1971:
Animator, cartoonist, and technical genius Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (also known as Ub Iwerks), passes away at age 70 in Burbank, California. First meeting
Walt Disney in 1919, Iwerks contributed to many of the early Mickey Mouse classics like Plane
Crazy, Steamboat Willie, and Gallopin' Gaucho. Serving as chief directing animator for the Silly Symphony series, he branched out on his own in 1930. After 10 years, he returned to the Studio, where he focused on technical development. He invented the first multiplane camera, a device that used four layers of flat artwork before a horizontal camera to give animation depth. Iwerks built the device out of parts from an old Chevrolet automobile! Iwerks helped develop the sodium vapor process for live-action/animation combination and traveling mattes, which he won an Oscar for in 1965 after utilizing it in "Mary Poppins." He also worked at WED Enterprises, now Walt Disney Imagineering, helping to develop many Disney theme park attractions such as it’s a small world, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and The Hall of Presidents. Iwerks was named a Disney
Legend (in 1989) along with Walt's Nine Old Men.
2004:
Radio Disney debuts on the Music Choice network, which allows digital cable
and satellite TV homes and cable-modem subscribers to hear the popular
family station in digital quality.
Touchstone Pictures releases the historical adventure film King Arthur. A demystified take on the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the film stars Clive Owen, Ioan Gruffudd, and Mads
Mikkelsen.
"Iwerks is Screwy spelled backwards"
-animator Chuck Jones
(who as a youth worked for Ub Iwerks' studio)
1898:
Paul Winkler, the first to establish Disney's presence in France through publishing, is born in Budapest, Hungary. In 1930, determined to bring Mickey Mouse to the French public, Winkler traveled all the way to Hollywood by ship and railroad to personally negotiate publishing rights with Walt and Roy O. Disney. That same year, the Mickey Mouse comic strip debuted in the newspaper Le Petit Parisien. Four years later, Paul developed the first French Mickey Mouse comic magazine, Le Journal de Mickey, which was an immediate success. Passing away in 1982, Winkler was named a Disney Legend in 1997.
1931:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey Steps Out is released. Directed by Burt Gillett,
Mickey and his pal Pluto are all dressed up to call on Minnie ... but an alley cat disrupts their afternoon.
1940:
Drummer, singer & actor Ringo Starr is born Richard Starkey
in Liverpool, England. First gaining worldwide fame in the 1960s as the
drummer for The Beatles, his recording of "When You Wish Upon A Star" can be
heard on the 1988 release STAY AWAKE Various Interpretations of Music from
Vintage Disney Films. Starr's 1974 hit "You're Sixteen" was originally written by
Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman (of Disney songwriting fame). Ringo
visited Disneyland with his family back in 1970 and in 1992 Disney Channel
aired the special "Ringo Starr Going Home" in celebration of his 52nd birthday.
1980:
Olympic ice skating champion Michelle Kwan is born in Torrance, California. Her Disney credits include the television specials Reflections on Ice: Michelle Kwan Skates to the Music of Disney's Mulan, Disney's Greatest Hits on Ice, and Michelle Kwan: Princess on Ice. She also supplied the voice of the Shopkeeper in Disney's animated Mulan II and appeared as herself in the 2005 live-action film Ice Princess.
Kwan is a two-time Olympic medalist, a five-time World champion and a nine-time U.S. champion.
1997:
Disneyland's monorail begins operating in one direction only - due to
the construction of Disney's California Adventure.
Actress/singer Gatlin Green is born in Nashville, Tennessee. Her Disney credits include episodes of Liv and Maddie and the direct-to-video Kronk's New Groove.
1998:
Disney's Beauty and the Beast plays its 1,762 performance on Broadway.
This breaks the previous record, making it the longest running show ever at the Palace Theater in
New York City!
2000:
Voice actresses June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Tweety Bird's Granny, and many Disney animated characters - such as Lucifer in Cinderella - receives her star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.
The Disney Ambassador Hotel (located at The Tokyo Disney Resort) opens.
Disney's The Kid starring Bruce Willis, Spencer Breslin, and Lily Tomlin is released.
Willis stars as Russ Duritz, a successful image consultant whose life is suddenly turned upside down when he magically meets Rusty, Russ himself as an 8-year-old kid. Rusty is a sweet, but slightly geeky, awkward little kid
who painfully reminds Russ of everything he hated about himself when he was a kid. The cast also includes Emily Mortimer, Chi McBride, Jean Smart, and Melissa McCarthy.
2003:
Disneyland foreman and attractions host Chuck Abbott passes away in Utah. A 36-year
veteran of the park (and a member of Club 55 - a group of original Disneyland Cast Members), he worked directly
with Walt Disney during the planning and construction of Pirates of the Caribbean. In 1969, Abbott was named
"Foreman of the Year" at the Matterhorn. In 1977, he was foreman for the opening of Space Mountain, and returned
to the Matterhorn for the big rehab and reopening of the attraction in 1978. During the course of his career, he also
served as foreman of the Submarine Voyage, Jungle Cruise, Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland, and many
other attractions. In 1987, Abbott conceived and initiated the Cast Member seeing-eye dog fund, which became
a highly successful volunteer group. Abbott will be named a Disney Legend in 2005
(a first for an hourly theme park Cast Member).
The equestrian sports film Seabiscuit is released through Spyglass Entertainment, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, and Touchstone Pictures. Based on the best-selling non-fiction book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand, the film is loosely based on the life and racing career of
Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked Thoroughbred race horse. It stars Tobey Maguire as John "Red" Pollard, a Canadian horse racing jockey best known for riding Seabiscuit; the top money winning racehorse up to the 1940s.
The cast includes Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Gary Stevens, and William H. Macy.
2006:
Disney's newest feature film Pirates Of The
Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens in
theaters the same day the attraction Pirates
of the Caribbean re-opens at Disney World's
Magic Kingdom. Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbosa
(characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean feature films)
have been added to the popular Florida attraction. Disney
Imagineers have also enhanced the attraction experience
with an all-new dynamic digital sound design. The second
Pirates film, Dead Man's Chest finds Jack Sparrow (Johnny
Depp) racing to recover the heart of Davy Jones to avoid
enslaving his soul to Jones' service. The film also feaures Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann, Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, Jack Davenport as James Norrington, and Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa.
1953:
Disney's animated feature Peter Pan is released in Argentina.
Disneyland's
was modeled after the
first vessel to successfully circumnavigate the globe.
1976:
Disney's live-action comedy feature Gus, about a football-
kicking mule and his trainer, is released. The California Atoms are in
last place with no hope of moving up, until the team's mascot Gus becomes the
team's kicker and they start winning! But when two ex-cons are hired to kidnap
Gus ... there's chaos on the gridiron. The film features Edward Asner, Don Knotts,
Gary Grimes, Tim Conway, Dick Van Patten, Bob Crane, Tom Bosley, and football
great Johnny Unitas.
1963:
Summer Magic, a live-action Disney musical starring Hayley Mills, Burl Ives,
and Dorothy McGuire, is released. Set in the early 20th century, the film centers around middle-aged
widow Margaret Carey (played by McGuire) and her three children - Nancy (Mills), Peter (Jimmy Mathers), and Gilly (Eddie Hodges), who must bid farewell to their life of luxury in the big city of Boston and move to a small country town in Maine. Osh Popham (Ives), the local postmaster, sets them up in an empty home owned by the mysterious Mr. Tom Hamilton (Peter Brown), who turns up only to fall in love with Nancy. When their snobbish cousin Julia (Deborah Walley) comes to visit, she too soon becomes one of the family, and falls in love with the new schoolteacher Charles Bryan (James Stacy). Mills will receive a Golden Globe nomination for her role of Nancy. It is the fourth of six films that Mills will appear in for Disney during her early career.
Vonda Shepard, a singer, songwriter, and actress, is born in New York City. Best known for her work on the television show Ally McBeal, Shepard sang "Wherever You Are," a song from Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin. Written by Michael Abbott and Sarah Weeks, Shepard's version plays during the ending credits.
1937:
Disney sound engineer William Garity films activities in the Disney Studio as
publicity for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (to be used by RKO).
1951:
Actress-singer Roz Ryan, the voice of Thalia, Muse of Comedy in both Disney's
animated feature Hercules and TV series Hercules, is born in Detroit, Michigan.
Her Disney credits also include episodes of Kim Possible and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
1984:
The Promenade Gifts shop and Restaurant Hokusai both open in Tokyo Disneyland.
Actor Ross Aaron Malinger is born in California. He provided the original voice of T.J. Detweiler on
the Disney animated series Recess. His Disney credits also include Homeward Bound 2: Lost in San Francisco as
the voice of Spike.
1989:
The Disney Channel airs the comedy Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain starring
Jim Varney. Ernest Goes To Splash Mountain chronicles the adventures of Ernest P. Worrell who trains as America's first "Splashtranaut" destined to become the very first person to conquer the Disneyland mountain.
JULY
JULY 7
JULY 7
THIS SITE MADE
IN THE
USA
 | ||||
| ||||
When constructed in 1958,
it was the first three-masted
windjammer to have been
built in the United States in
more than 100 years.
Ub Iwerks (1901-1971)
| ||||
1962:
Meet Me at Disneyland (a limited TV series broadcast live on KTTV directly from the
Anaheim park) airs episode 5 "There’s Something about a Band." The show opens with
scenes of Disneyland to tunes performed by the Disneyland Band. Several musical and comedy segments follow
as host Johnny Jacobs mingles with the crowd and talks to park guests about their home towns. Special celebrity
guests include The Osmond Brothers, Owen Pope, "Big Fred", and The Vonnair Sisters. Meet Me at Disneyland
is designed to boost park attendance during the summer weeknights.
2011:
Disney's Aladdin The New Stage Musical has its world-premiere in Seattle at the
5th Avenue Theatre. Running through July 31, the new stage adaptation incorporates the Oscar-
winning songs from the 1992 animated film, penned by composer Alan Menken and lyricists Howard Ashman
and Tim Rice. The pilot production is being used to launch the new two-act version as a licensable property
for professional and amateur organizations through Music Theatre International, which handles rights for
Disney Theatrical titles.
July 07
In Memory Of
2014:
Dick Jones, the voice of of Pinocchio in the classic 1940 animated
Disney film, dies at 87. Appearing in more than 100 films and television shows in his long career,
he is best known by far for the role in which he was not seen on screen. At about 10, when he was known
as Dickie, Jones was chosen by Walt Disney to be the voice of Pinocchio. He was named a Disney Legend in 2000.
The 7D, a children's animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation, premieres on Disney XD. It is a re-imagining of the title characters from the 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and their adventures prior to the introduction of Snow White. The voice cast features Billy West (Bashful), Bill Farmer (Doc), Dee Bradley Baker (Dopey), Maurice LaMarche (Grumpy), Kevin Michael Richardson (Happy), Stephen Stanton (Sleepy), and Scott Menville (Sneezy). The 7D will run for two seasons.
1972:
Disney's Now You See Him, Now You Don’t premieres in Edmonton, Canada.
Medfield College student Dexter Riley comes up with a lab experiment that produces fantastic results... invisibility!
Starring Kurt Russell, Joyce Menges, Joe Flynn, and Cesar Romero, the film will be generally released 5 days later.
2017:
Season 2 of the animated television series The Lion Guard premieres with the episode "Babysitter Bunga." Based on Disney's 1994 blockbuster film The Lion King, it is the second television series
to be based on The Lion King, the first being Timon & Pumbaa.
2020:
Disney World begins operating today for the first time since March. Cast Member previews of
Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom begin in anticipation of the official reopening to the public July 11.
2021:
Monsters at Work, a computer-animated streaming television series, debuts on Disney+.
Featuring the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman, it continues the story of the 2001 film Monsters, Inc.
1988:
Actor, comedian, presenter and writer Jack Whitehall is born in London, England.
He portrayed McGregor Houghton in the 2021 Jungle Cruise. Although Whitehall voiced a character named Gothi (a Troll Priest) in the 2013 animated Frozen, his scenes were ultimately cut.
1956:
Both Disneyland and Walt Disney are honored before more than 40,000 Cub Scouts during a show held at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (produced by the Los Angeles Area Boy Scouts of America).
1966:
Stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer Jim Gaffigan is born James Christopher Gaffigan in Elgin, Illinois. He voiced Father Time in 3 episodes of "Star vs. the Forces of Evil," and sea monster Lorenzo Paguro in Disney/Pixar's 2021 "Luca." He also played Mr. Smee in the 2023 live-action remake "Peter Pan & Wendy." Besides being known as a family-friendly "clean comic," Gaffigan is also recognizable as the voice of Henry Haber in the Fox animated sitcom "Bob's Burgers" and Abraham Van Helsing in Sony Pictures' "Hotel Transylvania" franchise.
