2004:
After some seven months of interplanetary travel, NASA's Spirit rover
lands on Mars. Administrator Sean O'Keefe sums up the amazing feat
with the simple phrase: "We're back ... and we're on Mars."
NASA's $820 million dual Mars Exploration Rover project - Spirit and still en route Opportunity -
are designed to build upon a legacy of earlier discoveries about Mars. (O'Keefe's quote, along
with a replica of the twin robot geologists, will be enshrined outside the Mission:SPACE
attraction at Epcot on April 6.)
2005:
It is reported that a London Lorry driver named Nick Pain
has named his newborn son Disney.
1965:
Disneyland observes its tenth anniversary with a Tencennial Parade.
Walt Disney introduces a host of coming attractions
to Disneyland on TV's Walt Disney's Wonderful World
of Color. He is joined in this episode by Julie Reihm, the first
Disneyland Ambassador - who he refers to as Miss Disneyland.
1989:
Actor Alex D. Linz, the star of Max Keeble's Big Move, is born in Santa Barbara,
California. His Disney credits also include the voice of Young Tarzan in the 1999 animated feature Tarzan
and the 2003 Disney Channel Original Movie Full Court Miracle (as Alex Schlotsky).
2001:
Ken Goldstein, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online, announces that executives Dan Sherlock and Jodie Resnick have been named vice president of marketing and president of entertainment.
Disney World's Pop Century Resort features 'larger than life' icons of the 20th Century, including 4-storey Rubik’s Cubes & yo-yos and 55-foot cell phones. Phase I,
the Classic Years,
opened
JANUARY 3
1994:
At EPCOT, The Kitchen Kabaret Revue, better known as simply Kitchen Kabaret,
an Audio-Animatronics theatrical presentation about nutrition, closes. An original
opening-day attraction in The Land pavilion, the 13-minute musical show was hosted by Bonnie Appetite.
The space will later re-open as Food Rocks (and ultimately Soarin'.).
1916:
Artist Lou Debney is born. He joined the Disney Studios at age 17 and began his career
in the Cutting Department. Debney soon become assistant director on Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, and worked on most of the sequences directed by Ben Sharpsteen. His Disney
credits also include all of the Goofy shorts (between 1939-1943), producer of Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro, and production coordinator on The Wonderful World of Color. (Lou Debney is the
father of award-winning composer John Debney - known to Disney fans for his work on such features
as Hocus Pocus and Chicken Little.)
Maxine Andrews, one-third of the popular singing trio
The Andrews Sisters, is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Aside
from frequently playing themselves in movies, the sisters sold over 60 million
records and lent their singing voices to Disney's Make Mine Music (1946) and
Melody Time (1948). The trio also cut a version of "I've Got No Strings"
(a song first heard in Pinocchio) with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1940.
The resort is built around Hourglass
Lake and features a bridge called
Generation Gap Bridge that was to join
the Classic Years with the unbuilt
Legendary Years.
JANUARY 03
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
 | ||||
| ||||
Actor Alex D. Linz born
1931:
A letter (dated January 3) is sent to animator Myron "Grimm" Natwick in New York
City from the Walt Disney Studio in Hollywood, California. Written by Roy Disney on behalf of
Walt, it offers Natwick a position at the studio. Roy had traveled to New York City earlier to meet Natwick in an
attempt to persuade him to move to the west coast. At this time, Natwick is best known for drawing the animated
character Betty Boop, for Max Fleischer. (Natwick will finally work for Disney starting in 1934.)
Kitchen Kabaret closes
| ||||
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main...and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life." -Walt Disney
SEASON 11 EPISODE 13
1950:
Singer/actor Bing Crosby records his version of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" with the Vic
Schoen Orchestra and Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires. It is to be released as a single, with the B-
side being "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy." (Disney's Cinderella is still about a month away from its release.)
JAN
JAN
1971:
NBC-TV airs The Wonderful World of Disney episode "Three Without Fear: Lost on the Baja Peninsula."
1932:
Actor Dabney Coleman, the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess:
School's Out, is born in Austin, Texas. He also portrayed Chief Quimby in Disney's 1999 feature film
Inspector Gadget.
January 03
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
2014:
Disney-owned Lucasfilm announces that, beginning in 2015, Marvel Entertainment
will be granted exclusive rights to Star Wars comics and graphic novels, the first time
in more than 20 years that the license has moved away from Dark Horse Comics.
The third season of Jake and the Never Land Pirates kicks off on Disney Junior
with the episodes "Treasure of the Pirate Mummy's Tomb" and "Mystery of the
Missing Treasure!"
2016:
It is reported that Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens has become
the highest-grossing film of all time in U.S. cinemas for Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures. The film has earned more than $629 million domestically since its December 18 premiere.
At Epcot, the popular Soarin' attraction takes guests all around California for the last time. The closure is not permanent as it is expected to return this summer with an all-new film and name: Soarin'
Around the World. Also, another Soarin' theater is currently under construction and scheduled to open later this year.
(The current version of the ride is also scheduled to close at Disney's California Adventure.)
At Disney's Hollywood Studios, both Phineas and Ferb Meet and Greet and
Cars Meet and Greet permanently close.
2015:
"The Legacy Collection: Fantasia" is released on Walt Disney Records. The 5th installment
of the Legacy Collection, this disc features the full score of Disney's classic animated film.
1975:
Actor, voice actor, director and producer Jason Marsden is born in Providence,
Rhode Island. His Disney film credits include A Goofy Movie (as Max Goof), Tarzan (as Mungo), Spirited Away (as Haku), and Brother Bear 2 (as Kenai). Marsden's television credits include Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Disney's House of Mouse, and Doc McStuffins.
1976:
Actor Nicholas Gonzalez is born in San Antonio, Texas. He is best known as Dr. Neil Melendez on the ABC television series The Good Doctor. His long list of television credits include episodes of such ABC shows as Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, and Modern Family.
2017:
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror closes the day after its final day of operation in Disney California Adventure. Opened since May 2004, it will be replaced by an attraction based on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy film series, titled Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! (the first American Disney attraction to be based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe).
1956:
Actor Mel Gibson is born in Peekskill, New York (but moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia, when he was 12 years old). He is best known to Disney fans for voicing John Smith in the 1995 Disney animated feature film, Pocahontas, in which he also provided the singing voice for the character. (However, his younger brother, Donal took over the role for the 1998 direct-to-video sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World.) Mel also played Tom Mullen in the 1996 Touchstone Pictures film Ransom, and Rev. Gramham Hess in the 2002 Touchstone Pictures film Signs. He also directed Touchstone's 2006 adventure Apocalypto. (Gibson is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocalyptic action series Mad Max and as Martin Riggs in the buddy cop film series Lethal Weapon.)
1969:
Racing car driver Michael Schumacher is born in West Germany. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers ever, he voiced Michael Schumacher Ferrari, a character based on him, in Disney/Pixar's film, Cars.
1907:
Actor and film director Ray Milland is born in Neath, Glamorgan, Wales. With a screen career that ran from 1929 to 1985, he played the role of Aristotle Bolt in Disney's 1975 live-action Escape to Witch Mountain. (He is best remembered for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's 1945 The Lost Weekend.)
