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.
1916:
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.
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.
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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 attraction in The Land pavilion, it 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.)
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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
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Actor Alex D. Linz born
1931:
A letter (dated January 3) is sent to animator '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. Natwick will finally work for Disney starting in 1934.)
Kitchen Kabaret closes
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"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
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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."
