1856 - Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth United States President, is born in Staunton, Virginia. Visit him and all the U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's Hall of Presidents.

1930 - Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon Playful Pan, directed by Bert Gillett, is released.

1955 - The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Anything Can Happen Day.

1955 - The Disneyland television series airs episode 35 - "Man and the Moon." Walt Disney introduces the program and presents scenes from the Disneyland attraction Rocket Ship To The Moon before turning the show over to host Ward Kimball. Featured is an animated dramatization of Wernher von Braun's two-stage plan to reach the moon, starting with the construction of a space station and continuing with the launching of a rocket from there to the moon. (This is the second of a 3-part series promoting space travel and the final Disneyland episode of 1955.)

1956 - Animator & story artist Rick Farmiloe is born in Santa Rosa, California. Among his Disney credits - The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid. Farmiloe has also worked on Shrek, Curious George, and The Simpsons Movie.

1969 - The television series The Wonderful World of Disney airs part 2 of "Babes in Toyland."

1982 - Attendance at Walt Disney World reaches a high of 123,000!

1986 - The Wonderful World of Disney airs the episodes "Tiger Town" and "Star Tours." "Tiger Town" stars Roy Schneider as an aging all-star for the Detroit Tigers. In "Star Tours" a group of visitors are taken on a bumpy trip through the Star Wars universe.

1997 - Disney Channel debuts "The Best of Muppets Tonight." Gonzo and Rizzo host a collage of video clips of the best moments from past episodes of Muppets Tonight.

2000 - Holiday crowds force Disneyland to suspended ticket sales for about 5 hours.

2004 - Veteran actor Jerry Orbach, the voices of Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast and Sa'luk in Aladdin and the King of Thieves, passes away in New York City. An eye donor; his eyes will save two people from blindness. (TV fans will remember Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe on the hit series Law & Order.)

2005 - It is announced that Kyle Petty, a 26-year NASCAR veteran and son of racing legend Richard Petty will run in the 2006 Walt Disney World Marathon on January 8.

2006 - Disney announces its studio division generated $3.26 billion in global box office revenue in 2006 and claimed the year's top two box office and top three DVD domestic releases for the first time. Disney claimed the year's top-grossing box office releases with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which has reached $1.06 billion since its May release, and the computer-animated Cars, which grossed more than $462 million globally.

2006 - Imagineer and Disney veteran Don Edgren passes away at the age of 83. He was an an engineer who led the team building the first Space Mountain and had a role in building various Disney parks. Edgren supervised construction of the Matterhorn and original Pirates of the Caribbean attractions.

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