Congress, by Public Law 99-391, designated December 5, 1986 as "Walt Disney Recognition Day," and President Ronald Reagan issued Proclamation 5585 that day, the 85th anniversary of Disney's birth. That federal designation covered a single date in 1986. The recurring first-Monday-in-December version tracked here was adopted later by Disney enthusiasts, with no separate documented founding act.
CHAPTER 01
The mouse born from a loss
When the Oswald rights stayed with the distributor and his animators were lured away, Disney needed a character that belonged to him. Mickey Mouse was the answer. Steamboat Willie put the mouse in front of a New York audience at the Colony Theater on November 18, 1928. It was not the first cartoon to use synchronized sound (earlier shorts had already tried it) but it was the first to turn sound cartoons into a popular sensation. Disney himself supplied Mickey's squeaks, a job he kept until 1947.
