Eighty years ago, back in 1928, a star was born. An animated one, which everybody loved from the very first moment. Now, Mickey Mouse has turned 80, an entire world rushing to wish him a happy birthday.

Mickey made its debut on November 18, 1928 in the “Steamboat Willie” animated cartoon, a production which also marked the first time a Disney cartoon featured synchronized sound. The movie opened at New York's 79th Street Theatre and almost instantly became a hit, while in 1994, it was voted number 13 on The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time.

The Mickey Mouse character, which soon came to be a household name in the animated cartoons industry, was featured wearing a large pair of shoes, red shorts and big white gloves, trademarks he has kept over these past 80 years. Moreover, among the things that made Mickey special was the fact that he had a dog named Pluto for a pet.

Mickey was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, the former being also the one to lend his voice to the character, and since 1928, the anthropomorphic mouse has become more and more popular, coming to represent an iconic figure in the animated world.

Mickey Mouse was brought forth in order to replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a Disney character to which the studio lost the animation rights in 1928 and it was initially named by Iwerks Mortimer Mouse.

Before being featured in the movie that cast stardom upon him, Mickey appeared in two other short animated productions, „Plane Crazy” (May 15, 1928) and „The Gallopin' Gaucho.”