For young students heading back to school each fall, few accessories proclaim their pop-culture tastes as conspicuously as a lunch box. Since their midcentury golden age and before, the metal carriers not only served as totes for tuna sandwiches and bruised bananas, but have been ...read more
1. Riverfront SquareBefore building his Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Walt Disney considered opening his second theme park in a slightly less tropical clime—St. Louis. A native son of Missouri, Disney drew up blueprints for a five-story indoor theme park, dubbed Riverfront Square, ...read more
Whether or not Walt Disney wished upon a star, his dreams were about to come true as nearly half of the United States gathered around black-and-white televisions on July 17, 1955. After more than two decades of planning and a breakneck year of construction, the Mickey Mouse ...read more
1. Disney came from humble beginnings.Born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, Disney, the fourth of five children, moved with his family to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, when he was four. It was in Marceline—a small-town community Disney remembered as an adult as having been ...read more
By the time he set out to make “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which was loosely based on the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Walt Disney had already made a name for himself with short cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other beloved characters. In 1934, he ...read more
Apple Inc. On April Fool’s Day in 1976, 21-year-old Steve Jobs and 25-year-old Steve Wozniak established Apple Computer, later known simply as Apple Inc. Pioneers in the burgeoning world of personal computers, the pair worked out of Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California, ...read more
By the end of 2005, Pixar had become a giant in the world of movie animation, and on this day in 2006, the company that brought the world the blockbuster hits Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003) and The Incredibles (2004) was sold to ...read more
Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 14 million ...read more
On this day in 1993, production begins on Toy Story, the first full-length feature film created by the pioneering Pixar Animation Studios. Originally a branch of the filmmaker George Lucas’s visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Pixar first put itself on the ...read more
On this day in 2005, after a yearlong negotiation process, the Walt Disney Company ends its productive but sometimes contentious relationship with Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the founders of Miramax Films.Sons of a New York City diamond cutter, Harvey and Bob Weinstein founded ...read more
On this day in 2005, Michael Eisner resigns as the chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company. During Eisner’s 21-year tenure with Disney, he helped transform it into an entertainment industry giant whose properties included films, theme parks and a cruise line, ...read more
On this day in 1950, Walt Disney’s animated feature Cinderella opens in theaters across the United States.The Chicago-born Disney began his career as an advertising cartoonist in Kansas City. After arriving in Hollywood in 1923, he and his older brother Roy set up shop in the ...read more
“See for yourself what the genius of Walt Disney has created in his first full length feature production,” proclaimed the original trailer for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released on this day in 1938.Based on the famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White opened ...read more
On this day in 2005, the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company officially announces that Robert Iger, Disney’s president and chief operating officer, will succeed Michael Eisner as the company’s chief executive officer (CEO).As Disney’s chief executive since 1984, Eisner ...read more
At the close of business on January 6, 2008, the Walt Disney World Resort theme park known as Disney-MGM Studios officially shut its doors after almost a decade of operation. Fans didn’t have to worry too much, however, as the park would reopen the next morning under its new ...read more
On this day in 2004, Comcast, America’s largest cable operator, abandons its $54 billion hostile takeover bid for the Walt Disney Company in the face of faltering stock prices and Disney’s continued refusal to entertain the proposal.If accepted, Comcast’s February bid would have ...read more