The story behind the mouse.

 After loosing the rights to his first creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, animator and visionary Walter Elias Disney had to come up with another main character for his company. In 1928, on a train ride from New York City to California, he started sketching a little mouse and he started to grow fond of it and he some how knew that other people would too. Mickey Mouse had his first success in a black and white short called Steamboat Willie, which came out to be a smash hit.
Walt Disney won a honorary Academy Award in recognition for Mickey Mouses creation and popularity.  After the success of Mickey, Walt and his brother Roy Disney decided to push the boundaries of animation further and create his first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, becoming the highest grossing film of that time. This opened the door to many films that we know as children like Bambi, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella.
In 1954, Walt started with an idea that he'd like to create a place where kids and their parents could go and have fun together. He acquired 160 acres of land and a year and one day and $17 million after, Disneyland was born. Walt had so many ideas that we wanted to put into Disneyland but there wasn't enough room. In 1965, Disney World was announced with plans for theme parks, hotels and even a model city on thousands of acres of land purchased outside of Orlando Florida.  With all that on his plate Walt continued to concentrate on film and television, in 1955 the Mickey Mouse Club premiered with great success. This was a great time for the Disney Company with the success of timeless animation films, 59 Academy Award nominations and 22 Oscars awarded, a fully functional theme park and another one being built, tragedy struck Walt would never be able to see the Orlando project finish.
On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of complications related to lung cancer. His brother Roy Disney took over as chairman, CEO, and president of the company. One of his first acts was to rename Disney World, which opened in October 1971, as Walt Disney World in honor of his brother and his vision.

"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."
-Waly Disney