2005:
Disney Channel's Get A Clue
is released to DVD and VHS.
Composer-conductor Jamie Mendoza-Nava, who scored the music for
Disney's Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro 1950s television series, passes
away at age 79 in Woodland Hills, California. Over his 40-year career, he composed
music for movies, documentaries, commercials, and the animated television series Mr. Magoo.
1967:
Buddy Baker and 45 musicians record some 47 different pieces of music - that Baker has scored - for Disneyland's new Adventure Thru Inner Space attraction (which will open to guests in August).
1971:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs "One Day at Teton Marsh" on NBC-TV.
Based on the novel by Sally Carrighar and narrated by Sebastian Cabot, this episode originally aired in 1964.
1981:
Disney's Wonderful World airs "Baseball Fever" on NBC-TV.
1989:
Disney Channel airs the 28th episode of MMC.
Today is Anything Can Happen Day!
1991:
Disney Press publishes its first book,
"Walt Disney's 101 Dalmatians: A Counting Book."
1993:
Senior executive and Disney Legend Donn Tatum passes away in Los Angeles, California. Born in 1913, Tatum was first recruited by Walt Disney in 1956, as production business manager. He later served on the Company's Board of Directors and as vice president and administrative assistant to Roy O. Disney. As the first president of Walt Disney World Co., Tatum helped build Walt Disney World and develop EPCOT Center.
1998:
The Wildhorse Saloon, a 27,000-square-foot entertainment venue, opens at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island, Florida. The Wildhorse Saloon (located at 1630 Biena Vista Drive) sits on the former site of the Fireworks Factory restaurant.
Disney holds a wrap party at the Florida Animation Studio for its newly completed feature Mulan. (It will have its world premiere 5 days later.)
2003:
The ABC Super Soap Weekend begins at
Disney's California Adventure.
1997:
The eighth annual Discover Magazine Awards for
Technological Innovation are presented at Epcot.
A gala awards ceremony featuring celebrity presenters LeVar Burton (of "Star Trek:
The Next Generation"), astronaut Story Musgrave, Dr. Michael Guillen (of ABC News)
and Miss America Tara Holland takes place at America Gardens Theatre.
Disney's Nightmare Ned airs on ABC-TV with two new episodes -
"House of Games" and "Willie Trout."
1908:
Veteran actor Don Ameche is born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His Disney credits include
the live-action Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (as the voice of Shadow) and The Boatniks (as
Commodore Taylor). The Academy Award winning Ameche is known for his appearances in such features
as Corrina, Corrina, Cocoon, and Trading Places.
2008:
WALL•E (the star of Disney/Pixar's newest animated feature set to open June 27) appears at a special Family Day celebration at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. WALL•E greets visitors in the New York Times—Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of News, part of the "world's most interactive museum."
"Science of Disney Imagineering" takes place at NYU in New York City. The sold-out event allows guests to interact with Lucky the Dinosaur, ask Finding Nemo's Crush questions, and meet the Imagineers, the scientists and engineers of Walt Disney Imagineering.
Buzz Lightyear blasts off to the International Space Station as "a member of the crew" of space shuttle Discovery. The toy space traveler is part of a program that Disney’s Youth Educational Series and NASA have developed. Buzz's mission coincides with the opening of "Toy Story Midway Mania!," a new 4-D interactive attraction opening on this day at Disney World.
1969:
Actress & singer Sarah Uriarte Berrry - who starred as Belle in Disney's Broadway hit Beauty and the Beast, is born in California. She first played Belle in 1995, replacing
original Belle Susan Egan (a former college room-mate). In 2006, she reprised the role of Belle in Beauty and
the Beast replacing Sarah Litzsinger.
2002:
Disney Channel airs "Raiders of the Lost Sausage," the 50th episode of Even Stevens. It is directed by Fred Savage.
Buzz Lightyear heads into space
The Great Movie Ride (an
at Disney's Hollywood Studios),
features a scene from Fantasia
that includes swirling winds. Why the wind? That portion of the ride was originally designed to be the
tornado scene from The Wizard
of Oz, but was changed to
feature Sorcerer Mickey at
the last minute.
"To infinity ... and beyond!" -Buzz Lightyear
2009:
The 2009 MTV Movie Awards are handed out. Zac Efron wins Best Male Performance for High
School Musical 3: Senior Year while Ashely Tisdale is awarded Breakthrough Performance Female, also for
High School Musical 3.
1943:
Original Mouseketeer Lonnie Burr is born in Dayton, Kentucky. An actor, dancer/choreographer, singer, director and author, Burr was signed to a seven-year contract by Walt Disney Studios as one of twenty-four original Mouseketeers back in 1955!
2010:
Today is Memorial Day, a United States federal holiday commemorating
U.S. men and women who lost their lives while in the military service.
American Idol season 9 champion Lee DeWyze takes part in a special motorcade at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Afterwards he makes a guest appearance at The American Idol Experience.
Workers from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany cut free the final building block for the newest Disney Cruise Line ship, Disney Dream. The final block placed is a 260-ton portion of the ship’s bow. With all 80 building blocks for the ship in place, the focus will now shift to outfitting the interiors spaces. (Its maiden voyage is scheduled for January 2011.)
1990:
Disneyland's Grad Nite '90 takes place. The entertainment lineup includes Jody Watley, Seduction, Stevie B, and Kevin Paige.
1895:
George Rippey Stewart, a novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, is born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. His great interest in and knowledge of ecological sciences, led him to write Storm (first published in 1941). The first ever ecological novel, it was dramatized as "A Storm Called Maria" on a 1959 episode of Disney's television series. Stewart's book prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms!