1901 was an eventful year by any measure. Queen Victoria died, President McKinley was assassinated, and Guglielmo Marconi received the first successful telegraph transmissions. The world was at the cusp a new century, and belief in progress was riding high.
And on December 5 of that year, one more world-changing event occurred. In Chicago, a baby was born and named after his family pastor. Although no one guessed it at the time, little Walter Elias Disney was going to spend a lifetime pushing the boundaries of magic and imagination. Now it’s almost impossible to imagine the past century or so without his contributions. No Walt Disney World? No “Mary Poppins”? No Mickey Mouse!?
