1900
Inventions
• A prototype of color and sound film is demonstrated at the Paris Expo.
• Vladamir Poulsen patents a recording system called “Telegraphone” (how very original, Vlad)
Comics
• Frederick Burr Opper"s "Happy Hooligan" debuts in Newspapers around the country.
• "Foxy Grandpa" by Carl Shultze makes it's first Newspaper appearance in The New York Herald.
Birthdays
• Aleksandr Ptushko, puppet animator (1900 - 1973)
• Walter Lantz animation producer (1899 - 1994)
• Oscar Fischinger, animator (1900 - 1967)
• David Hand, (director, animator, producer)
• Ivan Ivanov-Vano (director)
• James Bodrero, Disney visual development artist
Notable Films
• Blackton works on “The Enchanted Drawing” at the Edison Studio.
Here's a neat series on YouTube about the History of Animation:
The History of Animation Part 1
The History of Animation Part 2
The History of Animation Part 3
1901
World News
• Mercedes, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac automobiles begin production
• New York subway system construction begins
• Eastman Kodak company is incorporated
• First Nobel prizes are awarded
• The vacuum cleaner is invented
• Annie Edson Taylor is the 1st to go over Niagra Falls in a barrel.
Inventions
• The vacuum cleaner is invented
• 1st Trans Atlantic wireless transmission by Marconi from England to Newfoundland.
• Fessenden begins experiments in wireless voice transmission.
Birthdays
• Alfred Newman, American composer of movie scores.
• Ub Iwerks, animator (1901 - 1971)
• Alexandre Alexieff, pin-screen animator
• Len Lye, animator (1901 - 1980)
• Ted Sears, writer, storyboard artist, composer, animator, director
• Clyde Geronimi, director, animator
• Oh yeah, and some guy named Walt Disney (1901 - 1966)
Deaths
• Queen Victoria dies at age 82 after 63 year reign - Edward VII becomes king
• William McKinley, the 25th President of the U.S. is assassinated
• Artist, Henri de Tolouse-Latrec dies at age 36
1902
World News
• T. L. Tally’s Electric Theatre opens in L.A.
• Pathe opens a studio at Vincennes.
• American Automobile Association formed
• The "Art Nouveau" style is exhibited in Paris
• New law introduced against hunting Buffalo, saves them from extinction
• First Cadillac car sold in Buffalo, N.Y.
• Czar Nicholas II of Russia, angered by the belief that Jews were responsible for organizing
revolutionary groups and strikes, grants permission for local "christians" to wreak "bloody punishment".
Scores of Jews are savagely murdered and the Jewish section of the city is destroyed.
• Henry Ford forms his auto company
• The 1st public radio broadcast is made by U.S. inventor Nathan Stubblefield
• In the case of "Edison v.s. American Mutoscope Company", a U.S. court of appeals rules that despite his claims, Thomas Edison did not invent the movie camera.
• The 1st American movie theater opens in Los Angeles. Admission was .10¢
Inventions
• Thomas Edison invents the battery
Comics
• Richard Felton Outcault's "Buster Brown" makes his first appearence in The New York Herald.
Notable Films
• Georges Melies releases his film “Voyage to the Moon”
• "Fun in a Bakery Shop" an Edison studio production
1903
World News
• At 35 yrs old, Windsor McCay begins drawing “Tales of the Jungle Imps” comic strip.
• Ford sells his first "Model A" car
• 1st Baseball World series played in Boston
• Japan invades Korea
• Japanese navy destroys Russian fleet
• Singer, Enrico Caruso records, "La Donna e Mobile" for the Victor Co.
• Orville and Wilbur Wright fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Inventions
• 1st Teddy Bear goes on sale.
Comics
• Gustave Verbeck's "The Upside Downs" begins in The New York Herald.
Birthdays
• Hugh Harmon, animator (1903 - 1982)
• Rudolf Ising, animator (1903 - 1992)
• Sammy Timberg (composer)
• Hamilton Luske (Ham Luske) (director, animator)
• Taiji Yabushita (Yabushita Taiji) (director, producer, animator)
• George Orwell, author of "Animal Farm"
Deaths
• Artist, James Abbott McNeill Whistler dies at age 69
• Impressionist artist, Camille Pissarro dies at age 73
• Artist, Paul Gauguin dies at age 55
Notable Films
• “The Great Train Robbery” is released.
1904
World News
• New York subway opens
• Russia's "Bloody Sunday". 100,000 workers march peacefully in St. Petersburg.
Czar Nicholas II refuses to listen to their requests for better working conditions and orders his troops
to open fire on the crowd. More than 500 are killed.
Inventions
• Thomas Edison patents the electric automobile.
Comics
• McCay draws “Little Sammy Sneeze” comic strip.
• "Little Jimmy" strip by James Swinnerton makes first appearance.
• First appearance of "The Newlyweds" by George McManus.
• Winsor McCay's "Dream Of The Rarebit Fiend" makes first apperance in The Evening Telegram.
Birthdays
• Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss (1904 - 1991).
• Friz Feleng animator, director (1904 - 1995)
• Vladimir "Bill" Tytla, animator (1904 - 1968)
• James Tyer (animator, director)
Notable Films
Europe
1905
World News
• Russian - Japanese war ends with Treaty of Portsmouth. Japanese death toll at 457,035.
• Over 1000 Jews are massacred in Odessa, Russia.
• Norwegan explorer, Roald Amundsen finds the magnetic North Pole.
• Einstein publishes his "Special Theory of Relativity" at age 26.
• The 1st Nickelodeon opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania showing, "The Great train Robbery".
Inventions
• Fleming electron tube
Comics
• Gustove Verbeck's comics strip "The Terror of The Tiny Tads" makes first apperance.
• McCay begins drawing “Little Nemo in Slumberland” comic strip.
Movies
• What may be the world's first feature film, "The Story of the Kelly" premiers at the Athenaeum Hall in Melbourne, Australia. At an hour long, it is considered the 1st continious film of any significant length.
Birthdays
• Paul Grimault, (animator) (1905 - 1994)
• Sterling Holloway, (voice actor)
• Art Davis, (animator, director)
• Eric Larson, (animator, director)
• Lev Atamanov, (Russian director, producer)
Deaths
• Author, Jules Verne dies at age 77
1906
World News
• The great San Fransisco earthquake. Over 1000 killed and most of the city is destroyed.
• Women fight for the right to vote in England.
• Census concludes that the British Empire covers 1/5 of the Earth.
Inventions
• DeForest invents the Audion vacuum tube.
• The 1st movie theater - The Cinema Omnia Pathe opens in Paris, France.
• The !st Victrola Record Player is manufactured and sells for $200.00
• Eugene Augustin Lauste of Paris, France patents the 1st talking motion picture.
• The 1st air conditioner is patented.
Comics
• Lyonel Feininger's "The Kin-der-Kids" & "Wee Willie Winkie's World" begin at The Chicago Tribune.
Birthdays
• Wilfred Jackson (director, animator)
• Friz Freleng (Isadore Friz Freling) (director, producer, animator)
• Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the 1st all electronic television receiver.
• Chester F. Carlson, the inventor of xerography (photocopy machines)
Deaths
• Artist, Paul Cezanne dies at age 67.
• Notable Films
United States
• Blackton releases “Humerous Phases of Funny Faces”
Europe
• "The Hand of the Artist", Walter R. Booth /Urban Trading Company. (Great Britain) (animated black board drawings)
1907
World News
• Blackton starts the Moving Picture World, the first movie fanzine
• The "Teddy Bear" is created by German, Richard Steiff, inspired by President Teddy Roosevelt who
refused to kill a bear cub on a hunting trip.
• Women in Finland are the first in Europe allowed to vote. Only a handfull of States in the U.S. allow
women to vote.
• Artist, Pablo Picasso develops "Cubism" with his painting "Les Demoiselles D'avignon".
• Ringling Bros buy Barnum Baily for $410,000 and create a monopoly on the circus business.
• Louis B Mayer opens a small movie theater in Massachusetts. 10 years later in 1917 he will start his own production company, which, through a series of mergers, becomes Metro Goldwyn Mayer (M.G.M.)
• The "Gibson Girl" is created by artist, Charles Dana Gibson. "A model of femininity".
Inventions
• 1st helecopter flight in France.
• Lumiere Brothers develop an affordable 3 color photo process, superior to James Maxwell's 1861 discovery.
Comics
• Bud Fisher's "Mutt & Jeff" comic strip makes it's debut as "Mr. A. Mutt" in The San Francisco Chronicle. It's credited as being the first succeful daily comic strip.
Notable Films
• Blackton releases “Haunted Hotel” (Stop motion)
Birthdays
• Virgil Ross, animator (1907 - 1996)
• Connie Rasinski, (J. Conrad Rasinski) (director, animator)
• Art Babbitt, (animator, director)
• Les Clark, (animator, director, inbetweener)
Notable Films
United States
• "The Teddy Bears", Edwin S. Porter /Edison. (puppet animation)
Europe
• "La Silhouette Animee", Segundo de Chomon /Pathe. (France) (silhouette animation, some live action)
1908
World News
• 1st long distance flight by an airplane - 1 km in a circle outside Paris, France
• Ford's "Model T" rolls off the assembly line. Each car takes 14 hours to build.
• Concerns over child welfare sparks the beginnings of child labour laws. Currently, more than
1.75 million children, under the age of 16 work in factories. 6 & 7 year old girls spin cotton 13 hrs each day.
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation is founded.
Animation News
• Emile Courtet (Emile Cohl) begins working at Gaumont Studio. As the story goes, he was born in Paris in January 1857 and apprenticed as a jewlwer. He began drawing caricatures during his military service. He went on to become a political cartoonist for numerous publications, wrote for the theater, acted, dabbled in conjuring and took up photography. He also designed some flip books. One day he stormed into the Gaumont offices to protest that the company had plagiarized one of his cartoons in a movie poster. His reward was to be offered a job by Louis Feuillade, then the head of production at the studio. Cohl started as an ideas man and writer, graduating to the direction of animated films where he created the character "Fantoche".
Inventions
• Edison patents the film projector
• Edison forms Edison Biograph studio
• Cellophane is invented
Birthdays
• Tex Avery director (1908 - 1980)
• Joe Grant, character designer and storyman (1908 -
• Mel Blanc, voice actor - Bugs, Daffy, Porky etc. (1908 - 1989)
• Michael Maltese (writer, storyboard artist)
• Hugh Harman (director, animator, producer)
• Mae Questel (voice actress, Betty Boop)
• Shamus Culhane (Jimmie Culhane) (animator, director, producer)
• Seymour Kneitel, (director, animator, producer)
• Myron Waldman (animator, director)
• George Pal (Gyorgy Pal Marczincsak) (director, producer, animator)
Notable Films
United States
• "A Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Dream", Edison. (clay animation, part live action)
• "The Sculptor's Nightmare", Biograph. (clay animation, part live action)
• "Humpty Dumpty Circus", James Blackton and Albert Smith /Vitagraph. (puppet animation)
Europe
• Emil Cohl releases “Fantasmagoric” (a.k.a. Phantasmagoria) as well as "Fantoche's Nightmare" (his 1st film) and "Fantoche's House" in France
• "Dreams of Toyland", Arthur Melbourne-Cooper /Alpha. (Great Britain) (puppet animation)
1909
World News
• Prohibition spreads across America closing down salloons. Owners opposed to the movement
suggest the results may be that former drinkers will switch to the use of cocarne and morphine.
• Explorer, Robert E. Peary reaches the North Pole.
• French aviator, Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel.
• American movie studios including Biograph, Vitagraph, The Edison Studio, and others, begin submitting films to the New York based board of censorship for review. The board was set up by movie studios as a self policing body to avoid threatened government censorship.
• Carl Laemmle establishes the Independant motion Picture Company (IMP). The studio defied the Motion Picture Patent Company formed in 1908 by 9 leading film companies to monopolize the fledgling industry. The Patent Company refused to let other companies use their patented equipment and distributed films only to theater owners who agreed to their terms. Kodak agreed to sell raw stock film only to members of the company, so Laemmle had to buy film from overseas. Laemmle fought more than 280 lawsuits from the Patent Company but still succeeded in growing his studio.
Comics
• Rose O' Neill redefines the meaning of the word "Cute" when she debuts her "Kewpie" characters in Women's Home Companion magazine. They are an instant hit and spark a merchandising bonanza including numerous children's books, advertisements, and the world famous Kewpie Doll.
Animation News
• At 42 yrs old, McCay begins work on “Little Nemo” 4000 drawings on rice paper. The final film
is hand tinted in color. He uses a corner mark registration system.
• The moving picture industry generates $40 million a year in 10,000 picture theaters across the U.S.
50% of Americans attend a movie once each week, paying as much as .10¢ each.
• Emil Cohl releases "The Magic Eyeglasses"
• James Stuart Blackton releases the first part of "The Life of Moses" a 50 minute, 5 part live action movie.
Birthdays
• Ken Anderson, animator (1909 - 1983)
• Milt Kahl, animator (1909 - 1987)
• Woolie Reitherman, animator (1909 - 1985)
• Al Eugster, (animator, director)
• Jack Kinney, (director, animator, writer)
• Irv Spence, (animator)
• Bob Cannon (Bobe Cannon, Robert Cannon) (director, animator)
• Dave Tendlar, (animator, director)
• Ryuichi Yokoyama (Yokoyama Ryuichi) (director, producer, animator)
Deaths
• Sculptor/Painter, Frederic Remington dies at age 48 of ruptured appendix.
Notable Films
United States
• "The Magic Fountain Pen", James Blackton /Vitagraph. (drawn animation)
Europe
• "Les Joyeux Microbes", Emile Cohl /Gaumont. (France) (drawn animation)
• "Clair de lune espagnol" ("Spanish Moonlight") (ss), Emile Cohl /Gaumont. (France)
(first combination of animated drawings and live action in the same frame of a film)
• "The Sporting Mice", Charles Armstrong /Cumberland Works. (Great Britain) (silhouette animation)
• "Monsieur Clown chez les liliputiens" ("Mr. Clown Among Liliputians") (ss), Emile Cohl /Gaumont.
(France) (puppet animation)
1910
World News
• Boy Scouts begin in the U.S.
• King Edward VII of England dies at age 68. George V the new king.
• Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky (44 yrs old) creates the 1st abstract art painting "improvisation 10".
Inventions
• Neon lights are 1st publicly demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show.
Comics
• George Herriman's comic strip "The Dingbat Family" makes it's first appearance. "Krazy Kat" debuts as a regular character in the strip.
Animation News
• Raoul Barre begins experimental animation with William C. Nolan. They form the company Raoul Barre to produce advertising films
• Edison successfully demonstrates the talking motion picture (part phonograph/part camera).
• Cy Young begins animating
• John Randolph Bray forms his own studio, produces “The Artist’s Dream” or “The Dachshund and the Sausage”
• Emile Cohl leaves Gaumont for Pathe. (France)
Birthdays
• Akira Kurosawa, director (1910 - 1988)
• Karel Zeman, Czech puppet animator (1910 - 1989) (Treasure of Bird Island 1952)
• Maurice Noble, animation designer/layout artist (1910 - 2001)
• William Hanna (Bill Hanna, William Denby Hanna) director, producer, animator (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) born in Melrose, New Mexico.
• Robert McKimson, animator (1910 - 1977)
• Charles A. Nichols (Charles Nichols, Charles August Nichols) (director, animator, writer)
• Preston Blair (Preston Erwin Blair) (animator, charcter designer, writer)
• Jack Mercer (voice actor, Popeye, writer, inbetweener)
• Jean Image (Imre Hajdu) (director, animator, producer)
• Pete Burness (Peter Burness, Wilson D. Burness) (director, animator, writer)
• Eric Porter (producer, director, animator)
Deaths
• Author, Samuel Clemmens a.k.a. Mark Twain dies at age 74.
• Painter, Winslow Homer dies at age 74.
Notable Cartoons
United States
• “Chew Chew Land; or, The Adventures of Dollie and Jim”, James Blackton /Vitagraph. (clay animation, part live action)
Europe
• “The Clown and His Donkey”, Samuel Armstrong. (Great Britain) (silhouette animation)
• “En route”, Emile Cohl /Gaumont. (France) (first cut-out animation, animation of paper puppets to avoid redrawing figures for every frame)
• “Le tout petit Faust”, Emile Cohl /Gaumont. (France) (puppet animation)
1911 - 1920