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11/03/2004 Archived Entry: "Ooh, wow!"

Ooo! Ooo! I had to post these, since my birthday's coming up (Nov 18) I decided to see if anything interesting had happened on November 18th in history and I found some really neat stuff.

Happy Birthday, Mickey
1928 - Walt Disney debuted his talking, animated cartoon, "Steamboat Willie", at the Colony Theatre in New York. The short film featured a character who had been named Mortimer. Walt changed the name to Mickey Mouse. "Steamboat Willie" was the first cartoon with synchronized sound. And, for those of you who don’t remember, "Steamboat Willie" was in black and white. Disney’s first color cartoon wasn’t released for another four years. The star of the film has changed somewhat over the years; but Mickey Mouse is still with us, in full living color, in cartoons, on TV, in books and even in his own stores. What a great success story -- especially for a mouse!

I've been inside the Roseland!
1986 - The Roseland Ballroom reopened in New York City. The 67-year-old home for those wanting to dance cheek to cheek featured America’s dean of society music, Lester Lanin. He played for patrons who wanted to cut a rug on the 112-by-55-foot, maple wood dance floor.

Other People Born on This Day
1757 - William Blake, poet (d. 1827)
1856 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929) (Whoa!!)
1906 - George Wald, American chemist, 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997) (He died on the year I graduated??)
1923 - Alan Shepard Jr. (astronaut: first American in space [May 5, 1961]; he commanded Apollo 14 mission [Jan 31, 1971] and made two surface excursions on moon; died July 21, 1998)
1953 - Kevin Nealon (actor: Saturday Night Live, All I Want for Christmas, Roxanne, Champs)

You know, I didn't used to like history, I never thought any of it applied anymore. But now... I'm really wondering what I've been missing.