1903
- The Great Train Robbery is the movie industry's first smash hit
1905
- The first nickelodeon opens in Pittsburgh, charging 5 cents to see a movie
1921
- September - Comedian Fatty Arbuckle accused of manslaughter. Though acquitted, his career will never rebound
1923
- The famous Hollywood sign is erected
1927
- Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) formed
- Warner Brothers releases first talking picture, The Jazz Singer
1929
- May 19 - First Academy Awards held at a banquet room in the Hollywood Roosevelt
1930
- Garbo Talks! Anna Christie proves to everyone that Greta Garbo's voice is perfect for her image
- August 25 - Lon Chaney Sr., "The Man of a Thousand Faces," dies in Los Angeles
1932
- The Depression hits hard. Reported losses for Paramount ($20 million), Twentieth Century Fox ($17 million), Warner Brothers ($14 million) and RKO ($10 million) prove that no one is safe
- Radio City Music Hall opens as a home for vaudeville.
1933
- Radio City Music Hall re-opens as a movie theater with a screening of The Bitter Tea of General Yen
- June 29 - Fatty Arbuckle dies of a heart attack
1935
- David O. Selznick forms Selznick International Pictures
1937
- Notable Films - The Awful Truth, Captains Courageous, Life of Emile Zola, Lost Horizon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Stage Door, A Star is Born, Stella Dallas, Topper
1939
- March - Clark Gable marries Carole Lombard
1940
- Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an oscar, for her supporting role in Gone With the Wind
- Notable Films - The Bank Dick, Fantasia, The Grapes of Wrath, His Girl Friday, Kitty Foyle, The Philadelphia Story, Pinocchio, Rebecca
1941
- March - James Stewart enlists as a private in the United States Army Air Force (USAAF)
1943
- June 1 - Plane carrying actor Leslie Howard shot down over English Channel
- Notable Films - For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Phantom of the Opera, Shadow of a Doubt, The Song of Bernadette
1946
- Notable Films - The Best Years of Our Lives, The Big Sleep, Duel in the Sun, Gilda, It's a Wonderful Life, My Darling Clementine, Notorious, The Postman Always Rings Twice
1947
- HUAC (House Un-American Activities Commitee) begins hearing testimony on the Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry.
First come the 'friendly' witnesses, such as Ronald Reagan and Gary Cooper, who offer their support of the committee.
They are followed by the 'unfriendly' witnesses, known as The Hollywood Ten, who refuse to testify and are held in contempt of court.
1948
- Millionaire Howard Hughes buys controlling interest in RKO studios for $8.8 million
- August 31 - Robert Mitchum charged with possesion of marijuana
1950
- Notable Films - All About Eve, The Asphalt Jungle, Cinderella, Father of the Bride, Harvey, Sunset Boulevard, Winchester '73
1951
- Dore Schary replaces Louis B. Mayer as head of MGM
1952
- Director Elia Kazan names names of alleged communists before the HUAC
1953
- NBC airs the first televised Academy Awards ceremony
- The first film in CinemaScope, The Robe, is released
1955
- July 17 - Disneyland opens in Anaheim, CA
- September 30 - James Dean dies in a car crash at 5:45 pm near the intersection of routes 466 and 41 near Chalame, CA
1956
- April 18 - Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
- August 16 - Bela Lugosi (Dracula) dies of a heart attack
1958
- Lana Turner's daughter stabs to death Turner's gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato. She's eventually acquitted of all charges
1959
- Notable Films - Anatomy of a Murder, Ben-Hur, North by Northwest, Operation Petticoat, Some Like it Hot
1960
- January 20 - Marilyn Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller announce their divorce
- November 17 - Clark Gable dies of a heart attack soon after finishing filming John Huston's The Misfits
1961
- July 19 - Airline TWA shows the first in-flight movie (By Love Possessed)
1962
- August 5 - Marilyn Monroe found dead of an apparent overdose in her home
- Notable Films - The Hustler, Lawrence of Arabia, The Longest Day, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Manchurian Candidate, The Music Man, To Kill a Mockingbird
1964
- January 29 - Alan Ladd found dead of an apparent overdose of sedatives and alcohol
- Sidney Poitier becomes first African-American to win the Oscar for Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field
- Notable Films - Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady
1965
- June 22 - David O. Selznick dies of a heart attack at the Mount Sinai hospital
1966
- November 8 - Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California
- The Sound of Music becomes the highest-grossing film of all time
- December 15 - Walt Disney dies as a result of complications from a lung tumor
1967
- June 29 - Jayne Mansfield is killed in an auto accident
- The American Film Institute is established, with Gregory Peck as the first chairman
1968
- Notable Films - Charly, The Lion in Winter, Oliver!, Romeo and Juliet, Rosemary's Baby, 2001:A Space Odyssey
1971
- November 13 - Steven Spielberg's TV movie Duel is shown on network television
1973
- Notable Films - American Graffiti, The Exorcist, Last Tango in Paris, Mean Streets, Paper Moon, Serpico, The Sting
1975
- Jaws becomes the highest-grossing film of all time
1976
- March - Principal photography begins on Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war epic, Apocalypse Now
1977
- May - Principal photography ends on Apocalypse Now
- May 25 - Star Wars is released in theaters
1980
- 20th Century Fox makes Sherry Lansing the first woman to be appointed head of production of a major studio
- A 10-week long actor's strike cripples film production in Hollywood
1982
- Actor Vic Morrow and two children are killed during the filming of Twilight Zone-The Movie when a helicopter falls from the sky, crushing one child and decapitating Morrow and the other child.
Director John Landis is eventually cleared of all charges.
1999
- March - Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick found dead of a heart attack in his London home
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