Since the Tencennial (Part One)

The Fall 1981 issue of Disney News magazine featured the Tencennial celebration of Walt Disney World.

Articles in the magazine provide overviews of Lake Buena Vista with its tennis, golf, conference facilities, and the Walt Disney World Village's dining and shopping; Walt Disney World as a "Living Laboratory" of unique ecological, transportation, and power systems; the Tencennial celebration itself, a "year long, and a smile wide" featuring parades, concerts, celebrities, fireworks, and shows; and memories shared by cast members who had worked there from the beginning.

But the best part of the magazine is the three-page article that steps through the highlights of Walt Disney World history, year-by-year. Let's take a look at some of the accomplishments and how things have changed over time.

1971:

• The Walt Disney World resort opens with much celebration and fanfare.
• America the Beautiful, Walt Disney World's first Circle Vision 360 feature premiers in November.
  • This show is later replaced with Magic Carpet Round the World, American Journeys, and The Timekeeper. Today the theater hosts the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.
• Flight to the Moon opens in December.
  • This attraction has also been replaced several times. The show building has since housed Mission to Mars, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, and currently Stitch's Great escape.
• Christmas was celebrated with a Candlelight Processional narrated by Rock Hudson.
  • Today the Candlelight Processional is performed many times each year at the American Gardens Theatre in Epcot.
• Walt Disney World hosted its first golf tournament, won by Jack Nicklaus.

1972:

• If You Had Wings opened in June.
  • This show building would later hold If You Could Fly, Delta Dreamflight, Take Flight, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. If You Could Fly and Take Flight were largely identical to their respective predecessors, but with minor changes due to loss of sponsorship.
• Attendance for the first full year of operation exceeded 10.7 million guests.

1973:

• The Golf Resort opens in December.
  • The resort would later be renamed The Disney Inn. It is now known as Shades of Green and operated by the US Department of Defense for use by active and retired military personnel.
• Pirates of the Caribbean opens in December.
  • This attraction was recently refurbished to include Captain Jack Sparrow and other characters from the movie franchise.
• The Walt Disney Story (closed), the Swan Boats (closed), Tom Sawyer Island, and the Richard F. Irvine steamboat (now the Liberty Belle) all open.
• President Richard Nixon visits the convention of Associated Press managing editors at the Contemporary.
  • This is where the famous "I am not a crook" line was spoken as Nixon defended his record in the Watergate case.

1974:

• Magic Carpet Round the World opens in the Circle Vision 360 theater in Tomorrowland.
• Pioneer Hall opens at Fort Wilderness.
• Discovery Island opens in Bay Lake.
  • Discovery Island closed in 1999 after the opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom.