1916 - Cartoonist/animator Bill Melendez is born José Cuauhtemoc Melendez in Hermosillo, Mexico. Best known for his work on many Peanuts television specials, he started his career at the Disney studio in 1937, drawing for Fantasia, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Dumbo.

1925 - The Alice Comedy Alice Rattled by Rats is released.

1929 - Disney's Mickey Mouse short Jungle Rhythm - the 12th and final Mickey short of 1929 - is released. It features the voice of Walt Disney (as Mickey) and the music of Carl W. Stalling. It is the first Mickey short to have music in the opening credits!

1932 - The Disney Art Class meets for the first time with Don Graham of the Chouinard School of Art lecturing at Disney's old sound studio on Hyperion Avenue in Los Angeles, California. In preparation for a feature-length cartoon, Walt Disney has set up this art school to train animators. (Because it is the Depression and jobs are scarce, the studio attracts many talented individuals who, in better economic times, might well have chosen other careers.)

1934 - Alice Pleasance Liddell (the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) passes away.

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

1965 - At 2:00 p.m., Walt and Roy Disney, accompanied by Governor Haydon Burns, speak to the press in the Egyptian Room of the Cherry Plaza Hotel in Orlando and officially launch the Walt Disney World project in Florida. (Site preparation will begin in the fall of 1967 and the park will open in October 1971, unfortunately five years after Walt's death.) Only days after this announcement, the price of land surrounding the property that the Disney organization purchased for supposedly $180 an acre - will shoot up to an amazing $80,000 per acre! As of this day, Disney planners have acquired about 27,443 acres (or 43 square miles) at a cost of just about $5 million.

1975 - Floyd Gottfredson's last Mickey Mouse comic strip is published. (A 45-year veteran, Floyd had retired on October 1, 1975.)

1986 - A "re-premiere" for Song of the South is held in Atlanta, Georgia, to celebrate the film's 40th anniversary. By gubernatorial proclamation, the day of the premiere is declared "Song of the South Day" in Georgia.

1987 - Muppet creator Jim Henson is inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

1987 - "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" airs on The Wonderful World of Disney.

1988 - Actress Zena Grey is born in New York City. Disney fans know her as Megan in the 2001 Max Keeble's Big Move and as Carly in the 2006 The Shaggy Dog.

1989 - The Walt Disney Pictures' 28th animated feature film, The Little Mermaid (featuring the voice of Jodi Benson as Ariel) is released in Los Angeles, California, and New York City. It is the first Disney animated feature in three decades based on a classic fairy tale since Sleeping Beauty. (It will win 2 Academy Awards.)

1993 - The Garden Grill Restaurant opens in Epcot's The Land.

1995 - Disney's live musical Beauty and the Beast (currently a hit on Broadway) kicks off its very first national tour. The show features Kim Huber as Belle and Fred Inkley as the Beast.

2002 - The Wilderness Lodge Villas (part of the Disney Vacation Club) opens adjacent to the Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World.

2003 - The television series Wonderful World of Disney features the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen film "The Challenge."

2003 - RedCat, the alternative theater behind the Walt Disney Concert Hall in California, has its official opening. RedCat is an acronym for benefactors Roy and Edna Disney, CalArts (a California college) and the word theater.

2004 - It is reported that the Walt Disney Company has bought the assets of CrossGen Entertainment, a comic book publisher.

2005 - Buena Vista International, the foreign distribution arm of the Walt Disney Co., reaches $1 billion in overseas boxoffice revenue on this day.

2006 - Disney Editions publishes the book Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies by Imagineer Jason Surrell.

2008 - The final "ABC-SOAPnet Super Soap Weekend" to ever be held at Disney World kicks off at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida. (ABC's Daytime division will later embark on the 2009 "Soap Nation Tour," a collection of nationwide events designed to interact with fans on a year-round basis, offering greater access to stars in more cities, more often.) The final Walt Disney World weekend is dedicated to the fans with special retrospectives and exclusive productions.

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