1912:
Director, writer, producer, narrator, & Disney Legend James
Algar is born in Modesto, California. After receiving his master's
degree in journalism, he joined the Disney Studios in 1934. At Disney he created
many nature and animal motion pictures, such as The African Lion and Grand Canyon. Algar also penned 5 Academy Award-winning films for Disney including
the 1953 hit The Living Desert. He also worked on 26 one-hour episodes for The
Wonderful World of Disney television series and wrote and produced "Great
Moments with Mr. Lincoln" for the 1964 World's Fair and later, Disneyland.
1919:
Actor & Disney Legend Richard Todd is born in Dublin, Ireland. His Disney credits include the live-action features The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men as Robin Hood, The Sword and the Rose as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue as Rob Roy.
1928:
Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short Sky Scrappers is released.
1929:
Walt Disney's trademark application for the image of Mickey Mouse is filed with the United States Patent Office.
1961:
The ABC-TV series Walt Disney Presents airs the segments "The Titlemakers" and
"Nature's Half Acre." In the first half, Walt Disney shows off the Title Department, where the titles for Disney
films are created. In this case, the latest title sequence is for The Parent Trap. Featured are Disney studio employees
Xavier Atencio and Bill Justice, and actors Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello - who are shown recording the
opening song for The Parent Trap. The second half of this evening's episode is an edited version of Disney's
1951 True-Life Adventure film Nature's Half Acre.
1969:
Disney's family feature Rascal, starring Steve Forrest and Bill Mumy, is released along with the drama Hang Your Hat On The Wind, featuring Rick Natoli. Rascal is based on Sterling North's 1963 bestselling book Rascal. The movie tells the tale of a year in the life of young Sterling North (portrayed by Mumy) and his "ringtailed wonder" pet raccoon, Rascal. Hang Your Hat tells the tale of Goyo, a Navajo boy, who finds a thoroughbred in the desert. After devotedly caring for the horse he learns of its true owner. Goyo intends to return it but the stallion is stolen by two men and the youth is determined to get the animal back.
1975:
Recording artist Mylin Brooks, a member of Disney Channel's
The All New Mickey Mouse Club, is born in the Philippines.
1977:
Walt Disney World's version of the Main Street Electrical Parade debuts.
Created by Bob Jani and project director Ron Miziker, it features floats and live performers covered in thousands
of electronically-controlled lights and a synchronized soundtrack triggered by radio control along key areas of the
parade route. The Main Street Electrical Parade's underlying theme song is entitled "Baroque Hoedown," based
on an original version first created in 1967 by early synthesizer pioneers Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon
Kingsley. Originally appearing at Disneyland in 1972, WDW's parade will run through September 1992 when
it is replaced with Spectromagic, and then return to the park again in May 1999.
1986:
Actor Shia LaBeouf, the star of Disney Channel's Even Stevens and the Disney
feature films The Greatest Game Ever Played and Holes, is born in Los Angeles,
California. LaBeouf was also the host of the 2002 documentary Beauty and the Beast: Disney's Animation Magic and supplied the voice of Johnny McBride in a 2002 episode of The Proud Family. (Sci-fi fans know him for his role of Sam Witwicky in such features as Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.)
1993:
At Disneyland, the Motor Boat Cruise located on the border of Fantasyland
and Tomorrowland (& opened since June 1957) closes permanently.
2004:
The Disney Channel Original Movie Zenon: Z3 premieres.
Today marks the start of this year's final Star Wars Weekends at Disney-MGM
Studios. Celebritiy guests include Daniel Logan (who played the young clone Fett, son and duplicate
of the notorious Jango Fett) and Amy Allen (who played the popular female Jedi, Aayla Secura).
2005:
The National Kidney Foundation of Florida hosts the Gift of Life 5K Race for Organ & Tissue Donation Awareness at Epcot. The race is designed to raise financial donations as well as awareness for organ donations.
2006:
Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone close the 2006 Flower
Power Concert Series and the Flower and Garden Festival itself at Epcot with 3 final performances of a 4-day run.
1983:
At EPCOT, the Refreshment Outpost snack bar opens in World Showcase.
In 2000 the United States
Library of Congress deemed
Disney's 1953 The Living
Desert (co-written by James
Algar) "culturally significant"
and selected it for
preservation in the National
Film Registry.
1960:
Disney's film The Sign of Zorro, starring Guy Williams, Henry Calvin,
Gene Sheldon, and Romney Brent, is released. Don Diego (Guy Williams)
returns home to find his town under the heel of a cruel dictator, Capitan Monastario. Diego dons the mask
of Zorro to fight the evil commandant's tyranny, and, with the help of his mute servant Bernardo, free the
pueblo from his oppression! The film was created from 8 edited episodes of Disney's hit TV series.
2007:
Disneyland's newest attraction Finding Nemo: Submarine Voyage (based on the Disney/Pixar animated feature) opens to the general public.
Variety reports that Pixar's release for 2009 will be an animated feature titled Up, about a 70-year-old man who teams with a wilderness ranger to fight beasts and villains. Pete Docter (of Monsters, Inc.) is directing along with Pixar veteran Bob Peterson - who is also writing the script.
JUNE
2008:
Disney Channel kicks off the promotion machine for its movie Camp Rock with a star-studded premiere at the legendary Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City. The stars of the telepic, most notably the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, arrive at the event greeted by screaming young fans.
1992:
Disney's Beauty and the Beast is widely released in theaters in Australia.
JUNE 11
JUNE 11
THIS SITE MADE
IN THE
USA
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The Living Desert won an
Academy Award for Best Documentary and a Special
Golden Globe for Artisitc Merit.
Actor Shia LaBeouf born
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom proudly presents our spectacular pagaent of nighttime magic and imagination in thousands of sparking lights and electrosynthomagnetic musical sounds, The Main Street Electrical Parade!"
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2010:
World of Color officially debuts at Disney California Adventure
park. A spectacular display of water and special effects, it features more than 1,000
jets of water which form incredible shapes in time to music allowing Disney characters to come to life on a
shimmering veil of mist.
Also officially debuting ... Silly Symphony Swings, a "wave swinger" attraction in Paradise Pier, at Disney California Adventure. Themed to Disney's The Band Concert, it features conductor Mickey Mouse conducting the attraction from high atop. (Although technically The Band Concert is not
part of the 'Silly Symphonies' film series, the name has been applied to the attraction due to its symphony storyline.)
1995:
A small army of Disney and New York City Parks Department workers go to work clearing Central Park's Great Lawn of bottles, snack trays and other trash left behind by the lucky 100,000 who attended the Pocahontas premiere the night before.
"This was the largest movie premiere in history and we're very lucky. No one throws a party like New York City, and no one
throws a party like Disney." -New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Selected Filmography:
Fantasia (1940)
Victory Through Air Power (1943)
Seal Island (1948)
In Beaver Valley (1950)
Nature's Half Acre (1951)
Bear Country (1953)
The Living Desert (1953)
The Vanishing Prairie (1954)
Secrets of Life (1956)
White Wilderness (1958)
Jungle Cat (1959)
1936:
Actor Chad Everett is born Raymon Lee Cramton in South Bend, Indiana.
Best known for his role as Dr. Joe Gannon in the television drama Medical Center (which aired on CBS from
1969 to 1976), he also appeared in more than 40 films and television series. Everett was selected by the
family of veteran actor John Wayne to be the voice of the animatronic figure of Wayne in Disney's Hollywood
Studios' Great Movie Ride!
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
June 11
1959:
English actor, writer, director, musician and comedian Hugh Laurie is born in Oxford, Oxfordshire. He played the role of David Nix in Disney's 2015 release Tomorrowland and Jasper in the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians. American audiences know Laurie for his TV role of Dr. Gregory House, the protagonist of House.
2013:
Disney's 3D animated slapstick comedy short film Get a Horse! is released at the
Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Combining black-and-white hand-drawn
animation and color CGI animation, the short features the characters of the late 1920s Mickey Mouse cartoons.
It is the first original Mickey Mouse theatrical animated short since Runaway Brain (1995), and the first
appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in a Disney animated production in 85 years! Get a Horse! will be
released on November 27 along with Frozen.
Disney's 2000 The Emperor's New Groove is released on Blu-ray, bundled in a two-movie collection combo pack with its sequel Kronk's New Groove.
Also released on Blu-ray is the 2013 live-action fantasy Oz the Great and Powerful.
Icon, a compilation album by British rock band Queen, is released by Hollywood Records.
Only released in the U.S. and Canada, it contains such hits as "Tie Your Mother Down", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Another One Bites the Dust", and "We Will Rock You".
2019:
Toy Story 4 has its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California.
In attendance are Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, Bonnie Hunt, Kristen Schaal, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Blake Clark, June Squibb, Carl Weathers, Jack McGraw, Juliana Hansen, Flea, Melissa Villasenor and John Morris. The computer-animated comedy film, produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, will
be generally released to U.S. theaters June 21.
2016:
Hong Kong Disneyland's Autopia closes. Running since July 2006, the Tomorrowland attraction was fully electric with motor sounds that played through an in-car sound system!
2000:
This year's Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival ends.
1985:
Singer/actor Chris Trousdale is born in New Port Richey, Florida. A member of the boyband Dream Street, his Disney Channel credits include episodes of Shake It Up and Austin & Ally.
2020:
Disney+ is launched in Japan. The streaming service is an exclusive partnership with local telecom giant NTT Docomo.
Myth: A Frozen Tale, an animated short based on Disney's 2019 Frozen II, premieres on Oculus Quest (a virtual reality headset).
2015:
"Frozen” Festival Show debuts at Honk Kong Disneyland. An almost identical version of
"For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration" (which has played in other Disney theme parks around the world), it is a musical show based on Frozen.
1994:
Animator, writer and director Jack Hannah passes away at age 81 in California. Born John Frederick Hannah in Arizona in 1913, he began his career with Disney in 1933 as an inbetweener and clean-up artist on many early Mickey, Donald and Silly Symphony cartoons. Hannah also helped Carl Barks (the man who drew the comic book adventures of Donald Duck) create his first two comic book stories. He later directed some 94 Disney animated shorts including Donald's Day Off, Bootle Beetle, and Hook, Lion and Sinker. He retired from Disney in 1959, and spent a number of years creating and then heading the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. Hannah was honored as a Disney Legend in 1992.
2001:
The 8th Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival comes to an end.
2021:
The second season of Zenimation begins to air on Disney+. A short-form anthology series created by David Bess as "a tribute to the visual and sound artists who have created Walt Disney Animation Studios' legacy of films," Zenimation had first premiered in May 2020.
