2005:
At Tokyo DisneySea, Raging Spirits (a high-speed roller coaster) begins
operation. Located in the Lost River Delta section of the park, the attraction
takes riders through the ruins of an ancient ceremonial site.
1924:
Veteran actor Don Knotts is born Jesse Donald Knotts
in Morgantown, West Virginia. His live-action Disney credits include
The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), No Deposit, No Return (1976), Gus (1976), Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
(1977) Hot Lead and Cold Feet, (1978), and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979). Knotts also supplied voices
for the animated 101 Dalmatians: The Series, was the voice of Mayor Turkey Lurkey in the animated 2005 Chicken Little and supplied the voice for Sniffer for the 2006 live-action Air Buddies. In February 1972 he hosted an episode of
The Mouse Factory. (TV fans will always remember him best for his Emmy Award winning role of bumbling Deputy
Barney Fife on the classic 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show.)
1939:
Disney releases the Mickey Mouse short The Pointer, directed by Clyde Geronomi.
Mickey tries to teach Pluto to be a quail hunting dog, but Pluto isn’t cut out for the pointing business. Many
animation experts consider this short to be a milestone in the evolution of Mickey Mouse. Beautifully animated
and realistic, it is a turning point in Mickey's appearance as he looks closer to his modern-day version. The
addition of pupils to Mickey’s eyes help make his face more expressive (a look similar to his Fantasia appearance).
1943:
Mouseketeer Margene Storey - who joined The Mickey Mouse Club for
its second season in 1956 - is born in El Centro, California. She appeared
extensively in production numbers due to her ability to dance.
Comedian & actor Robin Williams, the voice of the Blue Genie of the Lamp in Disney's
1992 Aladdin, is born in Chicago, Illinois. Known for his improvisation skills, his role as the Genie (which earned him a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor) was instrumental in establishing the importance of star power in voice actor casting. His theme park credits include the 1989 short Back to Neverland (which played at Disney MGM Studios) and the voice of Timekeeper in the 1992 From Time to Time (which played in the now retired Disney World attraction The Timekeeper). Inducted a Disney Legend in 2009,
his Disney film credits include:
Popeye (1980) Paramount/Disney ... Popeye
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) Touchstone ... Adrian Cronauer
Dead Poets Society (1989) Touchstone ... John Keating
Jack (1996) Hollywood ... Jack Powell
Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) Disney ... Genie
Flubber (1997) Disney ... Professor Philip Brainard
Good Will Hunting (1997) Miramax ... Sean Maguire
Bicentennial Man (1999) Touchstone ... Andrew Martin
Old Dogs (2009) Disney ... Dan Rayburn
In February 2003 Williams guest starred in an episode of the ABC sitcom Life with Bonnie (featuring Bonnie Hunt).
1967:
Actor Basil Rathbone (known for his role of Sherlock Holmes) passes
away in New York City. His Disney voice credits include the 1986 The Great Mouse
Detective (in which an old sound bite was used) and the 1949 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (as
the narrator of the "Wind in the Willows" segment).
1992:
The Boiler Room Barbecue, a restaurant at Tokyo Disneyland, opens for business.
1999:
Disney Wonder - the second of the Disney cruise ships - visits Southhampton, England on her delivery voyage from Italy (where she was built) to Florida. The vessel is 965 feet long and can hold a maximum of 3,325 passengers.
The first Disney FASTPASS Ticket is given out at Walt Disney World.
A virtual queuing system, FASTPASS allows guests to avoid long lines at the attractions on which the system
is installed, freeing them to enjoy other attractions during their wait.
2002:
Herman's Hermits featuring Peter Noone begin a
2-day engagement at Disney's California Adventure.
"The Country Bears," a live-action film produced by Walt Disney Pictures & based loosely on the Disney attraction Country Bear Jamboree, premieres at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Cast members attending the event include Christopher Walken (who plays villain Reed Thimple), Haley Joel Osment (who voices Beary Barrington), Elizabeth Daily (who supplies the singing voice for Beary), and musician John Hiatt (who plays himself & performs 3 songs on the soundtrack). The film will have a general release on July 26.
2003:
An unfortunate accident occurs at Disney World's Animal Kingdom
when a giraffe is struck and killed by lightning.
2006:
The Disney Channel Original Movie Read It and Weep, starring sisters Kay Panabaker and Danielle Panabaker, debuts. The sisters play Jamie Bartlett and her alter ego Isabella. Jamie's private journal becomes a best-seller after she accidentally hands it in as a homework assignment. The cast also includes
Alexandra Krosney, Allison Scagliotti, and Jason Dolley.
Disneyland replaced individual ride tickets (in use since 1955) with its
new passports (single admission price to the park)
in 1982.
2004:
The NFFC's 20th Anniversary Convention kicks off at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in
Garden Grove, California. The Club for Disney Enthusiasts, is an international,
non-profit organization committed to preserving and sharing the rich legacy
of Walt Disney.
Legendary film composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose Disney credits include the
animated feature Mulan, the 1973 western One Little Indian, and the theme park attraction Soarin' Over California, passes away at 75 in Beverly Hills, California. In 1994, he was a guest conductor on the television special Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. As a student at L.A. City College in the 1950s, Goldsmith studied under a professor named Buddy Baker (future Disney Legend later known for his musical contributions to the Haunted Mansion attraction).
1951:
Tony Award-winning singer & actress Lillias White - the voice of Calliope, Muse
of Epics in Disney's animated Hercules - is born in Brooklyn, New York.
2008:
Animator Charlie Downs (retired since 1992) passes away. He began his career in Disney's
Animation Department in 1950 as an inbetweener, breakdown artist, key rough artist and cleanup assistant to
several of Walt's "Nine Old Men" (such as Ward Kimball & Les Clark). Downs also worked as a staff animator on
many Disney features including Peter Pan and The Black Cauldron.
He later worked on such television cartoons as The Pink Panther, Casper, Scooby-Doo, and The Jetsons.
1986:
At a press conference on the Empress Lilly at Downtown Disney Marketplace in
Florida, Disney CEO Michael Eisner announces plans for a new addition to be called
Pleasure Island. (Construction will begin on Pleasure Island in August and officially open in May 1989.)
JULY
JULY 21
JULY 21
THIS SITE MADE
IN THE
USA
1962:
Actor, producer, voice actor, and sound effects specialist Ike Eisenmann is born in
Houston, Texas. As a child, his most recognized role was the character Tony in the Disney films Escape to
Witch Mountain and its sequel Return from Witch Mountain. (As an adult, he appeared in the 2009 Race to
Witch Mountain - playing a sheriff.) During the late 1970s Eisenmann also appeared in episodes of Disney's
anthology series - most notably Shadow of Fear and Kit Carson and the Mountain
Men. His voice can be heard in Disney's 2002 The Hunchback of Notre Dame II.
Meet Me at Disneyland (a limited TV series broadcast live on KTTV directly from the
Anaheim park) airs episode 7 "Fun in Frontierland." With the emphasis on Frontierland, the
show opens with the Gonzalez Trio, who perform a series of lively dance numbers. Host Johnny Jacobs
introduces the Villa Fontana Violinists from Mexico City, who play several Mexican folk songs. After Zorro
vanquishes a foe on the rooftops, Jacob takes viewers aboard the Mine Train for an exciting ride through
Rainbow Caverns and the Painted Desert. Guests include The June Rudell Quintet, Larry Verne and Brian
Keith. Meet Me at Disneyland is designed to boost park attendance during the summer weeknights.
 | ||||
| ||||
Pleasure Island project announced
"We did Disneyland, in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a
financial disaster - closed and forgotten within the first year." -Walt Disney
| ||||
1954:
Construction officially begins on Disneyland.
Amazingly it will be built in less than a year!
2009:
Here We Go Again the second studio album from Demi Lovato is released on Disney's Hollywood Records. It will debut at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 108,000 copies in its first week.
| ||||
1950:
The Disney short Pests of the West, directed by Charles Nichols, is released.
Pluto guards the chicken house from a hungry coyote named Bent-Tail ... and his even hungrier son!
2010:
Disney and Target announce a new fashion line of apparel and accessories called
"D-Signed," available only at Target stores nationwide and Target.com
beginning in August.
2011:
Walt Disney Imagineers and various crews working on the construction of
Disney’s Art of Animation Resort hold a "topping out" ceremony at Walt
Disney World. A tradition in the construction and engineering fields, it takes place when the highest piece of steel
is placed on a building’s frame. Today's ceremony takes place atop a wing of the resort that will be themed after The Lion King. Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, which will bring to life famous Disney and Disney•Pixar films, is set to open in
early Summer 2012.
July 21
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
1899:
A large number of New York City newsboys refuse to distribute the newspapers of Joseph
Pulitzer, publisher of The New York World, and William Randolph Hearst, publisher of The New York Journal. The newsboys' strike of 1899 (as it will come to be known) will change the way newspapers
compensate their child labor force of newspaper hawkers. The young strikers demonstrate across the Brooklyn Bridge
for several days, effectively bringing traffic to a standstill! The events of the 1899 strike will later inspire the 1992
Disney film Newsies and a musical theatre adaptation of the film, also called Newsies, in 2011.
2017:
Descendants 2, a musical fantasy television film premieres on Disney Channel (and is simulcast on Disney-owned networks ABC, Disney XD, Freeform, Lifetime, and Lifetime Movies). The sequel to the 2015 film Descendants, the film stars Dove Cameron, Cameron Boyce, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart, Mitchell Hope and China Anne McClain. Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay try to adjust to life in Auradon, but when Mal becomes overwhelmed with pressure, she returns to her roots.
On the same day, the soundtrack to Descendants 2 is released on Walt Disney Records.
The family sitcom Raven's Home, starring Raven-Symoné, premieres on Disney Channel.
A spinoff of That's So Raven (which ran 2003-2007), the series centers around Raven Baxter, a divorced mother of
preteen twins Booker and Nia, living with Chelsea, her childhood best friend, and her son Levi in Chicago, Illinois. The
cast includes Anneliese van der Pol (who also appeared in That's So Raven), Issac Ryan Brown, Navia Robinson, and Jason Maybaum.
1960:
Song composer Al Hoffman passes away in New York City at age 57. A hit songwriter active in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he co-wrote such well-known Disney tunes as "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (1948), "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" (1949), "So This Is Love" (1950), and "The Unbirthday Song" (1951). Born in Minsk, Russia, in 1902, Hoffman and his family moved to the United States and settled in Seattle, Washington, when he was just 6.
2018:
Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff, a merchandise and confectionary shop on Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure opens. Replacing Sideshow Shirts, the shop features the character Bing Bong from Inside Out.
2021:
Turner & Hooch, a buddy-cop action-comedy television series based on the 1989 film of the same name, premieres as a Disney+ exclusive. It stars Josh Peck as Scott Turner Jr., a buttoned-down and ambitious U.S. Marshal who inherits an unruly dog.
Disney+ also debuts the first 5 episodes of the new series Behind the Attraction. Viewers get to peek beyond the magic of Disney Parks to discover what's "Behind the Attraction!" Produced by Dwayne Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions and Volk-Weiss's The Nacelle Company, it is narrated by actress/singer Paget Brewster.
1957:
Actor/comedian Jon Lovitz is born Jonathan Michael Lovitz in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. First known for his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live" from 1985 to 1990, he also starred as Jay Sherman in the animated series "The Critic" and played a baseball scout in the feature film "A League of Their Own." For Disney, he provided the voice of Radio in the first installment of "The Brave Little Toaster," and voiced Queen Gabnidine in "Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja." Additionally, he played Clip Metzler in the 1990 Touchstone Pictures comedy "Mr. Destiny," and appeared in two episodes of ABC's "The Goldbergs" (as Jimmie Moore, reprising his role from the 1998 comedy "The Wedding Singer"). You may recall his voice from Amblimation's 1991 "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West" and as the voice for Red in commercials for M&M's.
