On Sept. 19, 1928 snow fell on Terra Alta, W. Va. In New York police apprehended arsonist Costos Petteriakes, otherwise known as “Gus the Firebug," and a woman won a divorce after her husband threw a razor at her in the Absecon Golf Club in New Jersey. More memorably, it was on this day that Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, opened at Manhattan’s Colony Theatre and so captivated audiences and critics alike that it was moved to the Roxy and made a featured attraction.
In the 40 years since then, Mickey's credits have included character roles in over 140 movies, as well as personal appearances on at least 5,000 different products, 400 funny-paper strips with a mass circulation of 48,000,000 and in books selling a total of 300,000,000 copies. He's been immortalized in wax at Madame Tussaud's. During World War II his name was the password for the 0-day landing. In dictionaries of American slang, he is synonymous with "corny," trite," “square,” and Mickey Mouse in musical lingo means "a dainty high-pitched rendition." Mickey has never gone a day without work, and his popularity is, if anything, on the rise. […]
