Reedy Creek Energy Services, Incorporated (originally known as Reedy Creek Utilities Company, Incorporated) is merged into the Walt Disney World Company. It provides electric power to the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which specifically covers Walt Disney World outside of Orlando, Florida, by supplementing the public power grid.
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At Epcot, the Mickey Mouse arm holding a wand is dedicated with "2000" over Spaceship Earth - signaling the start of the Millennium Celebration. Instead of dismantling the Icon Tower at the end of Millennium Celebration, the decision makers at Disney decided to make it permanent. The number 2000 was replaced with the name Epcot. A Walt Disney World press release in December 2000 proudly announced, “The makeover will turn the 15-month Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration icon created for Spaceship Earth into a new and lasting beacon to a magical Disney world.”
In the early morning hours of this day, a baby giraffe is born at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Bonsu (a name inspired from the Akan language in Ghana and meaning biggest and strongest fish in the sea) enters the world at 6-feet tall and 155 pounds. He is the fourth male, and 11th giraffe overall to be born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom since the park opened in 1998. Amazingly, Bonsu is also the fourth giraffe to be born at the theme park in 2008.
Disney's 9th animated feature film, Fun and Fancy Free (two stories hosted by Jiminy Cricket) is released through RKO Pictures. The two segments include Bongo (the story of a circus bear cub who runs away) and Mickey and the Beanstalk (an adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk"). This marks the beginning of sound effects man Jim Macdonald as the voice of Mickey Mouse (although he & Walt share the job on Mickey and the Beanstalk). Walt has hand-picked Macdonald to follow in his footsteps. (Starting with this film, Macdonald will be Mickey's voice for the next 3 decades!) Fun and Fancy Free features the voices of Luana Pattern, Cliff Edwards, Clarence Nash, Pinto Colvig, Billy Gilbert, and Dinah Shore and live-action segments with ventriloquist/radio star Edgar Bergen and his puppet characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd.
Walt Disney World's theme parks close for the day as Hurricane Jeanne strikes Florida! It is WDW's second closing in 2004. Jeanne is the 10th named storm, the 7th hurricane, and the 5th major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season.
The Donald Duck cartoon The Vanishing Private, directed by Jack King and written by Carl Barks, is released. When soldier Donald (voiced by Clarence Nash) is put on camoulflage duty to paint a large cannon, he comes across an experimental invisible paint. He finds that it works especially well on himself when he is trying to hide from villainous commander Pete (voiced by Billy Bletcher). With music by Oliver Wallace, The Vanishing Private has been animated by a staff that includes Charles A. Nichols, Wolfgang Reitherman and Bill Tytla.
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color makes its debut in color and on NBC (for the series' 8th season on television). Hosted by Walt himself, the episode consists of "An Adventure in Color," "Donald in Mathmagicland," and a brand new character called Professor Ludwig Von Drake - voiced by Paul Frees. The episode is sponsored by RCA, who runs commercials during the show promoting their new RCA color television. (Before this, the series had been called Disneyland and the Walt Disney Presents - but both broadcast on ABC and in black & white.) The Walt Disney anthology television series moved to NBC on September 24, 1961 to take advantage of that network's ability to broadcast in color. In a display of foresight, Disney had filmed many of the earlier shows in color, so they were able to be repeated on NBC, and since most of Disney's feature-length films were also made in color, they could now also be telecast in that format. Click the link below to check out the episode. Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets and the original voice of Kermitthe Frog, is born James Maury Henson in Greenville, Mississippi.Henson first named his puppets, "Muppets," in 1954 while working as a producer of the Washington, D.C. TV show, Sam and Friends. Henson was the leading force behind the Muppets long run in the television series Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and films such as The Muppet Movie and creator of advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and Return of the Jedi. Sadly in May 1990, Henson passed away suddenly at the age of 53 while in negotiations to sell his company to Disney. He was named a Disney Legend in 2011.
The Dapper Dans, a barbershop quartet soon to be a staple at Disney World, perform their first set at the GAF Photo Shop on Main Street. Jerry Siggins, Bob Mathis, Dick Kneeland, and Bub Thomas sing for Cast Members and their families a week before the grand opening of Walt Disney World in Florida.
Michael Eisner is elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Walt Disney Productions (replacing Ray Watson) and Frank Wells is elected President and Chief Operations. At this time, Walt Disney Productions is approximately $900 million in debt. (By 1987, Walt Disney Productions will be worth $340 million!) In a period of twenty years Eisner and Wells worked together to help the Mouse House move from being a film & theme park company that was worth only $1.8 billion to becoming a global media empire valued at $80 billion. Eisner stepped down as CEO on September 30, 2005.
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