The Mickey Mouse Club was an ABC television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned in 2017 to social media. It was created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions.
Walt Disney (center) with the Mouseketeers in 1955.
The children’s tv series Captain Kangaroo aired weekday mornings on the American television networkCBS from October 3, 1955, until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children’s tv program of its day. The show was conceived and the title character was played by Bob Keeshan, who had portrayed the original Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody show that aired on NBC.
Robert James Keeshan (June 27, 1927 – January 23, 2004)
On this day in 1968, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation’s territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
The Pueblo’s mission began in early January, 1968, when the crew set off from the U.S. Navy base on Yokosuka, Japan with orders to conduct surveillance on Soviet Navy and North Korean signal and electronic intelligence activity.
The captured crew (above) were beaten and nearly starved in the incident that almost led to another war.
Pueblo on display in North Korea, 2012.
North Koreans raise their fists during a rally in 2010 in front of the U.S. Navy spy ship Pueblo.
On this day in 1977, the TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel. Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third-highest-rated episode for any type of television series, and the second-most watched overall series finale in U.S. television history.
LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, a warrior of the Mandinka people in Gambia who is captured by slavers and taken to Annapolis, Md.
John William Carson(October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)
The Ives Manufacturing Corporation made toy trains from 1868 to 1932. For decades, Ives made clockwork trains, but created its first electric train in 1910.
The Edmund Fitzgerald, an ore-hauling freighter and its crew of 29 vanished during a storm in Lake Superior on this day in 1975. It was the largest ship to sail on the Great Lakes.
Edmund Fitzgerald in its watery grave.
On this day in 1969, the children’s TV series "Sesame Street" made its debut on PBS.
Shown above is an early cast and crew photo. (click to enlarge)
