1918 - Virginia Davis, Walt Disney's first human star, is born in Kansas City, Missouri. She will begin working full-time for Walt in the summer of 1924 and appear in the first 13 titles of his live action/animated Alice Comedies. (Davis will be named a Disney Legend in 1998.)

1920 - Western entertainer & Disney Legend Rex Allen is born in his Grandmother Clark's home in Wilcox, Arizona. He will perform as a narrator, singer, and actor in more than 80 Disney films and provide the voices for 150 different Disney cartoon characters. Allen will be the original voice of the father and later the voice of the grandfather in Disney's Carousel of Progress!

1932 - A Florentine publisher named G. Nerbini launches a weekly magazine called Topolino (which means "mouse" in Italian). This Italian version of Mickey Mouse is badly drawn - but recognizable to fans.

1936 - Walt Disney and his wife gain a second daughter when they adopt a baby girl named Sharon Mae.

1940 - Actor & Disney Legend Tim Considine - Spin Evans of Disney's Spin and Marty TV serial - is born in Los Angeles, California.

1947 - Actor Tim Matheson, who portrays Captain Braddock in Epcot's Body Wars attraction and Private Jeff Reed in the 1979 The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, is born in Glendale, California. (Fans of Animal House will always remember Matheson as Otter!)

1957 - Leigh Woolfenden, of Phoenix, Arizona becomes the ten-millionth guest to enter Disneyland!

1957 - A New Year's Eve party is held for the first time in Disneyland. The event draws 7,500 people.

1962 - Universal's feature 40 Pounds of Trouble, starring Tony Curtis and Suzanne Pleshette, is released. It is the first non-Disney motion picture to use Disneyland as a location!

1969 - The Disney live-action comedy feature The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes - starring Kurt Russell, Cesar Romero, and Joe Flynn - is released.

1971 - The very first Magic Kingdom New Year's Eve Party is held at Walt Disney World, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets ($7.50 in advance and $9.00 night of the party) include admission, entertainment, hats & noisemakers.

1995 - The World of Motion Pavilion at Disney World's Epcot closes. This sleek, circular structure housed one of Disney's largest collections of Audio-Animatronic figures (188) set in 24 scenes. Each one depicted the progression of transportation and society through the ages. (It will be replaced with Test Track.)

1998 - The Teen Idol Tour - starring Bobby Sherman, Davy Jones, and Peter Noone - comes to Disney-MGM Studios for 2 evening performances. Earlier in the afternoon Sherman attends a special luncheon for fans at the Grand Floridian Convention Center.

1998 - Meanwhile over at Pleasure Island, a concert featuring Huey Lewis & The News, Sister Hazel, and Rick Springfield takes place.

1998 - Disney's internal staff newsletter Eyes and Ears announces that Epcot's Horizons will close to guests in nine days.

1999 - Disney's Fantasia 2000 is generally released in the U.S.

1999 - Cheap Trick rocks Disney-MGM Studios.

2000 - Vertical Horizon headlines a New Year's Eve show at Walt Disney World.

2001 - Cyndi Lauper headlines the New Year's Eve entertainment lineup at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island in Florida.

2001 - David Swift, a writer-director-producer whose career included stints as an animator at Walt Disney Studios and writing comedy for radio, dies at age 82 at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Swift created Wally Cox's popular "Mr. Peepers" television series in the early 1950s and made his debut as a movie director in 1960 guiding a young Hayley Mills in Disney's Pollyanna. He also worked on such Disney classics as Snow White, Fantasia, Dumbo, Pinocchio, The Reluctant Dragon, Peter Pan and 101 Dalmations. (Throughout the '70s, he directed such TV shows as "Barney Miller," "The Love Boat" and "Eight Is Enough.")

2002 - Terror of Tower's new random drop sequence officially debuts at Disney-MGM Studios.

2002 - AT&T's sponsorship of Epcot's Spaceship Earth ends.

2002 - The B-52's, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and Chris Botti rock Downtown Disney Pleasure Island, Florida.

2003 - The U.S. Postal Service unveils 4 new 37-cent postage stamps featuring Disney characters. The stamps, which celebrate friendship as portrayed by the Walt Disney studio, will be issued sometime in mid-2004.

2003 - Blondie and the Sugar Hill Gang headline Walt Disney World's New Year's Eve celebration at Pleasure Island.

2004 - Cheap Trick, Tone Loc and Kurtis Blow headline the New Year's Eve entertainment lineup at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island, Florida.

2005 - Smash Mouth, S.O.S. Band and Paul Jackson Jr. help ring in 2006 with a special New Year's Eve concert at Downtown Disney's Pleasure Island. Celebrated every evening since 1990, tonight is the final time Pleasure Island will celebrate "New Year's Eve" on a nightly basis.

2005 - Disney World's Timekeeper (a Tomorrowland attraction) plays what will be its final show. It will close for good in February 2006.

2006 - Disney's High School Musical The Concert Tour pulls into Uniondale, New York (on Long Island) for a performance at the Nassau Coliseum.

2006 - Dozens of Ugly Betty look-alike actresses roam through the Disney-MGM Studios theme park to promote ABC-TV's "Be Ugly in '07" campaign.

2007 - Disney recording artists Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers appear live on ABC-TV's Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve from New York City.

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