Happy Anniversary on the opening of Disney World! On October 1, 1971!

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

Walt’s dream of Disney World began long before 1971.  Early in 1959,  he began searching for a location on the east coast to build the amazing theme park he envisioned. Walt Disney flew over the Orlando site in November of 1963. Seeing the well-developed network of roads, including the planned Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike, with McCoy Air Force Base (later Orlando International Airport) to the east, Disney selected a centrally-located site near Bay Lake.

To avoid a burst of land speculation, Disney used various dummy corporations to acquire 27,443 acres of land. In May 1965, some of these major land transactions were recorded a few miles southwest of Orlando in Osceola County. Also, two large tracts totaling $1.5 million were sold, and smaller tracts of flatlands and cattle pastures were purchased by exotic-sounding companies such as the Latin-American Development and Management Corporation and the Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation, Retlaw (Walter backwards) and Ayefor (I-4).Some of these names are now memorialized on a window above Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom. On October 20, 1965, Walt held a press conference announcing to the world his dream for his new “Florida Project” –Walt Disney World!

http://www.cfnews13.com/video?clip=http://static.cfnews13.com/newsvideo/cfn/DisneyHistoryPressConf.flv

Walt died in 1966, before his dream was fully realized, but his brother and partner, Roy Disney promised Walt on his death bed, that he would see the project through. And the rest is history!

“My only hope is that we never lose sight of one thing, that it was all started by a mouse.”- Walt Disney

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY JULY 30

1502 - Christopher Columbus landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
1619 - The first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown, VA. (House of Burgesses)
1729 - The city of Baltimore was founded in Maryland.
1733 - The first Freemasons lodge opened in what would later become the United States.
1889 - Vladimir Zworykin, called the "Father of Television" was born in Russia. He invented the iconoscope.
1898 - "Scientific America" carried the first magazine automobile ad. The ad was for the Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, OH.
1932 - Walt Disney's "Flowers and Trees" premiered. It was the first Academy Award winning cartoon and first cartoon short to use Technicolor.
Disney movies, music and books
1937 - The American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) was organized as a part of the American Federation of Labor.
1942 - The WAVES were created by legislation signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The members of the Women's Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service were a part of the U.S. Navy.
1945 - The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. Only 316 out of 1,196 men aboard survived the attack.
1956 - The phrase "In God We Trust" was adopted as the U.S. national motto.
1965 - U.S. President Johnson signed into law Social Security Act that established Medicare and Medicaid. It went into effect the following year.
1968 - Ron Hansen of the Washington Senators made the first unassisted triple play in the major leagues in 41 years.
1974 - The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Nixon for blocking the Watergate investigation and for abuse of power.
1975 - Jimmy Hoffa, former Teamsters union president, disappeared in Michigan. His remains were never found.
1987 - Indian troops arrived in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, to disarm the Tamil Tigers and enforce a peace pact.
1990 - The first Saturn automobile rolled off the assembly line.
1996 - A federal law enforcement source said that security guard Richard Jewell had become the focus of the investigation into the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. Jewell was later cleared as a suspect.
1997 - 14 Israelis were killed in a double suicide bombing in a Jerusalem marketplace. The Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombings.
1998 - A group of Ohio machine-shop workers (who call themselves the Lucky 13) won the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot. It was the largest-ever American lottery.
2000 - Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were married.
2001 - Lance Armstrong became the first American to win three consecutive Tours de France.
2003 - In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagon Beetle rolled off an assembly line.