2005:
Disney's On The Record (a touring musical revue) begins a series of performances at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts.
"I know where to start. Mr. Disney gets the biggest thanks."
-Julie Andrews' Oscar acceptance speech This Day in Disney History 1965
1614:
Pocahontas (the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indians) marries John Rolfe (a tobacco planter) in Jamestown, Virginia. The marriage will ensure peace between the Jamestown settlers and the Native Indians for several years.
1929:
Nigel Hawthorne, the voice of Professor Archimedes Q. Porter in Disney's 1999 film Tarzan, is born in Coventry, England.
1930:
Singer Mary Costa, the voices of Princess Aurora/Briar Rose in Disney's 1959 animated feature Sleeping Beauty, is born in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Mickey Mouse short The Barnyard Concert is released. Mickey conducts an
orchestra made up of Horace, Clarabelle, and other animals performing the "Poet and Peasant Overture."
1934:
Actor and impressionist Frank Gorshin is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He will go on to play the role of Iggy the bank-robber in Disney's 1965 live-action film That Darn Cat! (Fans of the 1960s TV series Batman will remember him as the Riddler.)
1956:
At Disneyland, the Bathroom of the Future (later known as the Bathroom of Tomorrow) presented by The Crane Company, opens in Tomorrowland.
1963:
Fairfax Cone - acting as temporary Chairman of the Illinois Commission on the New York World' Fair - visits the Disney Studios for a presentation of an animatronic Abraham Lincoln figure. A skeptical Cone is later very impressed and convinced that it should be part of the Illinois participation in the upcoming 1964-65 World's Fair.
1965:
At the 37th Academy Awards, Julie Andrews wins an Oscar - Best Actress - for her role in the Disney film Mary Poppins. The film (which has been nominated for a total of 13 Oscars) also wins Academy Awards for Best Song "Chim Chim Cher-ee" (written by the Sherman Brothers), Musical Score (also by the Sherman Brothers), Film Editing (Cotton Warburton), and Special Visual Effects (Peter Ellenshaw, Hamilton Luske & Eustace Lycett). Although Mary Poppins is nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Stevenson) ... both Oscars go to My Fair Lady. The Academy also awards an Oscar (Scientific or Technical,
Class I) to Ub Iwerks, Petro Vlahos, and Wadsworth Pohl for the conception and perfection of techniques for Color Traveling Matte Composite Cinematography (which was used in Mary Poppins).
2001:
The Orlando Rays (the AA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays)
start their second season of baseball at
Disney's Wide World of Sports in Florida.
The Disney Channel Brazil debuts.
Michael Eisner and the Walt Disney Company are honored for "visionary
architectural patronage" by the National Building Museum in Washington,
D.C. Eisner, chairman and chief executive of Disney, accepts the award at a gala in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum.
2002:
Starting on this day, Mickey's Detective School is featured on the Fantasyland Theater stage at the Disneyland Resort.
2006:
The Walt Disney Company Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer Tom Staggs presents on behalf of Disney Worldwide Outreach a donation of
$1.5 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America President Roxanne Spillett on ABC
News' Good Morning America. The funds donated by Disney will go towards rebuilding 16 Clubs in the
Gulf Coast that were severely damaged by hurricanes last year.
The very first Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, a themed store offering young guests the
opportunity for a makeover to become a princess or prince, opens in Downtown
Disney at Walt Disney World. (A second shop will open in the Magic Kingdom in September 2007.)
At one time, Walt Disney wanted to build Disney World in Sanford, Florida. But his
appeal to Sanford's city
council was declined. The citizens of Sanford did not want "the crime that was sure to come with tourism."
2007:
The 14th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival (which has been expanded
to 60 days) begins. This year's theme - "Pirates and Princesses" - features 70 amazing
topiaries depicting Disney characters as Buccaneers and Royalty. Paul Revere and the
Raiders kick off the 2007 Flower Power Concert Series at the America Gardens Theatre.
1998:
The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management), a modified version of Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room, opens at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. The attraction originally opened as Walt Disney's Tropical Serenade back on October 1, 1971 (the park's debut). This new version features Iago and Zazu from Aladdin and The Lion King.
"Hey kid, that's a real smart idea, walking directly under a bird. Good thing you're wearing a hat." - Iago
1975:
Although Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too is nominated in the Short Films,
Animated category ... Closed Mondays takes home the Oscar at the 1974
Academy Awards. ("Oh, bother!")
1938:
Disney's first full length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is released in Canada.
1940:
Disney's Donald Duck short Donald's Dog Laundry is released. Donald has built himself a "modern dog washer" and wants a reluctant Pluto to try it out.
Walt Disney, director Ben Sharpsteen, and their wives leave for New York City by train. As Fantasia is in production, Walt and Ben want to see a demonstration of dimensional sound being put on at Carnegie Hall. A stereophonic reproduction will be demonstrated by Bell Laboratories on April 9.
APRIL 5
APRIL 05
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
Julie Andrews wins Oscar for Mary Poppins
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
A
P
R
| ||||
2007 Flower & Garden Festival
Conservation Station, an attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom, gives guests a fun and educational behind-the-scenes look at the animals who live at the park. The station is
part of Rafiki's Planet Watch, an area dedicated to the preservation and
conservation of animals.
2008:
The official press opening for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror takes place at Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris. Based on the same designs as the version at Disney's California Adventure, The Walt Disney Studios version has been opened since December 22, 2007. The name of the attraction in French is La Tour de la Terreur - Un Saut dans la Quatrième Dimension (The Tower of Terror - A Jump into the Fourth Dimension).
2010:
NASA Space shuttle Discovery launches in the
predawn darkness from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
As with many launches, this one is easily viewed from Walt Disney
World. The STS-131 7-member crew will deliver a multi-purpose
logistics module filled with science racks to the International Space
Station, early on Wedensday.
| ||||
1991:
Disney's Hollywood Pictures releases its fourth feature The Marrying Man, a comedy starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.
1910:
Disney Legend Richard Irvine is born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hired away from 20th Century Fox as an art director for Disney in 1952, Richard "Dick" Irvine was first asked to act as liaison between Walt Disney Productions and an architectural firm that was being considered for designing Disneyland. After a few preliminary meetings with the architects, however, Irvine (along with Walt Disney) concluded that the people who could best design the Magic Kingdom were members of Walt's own staff ... or Imagineers. In launching the world's first theme park, Irvine helped establish and lead a new team of artists, architects, designers and engineers.
"Because Dick had worked with movie set designs, creating structures and settings, he understood our needs more than standard architects, such as "forced" perspective, making things smaller to give the illusion of being farther away and other optical values." -Imagineer John Hench
2011:
Disney Store celebrates its Bronze Award win in the New Retail Frontiers category at the 2011 Edison Best New Product Awards™ at the historic Capitale ballroom in New York City. The distinguished award symbolizes the persistence and excellence personified by inventor Thomas Alva Edison, and recognizes companies at the forefront of innovation, creativity and ingenuity in the global economy.
1916:
Actor Gregory Peck is born in La Jolla, California. One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck shared hosting duties in December 1967 for Disneyland's Candlelight Ceremony.
