Today in History 📅

Born March 8, 1921, actor Alan Hale Jr. had a career that spanned over four decades. Hale was born in Los Angeles, CA, to parents Alan Hale, Sr., and Gretchen Hartman. Hale, Sr., was a well-known character actor appearing in several movies and Hartman was a 'silent screen' actress. Having already done several movies and television shows Hale, Jr. landed the role that he would become most well known for, that of the Skipper on Gilligan's Island. Though rarely used, the Skipper's actual name was Captain Jonas Grumby on the CBS show that ran from 1964-1967. The tropical island show was hugely popular and led to multiple cast reunion movies and animated series in the 70's & 80's along. Hale, Jr. embraced his popularity for being...

First opened to the public on June 23, 1963 at the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room is a Polynesian inspired musical animatronic show. The show features over 150 animatronic characters that talk, sing and dance. Characters include birds, flowers, a magic fountain, tiki drummers, and tiki totem poles that sing "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room" which has become a fan favorite theme. The attraction is extremely popular with a large following of Disney and pop tiki fans. Versions of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room can be found at Disneyland Resort (California), Walt Disney World (Florida), and Tokyo Disneyland.

Opening on March 18, 1967, the Disneyland version of Pirates of the Caribbean was the last attraction that Walt Disney himself participated in designing, debuting three months after his death. It is located within the New Orleans Square portion of Disneyland, its facade evoking antebellum era New Orleans, topped by a 31-star United States flag (which would indicate the 1850s). It was originally envisioned as a walk-through wax museum attraction; however, with the success of the boat ride concept of It's a Small World at the 1964 New York World's Fair, Disney decided to employ the same ride system on the Pirates of the Caribbean. The ornate initials of Walt Disney and Roy Disney (W.D. and R.D.) can be seen entwined in the wrought iron...

Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole (pronounced [kəˌmɐkəˌvivoˈʔole]; Hawaiian for '"The Fearless Eyed Man"'; May 20, 1959 – June 26, 1997), also called Bruddah Iz or IZ, was a Native Hawaiian singer-songwriter, musician, and Hawaiian sovereignty activist. He achieved commercial success outside Hawaii when his album Facing Future was released in 1993. His medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" was released on his albums Ka ʻAnoʻi and Facing Future. It was subsequently featured in several films, television programs, and television commercials. Along with his ukulele playing and incorporation of other genres, such as jazz and reggae, Kamakawiwoʻole remains influential in Hawaiian music. In 2020 Google honored Iz by...

Today in History.... The Kon-Tiki Museum opened its doors on May 15th, 1950. The Kon-Tiki Museum opened its doors on May 15th, 1950, dedicated to the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947. Knut Haugland and Gerd Vold Hurum were both instrumental in convincing Thor Heyerdahl to see the raft as a possible attraction in Norway, and for its return to Oslo. Knut Haugland, who had been on leave from the military to join the Kon-Tiki expedition, returned to his day job in the fall of 1947. On this spare time and on weekend, he would organize a massive "dugnad" (that wonderful Norwegian word to describe a collective effort to help a neighbor or friend in a project) to get the first Kon-Tiki Museum built and to give tours of the raft. All his war...

How many 'Aloha' shirts do you have? https://www.hawaiidiscount.com/blog/aloha-friday/ Aloha Friday actually came from Hawaii’s clothing industry. In the 1940s businessmen always wore a suit and tie. In 1946 the City and County of Honolulu allowed their employees to wear sports shirts during the hottest summer months. The Hawaiian Fashion industry realized they would benefit if residents wore Hawaiian made clothing. They encouraged companies to allow employees to wear aloha gear to work on Fridays. In 1966 the Bank of Hawaii allowed Aloha attire on Fridays. The tradition began when Maui’s Wilson P. Cannon, Jr., who was president of the Bank of Hawaii, started wearing aloha shirts to the office. Soon after this Aloha Fridays were...

The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Kon-Tiki is also the name of Heyerdahl's book, the Academy Award-winning documentary film chronicling his adventures, and the 2012 dramatized feature film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time...

The 'soft' opening of Trader Sam's Grog Grotto in the Polynesian Village Resort at Disney World Orlando took place on March 28, 2015. With an April 27, 2015, official opening date, early visitors had a chance to explore the East Coast version of Trader Sam's bar & restaurant early. https://touringplans.com/blog/2015/03/31/trader-sams-grog-grotto-soft-opening-photos-video/ https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2015/04/trader-sams-grog-grotto-officially-opens-today-at-disneys-polynesian-village-resort/

Prince Kūhiō Day is an official holiday in the state of Hawaiʻi in the United States. It is celebrated annually on March 26, to mark the birth of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole — heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, prince of the House of Kalākaua, and later territorial delegate to the United States Congress. It was established in 1949 by the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii. As a delegate, Kuhio authored the first Hawaii Statehood bill in 1919. He also won passage of the Hawaiian Homes Act, creating the Hawaiian Homes Commission and setting aside 200,000 acres (810 km2) of land for Hawaiian homesteaders. Prince Kūhiō Day is one of only two holidays in the United States dedicated to royalty, the other being Hawaiʻi's...

It's World Cocktail Day! 🍸 World Cocktail Day is a global celebration of cocktails; it marks the publication date of the first definition of a cocktail on May 13 in 1806. The New York tabloid The Balance and Columbian Repository defined a cocktail as "a stimulating liquor, composed of [[spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters". It was written by editor Harry Croswell in response to a reader’s inquiry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cocktail_Day

South Pacific is a 1958 American romantic musical film based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1949 musical South Pacific, which in turn is based on James A. Michener's short-story collection Tales of the South Pacific. The film, directed by Joshua Logan, stars Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr and Ray Walston in the leading roles with Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary, the part that she had played in the original stage production. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the Academy Award for Best Sound for Fred Hynes. The plot centers on an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific island during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race...