Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s edition of Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia! Along with my friends Jodi, Jenn, and Heidi, I’m Mike here to share a bit of Disney trivia with all of you! I’ve got a few selections from this day, so I hope you enjoy them all!
All of our trivia today comes from one of the best Disney history sites around, in my opinion — This Day in Disney History!
This Day in 1965…
The Miami Herald runs the banner headline, “Giant Land Deal Near Orlando Revealed.” Staff writer Clarence Jones states:
A Miami law firm working with $5 million in cold cash has quietly engineered one of the biggest, most-talked-about Florida land deals in years.
Twelve miles southwest of Orlando, the firm has bought 30,000 acres of strategically located land that could become the state’s largest industrial complex.
Hottest current speculation says the purchasers will offer 3,000 acres to the Atomic Energy Commission for its new national accelerator laboratory, then develop the remaining 27,000 acres for related space age industry.
Rumor also says the Ford Motor Co. plans to break into missile and space technology at the secret site. Ford officials in Detroit deny it.
The McDonnell Aircraft Corp., builder of the Mercury and Gemini space capsules and a series of supersonic warplanes, is also mentioned as a possible buyer. McDonnell now has headquarters in St. Louis. There were some St. Louis men involved in the land negotiations.
Still another possibility is Disneyland East, the long planned amusement park that would be bigger and better than the original Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. Walt Disney was at Cape Kennedy several weeks ago, but denied that he’s still considering Florida for his new venture.
Bankers and real estate brokers have been trying for months to find out what’s in the works. If any outsiders know, they aren’t telling.
I think it’s safe to say that we now know what the project was!
On this day, in 1977…
Disneyland holds a grand opening ceremony for its newest attraction, Space Mountain (just in time for the Memorial Day weekend crowds). Attending the debut are the six surviving astronauts from the original seven Project Mercury space travelers and the widow of the seventh. Also opening along with Space Mountain is the 1,100-seat Space Stage, the 670-seat Space Place fast-food restaurant and the Starcade electronic arcade. It is the second Space Mountain in the world (the first one opened at WDW in Florida in 1975).
Lastly, on this day, in 1985…
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his wife visit EPCOT for the President’s Second Inaugural Parade. (The original outdoor parade in January had been cancelled due to very bad weather in Washington, D.C., and an indoor mini-parade had been hastily organized in the Capital Centre sports arena.) Some 2,500 bandsmen from sixteen states participate at EPCOT on this day and the event makes television news and newspaper headlines around the world. The President is brought in by helicopter that landed behind the American Adventure pavilion. (Reagan, then an actor, took part in Disneyland’s debut in 1955.)
Thank you for stopping by today as we take a look at three important events that happened in the history of Disney! I hope you have enjoyed this look, now, please take a look at the other sites to see what they have to share as well!
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I’m a sucker for history, Mike! I love when you share these. My favorite part is this line: “could become the state’s largest industrial complex”. LOL Yep, they got that right!
What busy day in Disney history! Thanks for sharing that article about the land deal speculation. Interesting how much “space age” talk there was!
Love to hear all the space aged rumors during the land deal. I guess there is Mission SPACE and Space Mountain so they were close :)
I love Disney history! Thanks for sharing these!