This Day in Pop Culture for March 18

1967: A Pirates Life For Me

It was on this day in 1967 that The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction opened for the first time at Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. It is estimated that 400 million riders have taken the trip since opening day. It was originally planned to be a walk-through wax museum, but after the success of the It’s a Small World and the Carousel of Progress, which first debuted at the 1964 World’s Fair, Walt Disney changed his mind. The attraction, which features about 120 audio-animatronic animals and humans, was Disney’s last attraction to be involved with before he passed away. Today, there are five versions of the ride. The others are located in Disney World in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland, Paris Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland. The ride was also the inspiration for five Pirates of the Caribbean movies that starred Johnny Depp.

1965: Pillsbury Doughboy ‘Rises’ to Fame

On this day in 1965, the world was introduced to Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy for the first time. He was created by a copywriter of all things. The story goes that Rudy Perz was sitting in his kitchen and imagined living dough boy popping out of a Pillsbury can. Originally Poppin’ was created with stop motion animation, but today CGI brings the little guy to life. He was originally voiced by Paul Frees, then Jeff Bergman and most recently, JoBe Cerny. The ticklish little guy has appeared in over 600 commercials representing more than 50 products and has managed to stay out of the oven for all of them.