1925 - Emmy Award-winning actor Dick Van Dyke, best known as Bert the Cockney chimney sweep in Disney's 1964 musical feature Mary Poppins, is born in West Plains, Missouri. He hosted the TV specials Florida's Disney Decade (1981), Donald Duck's 50th Birthday (1984), and Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (2001). Van Dyke's Disney credits also include the features Dick Tracy, Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N., and Never a Dull Moment. He has also taken part in Disneyland's annual Christmas Candlelight Procession. (With a career spanning 6 decades, fans know him as Rob Petrie on the 1960's TV comedy series The Dick Van Dyke Show, Caractacus Potts in the 1968 feature film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and as Dr. Mark Sloan on the television series Diagnosis Murder.)

1926 - Disney's Alice Comedy Alice's Brown Derby is released.

1940 - Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Fire Chief is released. Donald's fire department, consisting of himself and his nephews, are unable to cope when their own building goes up in flames!

1941 - Actor-singer & TV host John Davidson is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His live-action Disney credits include The Happiest Millionaire (1967) and The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968).

1955 - The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Guest Star Day.

1957 - Actor Steve Buscemi, the voices of Wesley in Home on the Range and Randall Boggs in Monsters, Inc. is born in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Valley Stream (on Long Island), Buscemi was a New York City firefighter between 1980-1984. The day after the attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001, he showed up at his old firehouse and volunteered to work at Ground Zero. For the next week he worked 12 hour shifts digging through the rubble in an effort to recover bodies ... anonymously.

1959 - Child-actor Johnny Whitaker, who stars in Disney's 1972 Napoleon and Samantha with Jodie Foster, and Snowball Express with Dean Jones, is born in Van Nuys, California. (TV fans may remember Whitaker for his part in the 1960s series Family Affair and the 1970s series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.)

1966 - Walt's wife Lily writes his annual birthday letter to sister Ruth. Her opening words include: "As you have probably surmised things have been a little irregular around here with Walt being ill and so your birthday remembrance from him is a little late. I know it comes with his best wishes that your day was a nice one and the hope that you will find something special to get for yourself with this check." Lily writes of her daughters and grandchildren and assures Ruth that her brother will write as soon as he is back in the office. (Walt will pass two days later.)

1971 - Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, starring Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, and Roddy McDowall opens in major U.S. theaters. Although set in Britain, the film was shot entirely on the Disney Studio lot in Burbank, California. (It will win an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.)

1975 - Disney announces it will begin construction of EPCOT in 1976, instead of 1977 as originally planned.

2003 - Christian music performer Steven Curtis Chapman narrates Epcot's Candlelight Processional. (This yearly Epcot event recounts Christ's birth through story and song.)

2004 - Nominations are announced for the 62nd annual Golden Globe Awards. The Disney/Pixar feature The Incredibles earns one for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. It is also announced that Robin Williams (the voice of the Blue Genie in Disney's 1992 Aladdin) will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award. (Winners will be announced on January 16, 2005.)

2005 - The Chronicles of Narnia receive Golden Globe nominations for Motion Picture - Best Original Score and Best Original Song. The 63rd annual Golden Globe Awards (given by by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) will be presented in January 2006.

2005 - A special exhibit of more than 50 of Walt Disney's original World War II insignia designs has its debut at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (six miles northeast of downtown Dayton, Ohio).

2005 - Kronk's New Groove, a direct-to-video sequel to the 2000 animated The Emperor's New Groove, is released. (This is veteran voice actor John Fiedler's last film - as he has passed away in June 2005.)

2006 - Because Disney had a spectacular 2006, posting record revenues, record net income, and record cash flow - The Walt Disney Company is named SeekingAlpha's Top Media Company of the year.

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