Happy Birthday, Mickey!

On this date in 1928, everyone's favorite mouse arrived on the scene with the release of Steamboat Willie. (OK, so technically he had arrived on the scene 6 months earlier in the silent film Plane Crazy...but most historians count Steamboat Willie as his official "birthday.") Happy 83rd birthday, Mickey! You don't look a day over 30!



Fun facts about Mickey:

• Walt Disney was the original voice for Mickey Mouse.


• Mickey Mouse was the first ever cartoon character to talk.


• During WWII, when Allied forces invaded Europe, the code name of the operation was "Mickey Mouse."


• Walt Disney is rumored to have said that Mickey and Minnie were actually married in their "private life," although they never were on screen.


• The first piece of Mickey Mouse merchandise was introduced in 1929. It was a child's writing tablet with Mickey's image on it.


• Walt Disney was actually quite frightened by mice...yet he saw them as sympathetic creatures.

Just for fun, who can tell me Mickey's original name? Disney later used this name as a rival character.