1978:
A 90-minute television show airs on The Wonderful World of Disney to
celebrate Mickey Mouse's 50th birthday. Guest appearances include
Gerald Ford, Billy Graham, Lawrence Welk, Willie Nelson, Gene
Kelly, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Edgar Bergen, Jodie Foster, Goldie
Hawn, Eva Gabor, Anne Bancroft, Jo Anne Worley, and Johnny Carson.
1905:
Actress Eleanor Audley, the voices of Maleficent in Disney's 1959 Sleeping
Beauty and Lady Tremaine in the 1950 Cinderella, is born in New York
City. She is also the original voice of Madame Leota for the Haunted Mansion attractions. (Fans of the 1960s sitcom Green Acres may remember Audley for her role of Eunice, Oliver's mother!)
2005:
The month-long Festival of the Seasons kicks off at the Downtown Disney Marketplace in Florida.
1906:
Write, Imagineer and Disney Legend William Cottrell is born to English parents in South Bend, Indiana. His Disney credits include Pinocchio, The Reluctant Dragon, and Alice in Wonderland. Cottrell was the first president of what is today known as Walt Disney Imagineering! (He is also the brother-in-law of Lillian and Walt Disney.)
1919:
Character actor Alan Young is born in England. He is the voice of Scrooge McDuck for the
Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas, The House of Mouse, DuckTales, and various other Disney video
releases. Young also appears in the 1978 live-action feature The Cat From Outer Space as Dr. Wenger and is
the voice of Hiram Flaversham for The Great Mouse Detective. (TV fans may recognize him as Wilbur Post on
the classic sitcom Mister Ed.)
1932:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon Babes in the Woods (loosely based on the
"Hansel and Gretel" story & the nursery rhyme "Babes in the Woods") is released.
Directed by Bert Gillett, two lost children chance upon a village of elves but meet an evil spooky witch!
Babes in the Woods is the third Silly Symphony produced in color.
1941:
The Disney cartoon Thrifty Pigs (made for the
National Film Board of Canada) is delivered.
1960:
Actress Allison Janney, the voice of Peach in Disney/Pixar's 2003 Finding Nemo,
is born in Dayton, Ohio. She also supplies the voice of Charlene Doofenshmirtz on Disney Channel's
Phineas and Ferb.
1961:
The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
airs part 2 of "The Light in the Forest."
1962:
Academy Award-winning actress, director & producer Jodie Foster is born in Los
Angeles, California. Her 1970s Disney credits include the live-action Candleshoe as Casey, the original
version of Freaky Friday as Annabel Andrews, One Little Indian as Martha, and Napoleon and Samantha
(Foster's very first appearance in a feature film) as Samantha.
1966:
Actor Jason Scott Lee, the voice of David Kawena in Disney's 2002 Lilo & Stitch, is born in Oahu, Hawaii.
1971:
Walt Disney World's new Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground (located at 4510 North Fort Wilderness Trail) opens in Florida.
1990:
Disney World's Beach Club Resort (located at 1800 Epcot
Resorts Blvd) opens. This deluxe Disney property takes after
a luxurious Victorian Cape Cod Resort and features Stormalong Bay (an enormous swimming pool). Also debuting in the hotel is the Atlantic Wear and Wardrobe Emporium Shop.
1999:
FastPass is first used in Disneyland for It's a Small World.
Toy Story 2, the third Disney/Pixar feature film, and the sequel to Toy Story, is
released in the U.S. (Not originally intended for release in theaters, Disney had asked Pixar to make a
direct-to-video sequel for the original Toy Story with a 60 minute running time. But when Disney executives saw
how impressive the in-work imagery for the sequel was, they decided to create a theatrical movie!)
2000:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs the movie Santa Who? starring Leslie Nielsen.
2004:
Disneyland's A Christmas Fantasy Parade returns for the holiday season.
Santa Goofy and Chip & Dale visit with shoppers at New York City's World of
Disney store (through the New Year).
Comic-actor Tim Allen, the voice of Buzz Lightyear and the star of The Santa
Clause films and the ABC sitcom Home Improvement, receives a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Walt Disney Pictures releases National Treasure starring Nicholas Cage as a
treasure hunter & historian on hot pursuit of a war chest hidden by the Founding
Fathers after the American Revolutionary War.
Disney's Steamboat Willie is the first cartoon released with synchronized sound to attract widespread public notice & popularity - it is not the first cartoon with sound. Other cartoons with soundtracks had been exhibited before, notably Max Fleischer's
My Old Kentucky Home (in 1926).
1996:
Disney Online officially launches its Internet Disney Store.
1998:
VH1 airs Hollywood & Vinyl: Disney's 101 Greatest Musical Moments - a look back at musical moments in the history of Disney animated feature films from the last 75 years.
2007:
The Disney feature Enchanted has its U.S. premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City. In attendance are members of the cast including Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Earlier in the day, Dempsey and Adams visit MTV's TRL, shot at MTV Studios in New York City's Times Square.
1831:
James Abram Garfield, the twentieth United States President, is born in Orange Township, now Moreland Hills, Ohio. His death, two months after
being shot and six months after his March 1881 inauguration, made his tenure, at 199 days,
the second shortest (after William Henry Harrison) in United States history. Visit Garfield and
all the U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's The Hall of Presidents.
"Rap on a table. It's time to respond. Send me a message from somewhere beyond!" -Audley as Leota
2008:
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts breaks ground for its first family
destination resort in Hawaii with a traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony on its 21-acre oceanfront property, located at the Ko Olina Resort & Marina development on the western side of O'ahu. Scheduled to open in 2011, plans include 350 hotel rooms and 480 Disney Vacation Club timeshare villas.
1989:
The Parent Trap IV: Hawaiian Honeymoon, the third and last made-for-TV
sequel of The Parent Trap, debuts. Hayley Mills reprises her role as both Susan and Sharon.
Fort Wilderness & Campground opens
Robert: "Would you like me to call someone for you?"
Giselle: "I don't think they would hear you from here."
-Enchanted
"Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it."
-James Garfield
"He (Cottrell) was a talented writer and helped shape how we referred to events and attractions at Disneyland. For instance, he encouraged us to
quit using the term "ride" and to refer to attractions as an "experience," which is exactly what they are - an experience." -Imagineer John Hench