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Walter (Walt Disney's real name) was born in Hermosa, Chicago, IL.
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During most of Walter's childhood, he lived in Marceline, Missouri in a rural area. He will remember his idyllic time there for the rest of his life, and will use his memories of Marceline as the basis for his designs of Disneyland in the 1950s. (Exact day is unknown)
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Sometime in April, Elias (Walter's dad) catches Typhoid Fever and neumonia so he is forced to sell their house.
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(sometime in the summer) The Disney family moves to a working-class section of Kansas City, MO. On July 1, Elias buys a newspaper route and puts Walt to work as an early-rising paperboy to help with family expenses.
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(Sometime in the Fall) McKinley High School in Chicago, where Elias Disney had moved the family to support his newest business venture, a jelly company called O-Zell. Walt enjoys drawing cartoons, publishing several in his high school paper, and he takes drawing classes three nights a week at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
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(Sometime in Fall)a job at Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in Kansas City, MO, illustrating advertisements and catalogs.
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After being heartbroken that his short cartoons didn't work out Walt and Roy Disney establish the Disney Brothers Studios at an office on Kingswell Avenue in Los Angeles, with Ub Iwerks later joining the staff as an animator. Walt's role is more creative while Roy handles the business side.
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To accommodate a growing staff, Disney Brothers Studios moves to new, larger quarters on Hyperion Avenue in Los Angeles. Shortly after, Walt informs Roy that the company will be renamed to "Walt Disney Studios." Walt Disney writes the storylines and gags, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is created.
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Walt Disney assembles what remains of his team -- including his brother Roy, wife Lillian, and head animator Ub Iwerks -- and seeks a way to reinvent the studio. Tey come up with a new character: a mouse named Mortimer. Eventually, they change the name to Mickey.
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After suffering multiple miscarriages, Walt and Lillian Disney have a daughter. They name her Diane Marie Disney. Three years later, on December 31, 1936, the couple will adopt Sharon Mae Disney.
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres in Los Angeles. The film receives a standing ovation and earns rave reviews. The vast majority of critics, including those who had previously called it “Disney’s Folly,” consider it a success, and the film grosses more than $8 million internationally.
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Walt Disney fires longtime employee and top animator Art Babbitt for leading union organization efforts. The following day, more than 200 employees of Walt Disney Productions go on strike -- nearly half of the studio’s art department. For the past few years, tensions had been building among lower-paid ink and paint artists, the assistant animators, and the in-betweeners over long hours, low wages, and lack of recognition for their work.
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(Early 1947) on the upcoming animated film Cinderella and a new live-action nature documentary, Walt Disney is hospitalized when an old polo injury flares up. He suffers such constant pain that his nurse, Hazel George, comes to his office daily to massage his back and his hips. She becomes one of Disney's few close confidantes.
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Walt Disney produces and hosts a TV special for NBC called One Hour in Wonderland. The program features several well-known Disney characters and offers a sneak peek at the studio’s upcoming film, Alice in Wonderland.
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Walt Disney's television program, Disneyland premieres on ABC. Walt Disney hosts the hour-long show, which features updates on the construction of Disneyland, edited versions of animated features, and live-action miniseries.
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Animated feature 101 Dalmatians debuts and grosses $6.2 million. 101 Dalmatians was produced on a dramatically reduced budget.
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Walt Disney dies at 9:35 a.m. from a cardiac arrest. He had checked himself in to St. Joseph’s Hospital on November 30, directly across the street from his studio in Burbank.
In October 1967, The Jungle Book premieres. It is the last animated film on which Walt Disney oversaw production.
