1920:
Walt Disney spots an ad in the Kansas City Star calling for an artist at the Kansas City Slide Company. He applies on a whim and, to his surprise, is hired - at $40 a week. (Disney will work there for more than 2 years helping to produce slides & one-minute films shown as advertisements in movie theaters.)
2002:
Disney's 2001 Atlantis: The Lost Empire is released on DVD and video.
Ten former Major League Baseball players participate in the
Atlanta Braves Dream Week Fantasy Camp at Disney's
Wide World of Sports in Florida.
1915:
Author, storyman, illustrator and Disney Legend Bill Peet is born in
Grandview, Indiana. He will join Disney in 1937 and work on such
classics as 101 Dalmatians,The Sword in the Stone, Fantasia, Peter
Pan, Pinocchio, and The Jungle Book. While still working for Disney
Studios, he will draw pictures for stories in his spare time. By the
time he leaves Disney in 1964 he will already have five of his own
books published, including Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure.
1941:
Disney's 3rd feature film Fantasia has its Hollywood premiere. (The film debuted in New York City in November 1940.) The audience at the Carthay Circle are even more enthusiastic than the one in New York!
1958:
The Disneyland TV series airs part 2 of "The Littlest Outlaw."
1959:
Disney's animated feature film Sleeping Beauty premieres at
the Fox Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles. (It will be nominated for
an Oscar for Best Music/Scoring of a Musical Picture.)
The voice cast includes Mary Costa (as Princess Aurora), Eleanor
Audley (as Maleficent), Barbara Jo Allen (as Fauna), and Verna
Felton (as Flora).
1960:
The television series Walt Disney Presents airs the episode "Wild Burro of The West."
1961:
Mailman Herbert A. Disney (eldest brother of Walt Disney) passes away.
Walt Disney Presents airs "Texas John Slaughter: End of the Trail."
1987:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs parade onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in celebration of Disney's highest-ever first quarter revenues.
1995:
Super Bowl XXIX is played at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida. The halftime show is a Disney production called "Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye." It features Indiana Jones & Marion, Patti LaBelle, Tony Bennett, Arturo Sandoval, and Miami Sound Machine. Jerry Rice and Steve Young of the San Fancisco 49ers shout "We're going to Disney World!" after their team defeats the
San Diego Chargers, 49–26.
The animated feature Sleeping Beauty was made while Walt Disney was building Disneyland (hence the 4 year production time). To help promote the film, Imagineers named the castle at the park Sleeping Beauty's (it was originally to be Snow White's).
1977:
Although nominated for a Golden Globe, the song "I'd Like to Be You for a Day" (written by Joel Hirschhorn & Al Kasha from Disney's Freaky Friday) is beat out for Best Original Song - Motion Picture by "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" (written by Barbra Streisand & Paul Williams).
1843:
William McKinley, the twenty-fifth United States
President, is born in Niles, Ohio. Visit him and all the
U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's Hall of Presidents.
"Now sword of truth, fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure!" -Flora