2004:
Disney Channel's newest sitcom Phil of the Future premieres with four back
-to-back 30-minute episodes including: "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Unification
Day," "Meet the Curtis," and "Phillin' In." About a family from 2121 trying desperately to fit
in the year 2004, the cast includes Ricky Ullman (as Phil Diffy) and Alyson Michalka (as Keely Teslow).
1954:
Disney's 8-minute animated short Casey Bats Again (based on the
famous poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest L. Thayer) is released.
Directed by Jack Kinney, Casey comes to the plate again, this time as the manager of a team
made up of his nine daughters who manage to win ... despite Casey's leadership.
1983:
The Disneyland parade Flights of Fantasy, which celebrates the opening of the
New Fantasyland, debuts. (In January 2011 another Flights of Fantasy, a parade celebrating the 5th
anniversary of Hong Kong Disneyland, will premiere.)
1988:
Mickey's Birthdayland opens in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World with a
special ribbon-cutting ceremony. Actress Cindy Williams (from the 70's sitcom, Laverne & Shirley)
and First Lady Nancy Reagan help debut the new Magic Kingdom land. Located between Fantasyland and
Tomorrowland (past the Tomorrowland Speedway), guests can also arrive via the Walt Disney World Railroad; as a new station has been added. Mickey's Birthdayland has been built to honor the mouse's 60th birthday, which will happen in November. (At the end of Mickey's 60th Birthday celebration on April 22 1990, Mickey's Birthdayland will close and reopen in May 1990 as Mickey's Starland. Mickey's Starland will later be updated and turned into Mickey's Toontown Fair in October 1996. Mickey's Toontown Fair will ultimately close in February of 2011 to make way for the expansion of Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland.)
1995:
The first wedding performed at Walt Disney World's Wedding
Pavilion, a Victorian-style structure located next to the Grand
Floridian Resort, previews on the Lifetime cable network
show, Weddings of a Lifetime.
1996:
The Haber family become the first to move into Disney's newest Florida community, Celebration.
1998:
The Walt Disney Company becomes an even bigger part of the Internet with the
purchase of a 43% stake in Web search engine company Infoseek Corp.
(Disney Plans to launch an Internet portal.)
Disney's Mulan opens nationwide in Singapore.
Disney's Animazement - The Musical opens at the Fantasyland Theater in
Disneyland. The show includes familiar songs from animated Disney features released between 1989 and
1997, plus a brand new, original song, "It Starts With A Sketch," written specifically for this production.
1999:
Disney's 37th animated feature Tarzan is generally
released in the U.S. Based on the classic story Tarzan of the Apes by
Edgar Rice Burroughs, it is directed by Chris Buck and Kevin Lima.
The soundtrack features five songs by Phil Collins - who will later win
both an Academy Award and a Grammy Award. To create the sweeping
3D backgrounds, the production team has developed a 3D painting and
rendering technique known as Deep Canvas. This technique allows artists to
produce CGI background that looks like a traditional painting. For this advancement,
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will later award the creators of Deep Canvas a Technical Achievement Award in 2003.
2002:
Disney's direct-to-video Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch is released. (It is the fourth film in the Air Bud series.)
1969:
Disney's 1953 Peter Pan is re-released in theaters for the third time.
1982:
Grad Night '82 is held at Disneyland. The late night entertainment includes performances by Sister Sledge, Tommy Tutone, and Frankie & The Knockouts.
An immortal legend. As you've only imagined.
JUNE
1943:
Charley Laney - a Mouseketeer on Mickey Mouse Club for six months
between April and September of 1956 - is born in California. A dancer, musician,
singer, and gymnast, Charley joined the show for the second season as a "Blue Team" replacement.
Bill Walsh, originally from New York City, joins Disney as a writer for the Mickey
Mouse comic strip. He will work with illustrator Floyd Gottfredson on the daily comic strip until 1964.
During those years Walsh will also develop into a film & TV producer and screenwriter. One of Walt's most
trusted employees, he will take the Disney Studio into the age of television with the first Disney special One
Hour in Wonderland and later the Mickey Mouse Club. Walsh will be named a Disney Legend in 1991.
2008:
It is reported that WALL-E is leading a campaign by NASA and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to promote interest among schoolchildren in science and technology.
NASA and Disney have signed a Space Act Agreement for a series of educational and public
outreach activities related to Disney-Pixar’s new movie, WALL-E (which opens in theaters nationwide June 27, 2008).
1971:
Actress Kerry Butler - who originated the role of Belle for the Toronto stage production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast - is born in Brooklyn, New York.
She was nominated for the DORA Award for her performance, and later played the role on Broadway.
JUNE 18
JUNE 18
THIS SITE MADE
IN THE
USA
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Mickey's Birthdayland opens
"I was saved! I was saved by a flying wild man in a loincloth." -Jane Porter
2009:
Disneyland Resort salutes the 2009 World Champion Los Angeles Lakers with a victory parade down Main Street U.S.A. in Disneyland. (The Lakers defeated
the Orlando Magic to win the title in a "Fairytale Series" that matched up teams located near
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim and Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.)
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1964:
Attorneys Paul Helliwell and Robert Foster (secretly representing Disney) meet in Jacksonville, Florida to finalize negotiations with the Demetree Family to purchase their Central Florida land which will be used for a new Disney resort.
Meanwhile over at Disneyland, Grad Nite '64 is held from 11pm til 5am.
2010:
Pixar's Toy Story 3 is released along with the
short Day & Night to theaters in the U.S.
The plot focuses on the toys Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and
their friends who have to deal with an uncertain future as
their owner, Andy, is preparing to leave for college. Directed
by Lee Unkrich, the film's score has been composed
and conducted by Randy Newman. The all-star voice cast
includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles,
Wallace Shawn, Estelle Harris, John Ratzenberger, Ned
Beatty, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi
Benson, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Keaton, and Jeff Garlin.
Day & Night, directed by Teddy Newton, centers on the personifications of daytime and nighttime who must learn to get along. Unlike most other Pixar shorts, the animation style combines 2D and 3D elements.
Can't Be Tamed, the third studio album by singer Miley Cyrus, is released by Hollywood Records. It will be her final album with the label, as she will sign with RCA Records in early 2013.
1959:
Disney's Eyes In Outer Space, directed by Ward Kimball, is released in theaters. The combination live-action and animated featurette explains the future of satellite's ability to forecast and control the weather.
(It will later win the 1960 Thomas Edison Foundation Award.)
Tarzan voice cast:
Tony Goldwyn - Tarzan
Alex D. Linz - young Tarzan
Minnie Driver - Jane Porter
Glenn Close - Kala
Lance Henriksen - Kerchak
Nigel Hawthorne - Professor Archimedes Q. Porter
Wayne Knight - Tantor
Rosie O'Donnell - Terk
Brian Blessed - Clayton
1979:
Count Basie’s 17th consecutive year of performing at Disneyland is honored with a
gala celebration for his 75th birthday (which is August 21). The band leader's
birthday party is attended by many of his friends from the entertainment industry, including Sammy Davis Jr.,
Joe Williams and Ed McMahon.
2011:
The premiere of the new Disney/Pixar animated feature Cars 2 takes place at the
El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. The sequel to the original Cars cruises into theaters June 24.
1986:
At the White House in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan presents Disneyland with the President's Citation Award for Private Sector Initiatives.
(Reagan had helped host Disneyland's debut back in 1955.)
Actor Richard Madden, who portrayed Prince Kit in the 2015 live-action Cinderella,
is born in Scotland.
2012:
The second phase of Disney's Art of Animation Resort opens at Walt Disney World. The wing dedicated to the popular film Cars is themed after the Cozy
Cone Motel. Taking on a notably different tone than the vibrant Finding Nemo wing (which opened May 31), the new Cars area embodies the feeling of the sleepy little town of
Radiator Springs. (Disney's Art of Animation's Cars wing is WDW's 26th resort.)
June 18
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
2013:
Walt Disney World officially reopens the Main Street Bakery at Magic Kingdom
Park, featuring for the first time Starbucks drinks and food along with Disney
house-made treats. Main Street Bakery, which is designed to fit with the current theme of Main Street,
U.S.A., won’t be the only WDW location to serve Starbucks. As previously announced, other locations are
coming to Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Toy Story 3, which was released on this day in 2010, was the first animated film to make one billion dollars at the worldwide box office.
The film achieved this in
just a matter of months!
Toy Story 3 is also the third highest-grossing animated film of all time.
1985:
Alex Hirsch, a writer, animator, and voice actor, best known as the creator of the
Disney XD series Gravity Falls, is born in Piedmont, California. He also provided the voices of Grunkle Stan, Soos, and Bill Cipher for the Annie Award-winning series. Gravity Falls was inspired by Hirsch's own childhood experiences and his relationship with his own twin sister Ariel. Hirsch's Disney credits also include Fish Hooks (writer, creative consultant, storyboard artist & co-developer), Phineas and Ferb, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Big City Greens, The Owl House, and Amphibia.
1942:
Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Paul McCartney is born
James Paul McCartney in Liverpool, England. Gaining worldwide fame as the bass guitarist
and singer for the rock band The Beatles, his songwriting partnership with band mate John Lennon remains
the most successful in history. McCartney made a cameo in Disney's 2017 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men
Tell No Tales as Jack Sparrow's paternal uncle. In August 2004 Miramax Films (at the time owned by Disney) released Paul McCartney: Music & Animation an animated anthology film compiling three animated short films produced by McCartney. He even appeared in the October/November 1992 issue of The Disney Channel Magazine. In December 1973 Paul and Linda McCartney hosted an episode of Disney Time (a UK holiday television series running on the BBC). During production of the 1967 animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, Disney attempted to get the Beatles members to cameo! McCartney and his bandmates would've voiced a singing quartet of vultures fitted with mop top hairstyles.
2019:
Animator, artist and actor Milton Quon passes away at age 105 in Torrance, California. One of the last living artists who worked at Disney during its Golden Age of Animation, Quon was born
to Chinese immigrants in 1913. Winnning a scholarship to Chouinard Art Institute (later called California Institute of
the Arts), upon graduation he began working for the Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1939. As the third Chinese-American to be hired there, Quon worked on the "Waltz of the Flowers" and the "Arabian Dance" scenes in Fantasia (1940) and as first assistant animator on Dumbo (1941). He later ran Disney's publicity/promotions department, doing promo artwork for films including the 1946 releases Make Mine Music and Song of the South.
He left Disney in 1951 to pursue a career in advertising art.
Disney's 1950 animated Cinderella is re-released on HD digital download.
1980:
Actor David Giuntoli is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He plays Eddie in the ABC-TV family drama series A Million Little Things.
2018:
Big City Greens, an animated comedy and adventure television series created by the Houghton brothers, premieres on Disney Channel. Focusing on Cricket Green, a mischievous and optimistic country boy who moves to the big city along with his family after losing their farm, the voice cast includes Chris Houghton, Marieve Herington, Bob Joles, and Artemis Pebdani.
Also debuting on Disney Channel is season 3 of the comedy series Bunk'd, with the episode "We Can't Bear It!" Actors Raphael Alejandro (as Matteo Silva) and Will Buie Jr. (as Finn Sawyer) have been added to the cast.
The second season of the animated series Spider-Man debuts on Disney XD.
2020:
Hong Kong Disneyland reopens after a major drop in coronavirus cases in the Chinese territory. Closed for 5 months, it is the second Disney theme park to reopen. Advance reservations will be required and only limited attendance will be allowed at the park.
Singer, songwriter and entertainer Vera Lynn passes away at age 103 in England. Wildly popular during Word War II, two of her recordings "We'll Meet Again" and "Wishing (Will Make It So)" is used as backdrop music in Walt Disney World's Tower of Terror attraction.
1952:
Actress, author, philanthropist, and model Isabella Rossellini is born to Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini in Rome, Italy. She is the voice of Ambassador Henrietta Selick in the 2018 Incredibles 2, and the Bat Queen in 2 episodes of the fantasy series The Owl House. Rossellini also appeared in 5 episodes of the ABC series Alias as Katya Derevko. She has been a frequent narrator for Epcot's Candlelight Processional over the years.
2021:
Luca, a computer-animated coming-of-age fantasy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, is released. Set on the Italian Riviera in 1963, the film centers on Luca Paguro, a sea monster boy with the ability to assume human form while on land, who explores the town of Portorosso with his new best friend Alberto Scorfano, experiencing a life-changing summer. The voice cast features Jacob Tremblay as Luca, Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto Scorfano (Luca's best friend), Emma Berman as Giulia, Maya Rudolph as Daniela, and Jim Gaffigan as Lorenzo.
