1904 - The play Peter Pan, by James Barrie, opens at the Duke of York's Theater in London, England. (It will later be made into a Disney animated classic.)

1914 - Disney animator & cartoonist John "Jack" Morin Bradbury is born in Seattle, Washington. He will join Disney in 1934 at age 20 as an in-betweener on several cartoons and later work on larger projects, such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. In 1947 he will join Western Publishing and draw Disney comics.

1926 - The Alice Comedy Alice the Lumber Jack, featuring Margie Gay, is released.

1936 - While flying in rain and poor visibility south of Newhall, California, a United Air Lines twin-engine Boeing airliner crashes in the Santa Susana Mountains. All 12 persons aboard the aircraft (9 passengers & 3 crew members) including H. S. Teague, 28, a cartoonist at Walt Disney Studios, are killed.

1937 - Walt Disney appears on the cover of TIME. The publication profiles Disney the week Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is released, calling the film "the most ambitious animated cartoon ever attempted."

1939 - Actor John Amos, who appears in the 1973 live-action Disney feature The World's Greatest Athlete, is born in Newark, New Jersey. (TV fans will recognize him as James Evans from the hit 1970s series Good Times.)

1940 - Disney's Pluto cartoon Pantry Pirate is released.

1954 - Walt Disney appears on the cover of TIME magazine (for the second time). The issue features an article titled "Father Goose."

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

1969 - Critic, reporter & columnist Sarah Vowell, the voice of Violet Parr in Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles, is born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. (She is best known for her bits on public radio's This American Life.)

2001 - The University of Miami Hurricanes and the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers (scheduled to battle for the National Championship at the Rose Bowl on January 3, 2002) make their first official Southern California appearance at the new Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort. The two top-ranked football teams and their coaches take part in a festive "Welcome to California" event.

2002 - An event is held at Disney's California Adventure to welcome the 2003 Rose Bowl teams, the Oklahoma Sooners and the Washington State Cougars. Acappella group Groove 66 kicks off the festivities with their version of "I Just Want to Fly."

2005 - Composer Phil Collins and the cast of Disney's newest stage musical Tarzan begin rehearsals in Brooklyn, New York.

2006 - Holiday crowds are so thick at Walt Disney World this afternoon that three parks close or divert traffic at various times. Because they have reached capacity, Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom both close by 1:15 p.m. At Disney-MGM Studios there are parking issues, and traffic is diverted away from the main parking lots for a couple of hours after 3 p.m.

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