nemo in Disney/Pixar's 2003 Finding
Nemo and Bambi in Disney's 2006 Bambi II - is born in Los Angeles, California.
1998:
Disney's stage musical The Lion King is nominated for 11 Tony Awards for excellence on Broadway.
At Disneyland, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Buzz Lightyear attend the re-opening of the Moonliner attraction. The original TWA Moonliner was a futuristic exhibit at Tomorrowland that stood 80-feet tall. Designed by John Hench, it was retired in 1967. A scaled down version with the familiar TWA red stripes but without the TWA logo is now part of the new 1998 version of Tomorrowland. It is used to promote Coca-Cola.
2000:
Pixar Animation Studios announces that Brad Bird, the critically-acclaimed director and writer of animated feature films, has joined the company as a director.
(He will go on to direct the 2004 release The Incredibles.)
2001:
For 4 consecutive weekends beginning on this day, the Disney-MGM Studios joins
forces with Lucasfilm Ltd. to present the second annual Star Wars Weekends. With the
popular Star Tours attraction, Hollywood-style motorcades and star conversations, a Cantina Street Party and
celebrity autograph sessions, MGM is transformed into a Force-filled fan-fest.
A large tree, near the Mark Twain's Riverboat landing in Frontierland, falls over in
Disneyland.
Disney Channel airs the Lizzie McGuire episode "Bad Girl McGuire" for the
first time. This episode is directed by Anson Williams (who played Potsie on the ABC-TV hit series Happy Days.)
2002:
Disney's El Capitan Theater presents Robin Hood as part of
the ongoing "Disney Saturday Morning Movies."
2005:
Disneyland closes to the public today for last minute preparations for tomorrow's start of their 18-month 50th Celebration event.
2003:
The Godfather of Soul James Brown and his family visit Walt Disney World.
During planning for Rock 'n' Roller
Coaster, Imagineers wanted to select one of the world's greatest bands
around which to build the back story
for the attraction. They decided
Aerosmith would be the perfect fit.
But initially Imagineers were unable to reach singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. Why? Because they were vacationing with their
families at the
Disney-MGM Studios Park!
2007:
Disney Channel premieres the special High School Musical: The Concert
as well as the Hannah Montana episode "You Gotta Not Fight for Your Right to Party."
Disney field-tests a brand-new hard ticket concept for the parks called The Disney 8th Grade Grad Jam. The reservation-only event, to help 8th graders celebrate the end of middle school, takes place at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.
The C.K. Holliday Locomotive No. 1, one of Disneyland's four steam engines, is loaded onto a flatbed truck and taken to the Fullerton Transportation Center at 122 E. Santa Fe Ave. The 9-ton engine will make a guest appearance at Fullerton's ninth-annual Railroad Days May 5 & 6. This marks the second year the theme park has allowed one of its four steam engines to leave the premises. (The engine, named for Cyrus Kurtz Holliday - the founder of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad - is one of only two built at the Disney Studios.)
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1944:
Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse since 1985, is born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. (She is married to Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey!)
"Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can't create it if you don't have one." -Brad Bird
2008:
The 50th episode of Hannah Montana - "The Way We Almost Weren't" airs for the first time on Disney Channel. Actress Brooke Shields guests stars as Hannah's late mom
(in flashback scenes).
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MAY
MAY 4
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MAY 04
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
2nd Annual Star Wars Weekend
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2009:
The full list of nominees are revealed for this year's MTV Movie Awards. Miley Cyrus
(Disney's Hannah Montana) is nominated for two categories - "Breakthrough Performance - Female" and "Best
Song from a Movie" (a brand-new category) for her hit song "The Climb." Competing against Cyrus for
"Breakthrough Performance - Female" are fellow Disney gals & High School Musical stars Vanessa Hudgens
and Ashley Tisdale. The awards show will be held at Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, May 31.
