Opening day, July 17, 1955, was a catastrophe later called 'Black Sunday.' Walt had printed 11,000 invitations, but counterfeit tickets and gate-crashers flooded the park with 28,000 people. The asphalt on Main Street, still soft from the morning sun, melted under women's high heels. Food and drinks ran out by early afternoon. A gas leak shut down Fantasyland. Walt watched from his apartment above the firehouse and called it the worst day of his life. By Monday morning, the lines were just as long. By the end of the year, more than a million people had walked through the gates.