Fact for the Day
Pirates of the Caribbean was never intended to be part of Disney World out of fear that it would not be exotic enough to Floridians, due to its geographic proximity to the real Caribbean. Instead, planners intended to build a ride called the Western River Expedition, which would've featured cowboys and Indians.
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1924 - Disney's Alice Comedy Alice the Piper is released.
1925 - The Alice Comedy Alice in the Jungle is released.
1932 - Disney publishes the last issue of the "Official Bulletin of the
Mickey Mouse Club." First published in April 1930, it is one of many club materials sold to theater operators for use in the
Mickey Mouse Club meetings.
1933 - 
Comedic actor
Tim Conway is born Thomas Daniel Conway in Willoughby, Ohio. He will go on to appear in Disney's Apple Dumpling Gang movies, the 1973 The World's Greatest Athlete, the 1987 TV special
Walt Disney World Celebrity Circus, and perform the voice of Griff in Disney's Hercules animated TV series. (TV fans will know him best from his appearances on "The Carol Burnett Show" and as the voice of Barnacle Boy on the animated series "SpongeBob SquarePants.")
1934 - Disney's
Mickey Mouse cartoon Two-Gun
Mickey, directed by Ben Sharpsteen, is released. Cowgirl
Minnie (voiced by Marcellite Garner) thinks she can take care of herself on the prairie ... but when she's captured by Pegleg
Pete,
Mickey must come to her rescue!
1937 - An extended story session for
Bambi takes place at the Disney Studio between producer-director Sidney Franklin and
Walt Disney. (It is a week before the debut of Snow White and
Bambi is the next scheduled project.) Franklin is eager to get the film into production, but
Walt feels the studio isn't ready for such a sensitive re-telling of Felix Salten's novel. Later this day
Walt announces to the press that
Bambi is being postponed and Pinocchio will be the next feature.
1950 - Disney releases the
Donald Duck short Out on a Limb.
1954 - Disney's television adventure "Davy Crockett Indian Fighter" - the very first episode of the Davy Crockett trilogy starring Fess Parker as Crockett and Buddy Ebsen as Georgie Russel - airs on the ABC series Disneyland. (This episode, along with future episodes 14 and 18 will be edited together to make the 1955
Walt Disney theatrical release Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.)
1955 - The
Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Circus Day.
1956 - The fifth of eight installments titled "My Dad,
Walt Disney," by Diane Disney Miller as told to
Pete Martin (a "celebrity friendly" writer) appears in the Saturday Evening Post.
1963 - Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs part 3 of "Pollyanna."
1966 - 

Walter Elias Disney passes away at St. Joseph's Hospital of acute circulatory collapse (caused by lung cancer) just ten days after his 65th birthday. When the news of
Walt's death reaches Disneyland in Anaheim, consideration is given to closing the park for the day, but instead it is kept open (as
Walt would have wanted), but the flags on Main Street USA are lowered to half-mast. Disney will be cremated two days later. (His brother
Roy will postpone his planned retirement and start construction in Florida on
Walt's latest project, Disney World.)



On the CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite, commentator Eric Sevareid states this about Mr. Disney: "He was a happy accident, one of the happiest this century has experienced. And judging by the way it's behaving, in spite of all Disney tried to tell it about laughter, love, children, puppies, and sunrises, the century hardly deserved him."
1970 - A retirement lunch for veteran animator Bob Youngquist takes place. Youngquist, who first came to Disney at age 29, worked on such classics as Fantasia,
Bambi, and Sleeping Beauty.
1972 - Construction begins on Space Mountain at
Walt Disney World.
1973 - The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction opens in
Walt Disney World. Housed in a golden Spanish fort called Castillo Del Morro, it is located in the Caribbean Plaza of Magic Kingdom's Adventureland. Featuring 125 Audio-Anamatronics (65 pirates & villagers and 60 animals), guests ride in flumes through 155,000 gallons of water.
1987 - The
Walt Disney World 3D presentation Magic Journeys (originally shown at the Magic Eye Theater in the Journey into Imagination Pavilion at Epcot) opens at the Fantasyland Theater in the Magic Kingdom.
1989 - Star Tours opens at the Disney-MGM Park. It is the first attraction to open in the park's new backlot annex area. Based on the successful Star Wars franchise of movies, it is Disney's 3rd version of the attraction (Disneyland's Star Tours opened in 1986 and Tokyo Disneyland's in July 1989.)
1989 - Disney's newest feature The Little Mermaid is released in Brazil.
1997 -
Lillian Bounds Disney, widow of
Walt Disney, suffers a stroke in the early morning hours of this day.
2000 - Disney's 39th animated film The Emperor's New Groove is released. This animated feature follows the adventures of the arrogant Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David *****) and a humble peasant named Pacha (voiced by John Goodman).
2002 - The Crystal Palace (located in Disney World's Magic Kingdom) reopens for character meals after a renovation.
2002 - Detective Nancy Drew returns to TV for the first time since 1977 when ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney presents "Nancy Drew" (starring Maggie Lawson).
2002 - The city of Los Angeles proclaims this day
Walt Disney Imagineering Day during a presentation at
Walt's Barn in Griffith Park.
2004 - On the 50th anniversary of his debut as "king of the wild frontier," the man known to millions of baby-boomers as legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett receives the highest honor Disneyland bestows, when the Anaheim park unveils a tribute window on Main Street to actor Fess Parker.
2004 - The stage musical Mary Poppins opens at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, England. (The show had been running at the Bristol Hippodrome since September.)