1830 : The British Michael Faraday invents the Faraday wheel which highlights the retinal persistence .
1831 : In his footsteps, the Belgian Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau invents the phenakistiscope to demonstrate the importance of retinal persistence in the perception of movement.
1834 : The British William George Horner invents the zootrope (or magic drum ), an optical toy that uses drawings to recompose a movement of a second.
1876 : The Frenchman Emile Reynaud invents the praxinoscope , another optical toy using drawings.
1878 : The British Eadweard Muybridge develops a device of 12 cameras with plates of glass to analyze the phases of theequine gallop which, until now, was falsely perceived and represented in drawing and painting.
1880 : Eadweard Muybridge invents the zoopraxiscope , a projection device that can project on the big screen 12 or 24 photographs on glass arranged on a rotating disk of glass, which reproduces the movement recorded for one to two seconds. At the same time, Émile Reynaud launches his projection praxinoscope.
1882 : The Frenchman Étienne-Jules Marey , in collaboration with his compatriot Albert Londe , invents the chronophotographer with fixed photosensitive glass plates contained in twelve photographic chambers . He then invented the photographic rifle which, in one second, captured 12 photographic snapshots on rotating glass plates with as many stops for photographic shooting , in the manner of a revolver barrel.
1888 : The Frenchman Louis Aimee Augustin The Prince records on paper about twenty chronophotographies in one second, A scene in the garden of Roundhay , with his camera, the Mk2, but can not show them in movement.
1888 : The American John Carbutt invents a supple and transparent support, cellulose nitrate , celluloid, marketed in 1889 by the American industrialist George Eastman in the form of strips of 70 mm wide.
1889 : The British William Friese-Greene recorded a dozen chronophotographs in one second, Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs Trotting Horses , of which there is no trace to attest to the reality.
1889 : Based on sketches by the American Thomas Edison , his collaborators William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and Charles A. Brown invent the first version of the Edison camera, powered by the Eastman flexible film cut into strips of 19 mm wide, at horizontal unfolding, with a row of sixrectangular perforations at the bottom of thecircular photograms inherited from the optical toys. This device with intermittent roll of the film is called Kinétographe , it is the first efficient camera in the history of cinema. To watch the recorded films, Dickson invents the Kinetoscope, a continuous-moving apparatus in front of a light bulb, where the photographic films are seen in motion by a set of magnifying glasses and an individual eyecup. Official presentation of the first Edison film, Dickson Greeting (the English word film is adopted by Edison for impressed film reels), on May 20, 1891 in front of an assembly of one hundred and fifty activists of the Federation of Women’s Clubs .
1890 : Étienne-Jules Marey adapts the same flexible celluloid support to his chronophotographe.
1891 : Thomas Edison and his collaborators, WKL Dickson and William Heise , dissatisfied with the results obtained in 19 mm , develop a new film format, which will become the standard support of cinema: the 35 mm , with a double game of four rectangular Edison perforations (registered model) on each side of each photogram.
1892 : Émile Reynaud presents his luminous pantomimes with the help of his Optical Theater at the Musée Grévin . First animated cartoons and first screenings in motion on the big screen.
1893 – 1895 : Edison produced seventy films of less than one minute each. William Kennedy Laurie Dickson takes the lead, becoming the first director in the history of cinema. For this purpose, Edison had the first film studio , the Black Maria , built and licensed and installed Kinestoscope Parlors , rooms where several films were shown on as many Kinetoscopes, with a flat fee. In fact, it is the first cinemas, and the first recipes of the cinema, to which must be added the Fantastic Cabinet of the Grévin museum, where take place the paid sessions of the optical theater Reynaud.
1894 : Antoine Lumière , visiting Paris, attends a demonstration of the Kinetoscope and a session of the Optical Theater. Returning to Lyon, he directs the research of his sons on the animated image. Auguste and Louis Lumière are adapting the claw and cam drive system (commonly used in the textile industry, of which Lyon is an important center) to a first camera model, using a non-projectable paper film 35 mm wide to a set of two round perforations on both sides of the photograms (thus avoiding the counterfeit Edison film).
Main births
1840s
December 8, 1844 : Émile Reynaud , French inventor, inventor of the cartoon , initiator of the first animated screenings on a big screen
August 28, 1841 : Louis Aimée Augustin Le Prince , French-English inventor of the pre-cinema period
October 22, 1844 : Sarah Bernhardt , French actress of tragedy
February 11, 1847 : Thomas Edison , American inventor of the first film camera and initiator of the word “film”
1850s
November 8, 1855 : James Williamson , British director
January 4, 1857 : Emile Cohl , draftsman and one of the great director of the cartoon
1860s
August 3, 1860 : William Kennedy Laurie Dickson , Franco-British inventor and first film director
December 8, 1861 : Georges Méliès , French illusionist, director and comedian
March 30, 1862 : Victorin Jasset , French director
October 19, 1862 : Auguste Lumière , inventor and French industrialist
December 26, 1863 : Charles Pathé , French producer
January 4, 1864 : George Albert Smith , British director
February 19, 1864 : Ferdinand Zecca , French director
May 10, 1864 : Léon Gaumont , French industrialist
October 5, 1864 : Louis Lumière , inventor, director, producer and French industrialist
March 14, 1865 : Filoteo Alberini , Italian producer and director
June 12, 1867 : William Bechtel , American actor
April 10, 1868 : George Arliss , British comedian
June 5, 1869 : British director Lewin Fitzhamon
July 4, 1869 : William E. Wing , American screenwriter
October 3, 1869 : Robert W. Paul , first British director
1870s
December 16, 1871 : Ernest Shipman , Canadian producer
January 7, 1873 : Adolph Zukor , American producer
February 19, 1873 : Louis Feuillade , French director
April 24, 1873 : Robert Wiene , German director
July 1, 1873 : Alice Guy , first film director, French-American producer
January 5, 1875 : James Stuart Blackton , American director, inventor of the cartoon on photosensitive medium
January 22, 1875 : David Wark Griffith
August 24, 1877 : Victor Boucher , French actor
September 9, 1877 : André Alerme , French actor
April 28, 1878 : Lionel Barrymore , actor and American director
March 12, 1879 : Alfred Abel , German actor and director
August 15, 1879 : Ethel Barrymore , American actress
August 17, 1879 : Samuel Goldwyn , American producer
September 26, 1879 : André Brulé , French actor
October 3, 1879 : André Brunot , French actor
October 23, 1879 : Arthur Henry Gooden , British screenwriter
1880s
January 17, 1880 : Mack Sennett , Canadian producer and director
January 29, 1880 : WC Fields , screenwriter and American actor
February 18, 1880 : Webster Cullison , American director
April 12, 1880 : Harry Baur , French actor
September 27, 1880 : Wally Van , actor and American director
December 14, 1880 : Léon Belières , French actor
August 12, 1881 : Cecil Blount DeMille
January 17, 1882 : Noah Beery , American actor
February 15, 1882 : John Barrymore , American actor
September 9, 1882 : Bach (Charles-Joseph Pasquier) , actor and comic French trooper
September 30, 1882 : George Bancroft , American actor
February 9, 1883 : Jules Berry , French actor
May 23, 1883 : Douglas Fairbanks , American actor
December 16, 1883 : Max Linder , French actor and director
March 22, 1884 : Lyda Borelli , Italian actress
June 15, 1884 : Harry Langdon , American actor
July 4, 1885 : Louis B. Mayer
January 2, 1885 : Marcel André , French actor
February 21, 1885 : French writer, actor and director Sacha Guitry
March 1, 1885 : Lionel Atwill , British actor
April 1, 1885 : Wallace Beery , American actor
April 12, 1885 : Jacques Baumer , French actor
July 29, 1885 : Theda Bara , American actress, first vamp of the cinema
May 26, 1886 : Al Jolson , American singer and actor
August 23, 1886 : Josette Andriot , French actress
January 6, 1887 : Berthe Bovy , French actress
January 11, 1887 : Monte Blue , American actor
March 11, 1887 : Raoul Walsh , American director
May 12, 1887 : Yvonne de Bray , French actress
June 1, 1887 : Clive Brook , British actor and director
September 29, 1887 : Billy Bevan , Australian actor
November 23, 1887 : Boris Karloff , British actor
December 23, 1887 : Eric Blore , British actor
December 24, 1887 : Louis Jouvet , French actor
February 19, 1888 : John G. Adolfi , director and American producer
September 21, 1888 : Lucien Baroux , French actor
February 24, 1889 : Suzanne Bianchetti , French actress
February 26, 1889 : Jacques Berlioz , French actor
March 29, 1889 : Warner Baxter , American actor
April 16, 1889 : Charlie Chaplin , British actor and director
July 5, 1889 : Jean Cocteau , French poet, writer and director
September 15, 1889 : Robert Benchley , American actor and screenwriter
October 25, 1889 : Abel Gance , director and French producer
1890s
February 18, 1890 : Edward Arnold , American actor
June 9, 1890 : Leslie Banks , British actor
June 16, 1890 : Stan Laurel , British actor
October 7, 1890 : René Bergeron , French actor
October 14, 1890 : Louis Delluc , French filmmaker
January 1, 1891 : Charles Bickford , American actor
March 28, 1891 : Raymond Aimos , French actor
April 20, 1891 : Thomy Bourdelle , French actor
September 22, 1891 : Hans Albers , German actor
October 24, 1891 : Pierre Bertin , French actor
January 6, 1892 : Lucienne Bogaert , French actress
January 18, 1892 : Oliver Hardy , American actor
April 8, 1892 : Mary Pickford , actress and Canadian producer
April 11, 1892 : Francesca Bertini , Italian actress
June 30, 1892 : Pierre Blanchar , French actor and director
July 28, 1892 : Joe E. Brown , American actor
March 12, 1893 : Jean Brochard , French actor
March 14, 1893 : Pierre Alcover , French actor
April 20, 1893 : Harold Lloyd , American actor
May 21, 1893 : Armand Bernard , French actor
June 8, 1893 : Gaby Morlay , French actress
February 1, 1894 : John Ford , American director
February 8, 1894 : King Vidor , American director
July 25, 1894 : Walter Brennan , American actor
September 15, 1894 : Jean Renoir , French director