Years in film
19th century
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
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The decade of the 1890s in film involved some significant events.

Events

• 1890 – Wordsworth Donisthorpe and W. C. Crofts film London's Trafalgar Square^[1] using a camera patented in 1889.^[2]
• 1891 – Following the work of Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey, and George Eastman, Thomas Edison employee William K. L. Dickson finishes work on a motion-picture camera and a viewing machine called the Kinetoscope.
• May 20, 1891 – Thomas Edison holds the first public presentation of his Kinetoscope for the National Federation of Women's Clubs.
• August 24, 1891 – Edison files for a patent of the Kinetoscope.
• 1892 – In France, Charles-Émile Reynaud began to have public screenings in Paris at the Théâtre Optique, with hundreds of drawings on a reel that he wound through his Zoetrope projector to construct moving images that continued for 15 minutes.
• 1892 – The Eastman Company becomes the Eastman Kodak Company.
• March 14, 1893 – Edison is granted Patent #493,426 for "An Apparatus for Exhibiting Photographs of Moving Objects" (the Kinetoscope).
• 1893 – Edison builds a motion-picture studio near his laboratory, dubbed the Black Maria by his staff.
• May 9, 1893 – In America, Edison holds the first public exhibition of films shot using his Kinetograph at the Brooklyn Institute. Only one person at a time could use his Kinetoscope viewing machine.
• January 7, 1894 – Edison films his assistant, Fred Ott sneezing with the Kinetoscope at the "Black Maria".
• April 14, 1894 – The first commercial presentation of the Kinetoscope takes place in the Holland Brothers' Kinetoscope Parlor at 1155 Broadway, New York City.
• 1894 – Kinetoscope viewing parlors begin to open in major cities. Each parlor contains several machines.
• 1895 – In France, brothers named Auguste and Louis Lumière design and build a lightweight, hand-held motion picture camera called the Cinématographe. The brothers discover that their machine can also be used to project images onto a large screen. They create several short films at this time that are considered to be pivotal in the history of motion pictures.
• November 1895 – In Germany, Emil and Max Skladanowsky develop their own film projector.
• December 1895 – In France, the Lumière brothers hold their first public screening of films shot with their Cinématographe.
• January 1896 – In Britain, Birt Acres and Robert W. Paul develop their own film projector, the Theatrograph (later known as the Animatograph).
• January 1896 – In the United States, a projector called the Vitascope is designed by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat. Armat begins to work with Edison to manufacture the Vitascope, which projects motion pictures.
• April 1896 – Edison and Armat's Vitascope is used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City.
• 1896 – French magician and filmmaker Georges Méliès begins experimenting with the new motion picture technology, developing many early special effects techniques, including stop-motion photography.
• 1896 – Pathé-Frères is founded.
• 1897 – A total of 125 people die during a film screening at the Charity Bazaar in Paris after a curtain catches on fire from the ether used to fuel the projector lamp.

Births

• January 15, 1891 – Arne Weel (died 1975)
• January 22, 1893 – Conrad Veidt (died 1943)
• April 20, 1893 – Harold Lloyd (died 1971)
• October 4, 1895 – Buster Keaton (died 1966)
• January 3, 1897 – Marion Davies (died 1961)
• September 30, 1898 – Renée Adorée (died 1933)

Lists of films