December 30: "Words are the most powerful drugs used by mankind"

Joseph Rudyard Kipling - English author, poet and journalist - was born on this day in 1865 in Bombay, India (to British parents). Best known for writing The Jungle Book, he ranks among the greatest novelists and authors of the late 19th - early 20th century.

Although born in Bombay, Kipling spent most of his early life in England. Once married he and his wife Carrie moved to Vermont in the United States. A daughter was born in 1892, and it was then that Kipling began writing the 'Mowgli stories' which became The Jungle Book, first published two years later in 1894. A collection of fictional stories about the wilds of India, it was followed by The Second Jungle Book in 1895.

These stories became the basis for Disney's 1967 animated feature The Jungle Book (some 30 years after Rudyard Kipling's death).

Click HERE for much more December 30 Disney history.