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Johann H. Schulze, a German physicist, discovers that silver salts turn dark when exposed to light.
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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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Etienne Marey in France develops a camera, shaped like a gun, that can take twelve pictures per second.
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American inventor George Eastman introduces film made on a paper base instead of glass, wound in a roll, eliminating the need for glass plates.
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Thomas Edison and W.K. Dickson invent the Kinetoscope, the first projector
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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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The first animated cartoon is produced.
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Lee DeForrest demonstrates a method for recording sound on the edge of a film strip, making the first films with audio.
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The U.S. Treasury Department upholds a Commissioner of Customs decision to prohibit the import of the film Ecstacy because it contains nudity.
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Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen form the film studio DreamWorks.
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The Blair Witch Project, which cost $30,000 to make, grosses $125 million, making it the most profitable film in Hollywood history.
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Documentary films such as March of the Penguins and Bowling for Columbine become popular, and awarness of home movies rises.
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3D films become increasingly popular
