May 15, 1900: The Lumiere brothers dazzle audiences at the Paris World’s Fair with films projected onto an enormous 82′ x 49′ wide screen.
May 17, 1912: Carl Laemmle oversees the merger of a number of independent production companies to form Universal Manufacturing Company.
May 18, 1912: The first feature film from what would go on to be a burgeoning cinema industry in India, Pundalik, opens in Bombay.
May 19, 1927: Grauman’s Chinese Theater opens. The first to leave their marks in cement: Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Norma Talmadge.
May 16, 1929: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences holds the first Academy Awards ceremony at Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel.
May 15, 1931: With The Public Enemy, starring newcomer James Cagney, and Little Caesar with Edward G. Robinson before it, Warners carves a niche in the gangster drama genre.
May 15, 1948: A U.S. Supreme Court ruling against “monopolistic practices” will, over the next two years, force studios to divest themselves of their theaters.
May 13, 1956: After leaving a dinner party given by Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift gets into a devastating car accident that seriously scars his face.
May 13, 1961: Screen star Gary Cooper, 60, in films from 1925’s The Vanishing American until this year’s The Naked Edge, dies of cancer.
May 15, 1987: Hollywood wags will have a new synonym for “bomb” with the failure of the $40 million Warren Beatty–Dustin Hoffman comedy Ishtar.
May 16, 1990: Muppet creator and family entertainment guru Jim Henson, 53, and actor-singer-dancer Sammy Davis, Jr., 64, die.
May 14, 1998: “The Voice” is finally silenced, as legendary singer and Oscar-winning actor Frank Sinatra faces the final curtain at age 82.
May 19, 1999: The long-awaited Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace sets an opening day box office record of $28.5 million.