It happened This week!
● Pixar’s Oscar-winning animated film Finding Nemo premiered in Hollywood in 2003, starring Ellen Degeneres as the voice of Dory, a fish with short-term memory loss. Director Andrew Stanton knew he wanted Degeneres for the role after seeing an episode of her talk show in which she changed subjects five times in a matter of minutes!
● The first Kentucky Derby was held in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1875. Dubbed “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” today more than 170,000 spectators fill the stands at Churchill Downs, where admission starts at $ 80 but skyrockets to $15,000 for access to “The Mansion”!
● President William Taft dedicated the New York Public Library in 1911. Today, the main branch houses more than 45 million books, as well as unique treasures, including the original Winnie-the-pooh and his friends, beloved by the son of author A. A. Milne!
● Broadway’s Les Miserables gave its final performance in 2003. If you happened to catch one of the original performances, you may have recognized one of the main character’s voices in another production a few years later— Judy Kuhn, the show’s original Cosette, went on to be the singing voice of Disney’s Pocahontas!
● Actress, comedian and writer Tina Fey was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in 1970. The winner of nine Emmys and dozens of other awards got her start by enrolling in improvisational comedy classes in Chicago— which she paid for by folding towels and working the front desk at a local YMCA!