Donald Duck makes his debut as a supporting character in this cartoon. The original premiere date (June 9th, 1934) has been declared Donald Duck's birthday.
The title/plot is based on the Russian folk tale of "The Little Red Hen". The best known version in the United States was popularized by Little Golden Books, a series of children's books published for the mass market since the 1940s.
While this is Donald Duck's first appearance in an animated cartoon, he had actually first appeared as a background character in a Mickey comic called The Adventures of Mickey Mouse in 1931, although he had a completely different design than the one here and the one known today.