On this day Disney Imagineers brought forth to Disneyland, a new attraction, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Disney’s Audio-Animatronics® version of our 16th president first addressed audiences in the State of Illinois pavilion at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair before settling in at his new home in Main Street’s Opera House in Disneyland. In the words of Walt Disney, “Ever since I was a small boy in Illinois, I’ve had a great personal admiration for Abraham Lincoln. So when we decided to recreate some of the great moments in Mr. Lincoln’s life for the World’s Fair, we directed all our energies to that task. We wanted to bring to the people of today, the inspiring words of the man who held this nation together during its moment of greatest crisis, the Civil War.” In 1973, the attraction closed to make way for The Walt Disney Story, but due to popular demand our 16th president returned to the opera house in 1975. In 2005, President Lincoln again took a vacation when the documentary movie Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years debuted.
