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Johann H. Schulze, a German physicist, discovers that silver salts turn dark when exposed to light.
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Carl Scheele, a Swedish chemist, shows that the changes in the color of the silver salts could be made permanent through the use of chemicals.
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A French inventor, Nicephore Niepce, produces a permanent image by coating a metal plate with a light-sensitive chemical and exposing the plate to light for about eight hours.
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Louis Daguerre, a French inventor, develops the first practical method of photography by placing a sheet of silver-coated copper treated with crystals of iodine inside a camera and exposing it to an image for 5 to 40 minutes.
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Josef M. Petzval, a Hungarian mathematician, develops lenses for portrait and landscape photographs, which produce sharper images and admit more light, thus reducing exposure time.
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Richard L. Maddox, a British physician, invents the "dry-plate" process, using an emulsion of gelatin, so that photographers did not have to process the pictures immediately. By the late 1870s, exposure time had been reduced to 1/25th of a second.
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British photographer Eadweard Muybridge takes the first successful photographs of motion, showing how people and animals move.
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George Eastman introduces the lightweight, inexpensive Kodak camera, using film wound on rollers.
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Thomas Edison and W.K. Dickson develop the Kinetoscope, a peep-show device in which film is moved past a light.
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Two French brothers, Louis and August Lumiere patent a combination movie camera and projector, capable of projecting an image that can be seen by many people. In Paris, they present the first commercial exhibition of projected motion pictures.
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Henry Miles sets up the first film exchange, allowing exhibitors to rent films instead of buying them.
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Harry Davis opens the first nickelodeon in Pittsburgh.
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First animated cartoon produced.
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Studios begin distributing publicity stills of actors and actresses.
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Carl Laemmle organizes Universal Pictures, which will become the first major studio.
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Lee DeForrest demonstrates a method for recording sound on the edge of a film strip.
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The first inflight movie, a black & white, silent film called The Lost World, is shown in a WWI converted Handley-Page bomber during a 30-minute flight near London.
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Paramount becomes the first studio to announce that it will only produce "talkies."
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The first Academy Awards are announced, with the award for the best picture in 1927 going to Wings.
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The first drive-in movie theater opens in New Jersey.
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Technicolor introduces a three-color process in the film Becky Sharp.
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Walt Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is released.
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The first commercial television station begins broadcasting.
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Seven-year contracts with actors are replaced by single-picture or multi-picture contracts.
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James Dean dies in a car crash at the age of 26.
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The Blob and The Fly are released.
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A movie features "Smell-O-Vision."
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The Writers Guild abandons a 1954 requirement that members not be Communists.
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HBO begins on cable television.
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Sherry Lansing becomes the first woman to head a major studio when she becomes president of 20th Century Fox.
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Half of U.S. homes receive cable television.
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76% of homes have VCR's.
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Titanic, which premiered in 1997, becomes the highest grossing film in Hollywood history, earning $580 million domestically.
