Pursuing his dream of 'building a community that will become a prototype for the future,' Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin land -- twice the size of Manhattan Island -- in the heart of the state of Florida. Here, he masterplanned a whole new Disney world of entertainment to include a new amusement theme park, motel-hotel resort vacation centre and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of actual construction, Walt Disney World opened to the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. Epcot Centre opened on October 1, 1982.

The creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. Raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Disney sold his first sketches to neighbours when he was only seven years old. At McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing both to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.

After the war, Disney returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation.

From then on there was no looking back for the talented Disney. In his 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art, Disney, regarded as a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana. David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called Disney 'the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo DaVinci.' When he died of cancer on December 15, 1966, Hollywood lost one of its brightest stars.

Today is Disney's 103rd birth anniversary.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent