Critical Studies: Animation Timeline.

1824 -Peter Mark Roget presented his paper "The Persistence of Vision with Regard to Moving Objects" to the British Royal Society.
1831 - Dr. Joseph Antoine Plateau and Simon Ritter constructed a machine called a phenakitstoscope.
1872 - Eadweard  Muybridge started his photographic gathering of animals in motion.
1887 - Thomas Edison started his research work into motion pictures.
1889 - Thomas Edision announced his creation of the kinetoscope which projected a 50ft length of film in approx. 13 seconds.
1889 - George Eastman began the manufacture of photographic film strips using a nitro-cellulose base.
1892 - Emile Renynaud, combining his earlier invention of the praxinoscope with a projector, opens the Threatre Optique  in the Musee Grevin. 
1895 - Louis and Augustine Lumiere issued a patent for a device called a cinematograph capable of  projecting moving pictures.
1896 - Thomas Armat designed the vitascope which projected the films of Thomas Edison. This machine had a major influence on all sub-sequent projectors.
1906 - J. Stuart Blackton made the first animated film called "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces". 
1908 - In France Emile Cohl produced a film, Phantasmagorie which was the first depicting while figures on a black background.
1910 - Emile Cohl makes En Route the first paper cutout animation. 
1911 - Winsor McCay produced an animation sequence using his comic strip character "Little Nemo".
1913 - John R. Bray devised "Colonel Heeza Liar", and Sidney Smith created "Old Doc Yak"
1914 - J. R. Bray applies for a patent on numerous techniques for animation. One of the most revolutionary being the processes of printing the backgrounds of the animation.
1917 - The International Feature Syndicate released many titles including "Silk Hat Harry", "Bringing Up Father" and "Krazy Kat".
1919 - Pat Sullivan created an American cartoon "Felix the Cat".
1923 - Walt and Roy Disney found Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Extended Max Fleischer's technique of combining live action with cartoon characters  in the film "Alice's Wonderland".
1926 - The first feature-lenght animated film called "El Apostol" is created in Argentina.
1927 - Warner Brothers released "The Jazz Singer" which introduced combined sound and images.
1928 - Walt Disney created the first cartoon with synchronized sound called "Steam Boat Willy".
1930 - The King of Jazz is produced by Universal. In it is a short animated sequence done by Walter Lantz. It is the first animation done with the two strip technicolor process.
1934 - Urb Irwek creates a multi-plane camera. This camera is capable of filming several separate layers of cels giving the final frame a truly three dimensional look.
1943 - John and James Whitney produced "Five Abstract Film Exercises".
1945 - Harry Smith produced animation by drawing directly onto film.
1957 - John Whitney used 17 Bodnie motors, 8 Selsyns,  9 different gear units and 5 ball integrators to create analog computer graphics. 
1961 - John Whitney used differential gear mechanisms to create film and television title sequences.
1963 - Ivan Sutherland and SKETCHPAD at MIT/Lincoln Labs
1964 - Ken Knowlton, working at Bell Laboratories, started developing computer techniques for producing animated movies.
1972 - University of Utah, Ed Catmull develops an animation scripting language and creates an animation of a smooth shaded  hand.
1972 - National Research Council of Canada releases Hunger/La Faim directed by Peter Foldes and featuring Burtnyk and Wein interactive keyframing techniques.
1982 - Tron, MAGI, movie with CG premise.
1983 -  Bill Reeves at Lucasfilm publishes techniques for modeling particle systems. "Demo" is "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn".
1984 - The Last Starfighter, CG is used in place of models.
1987 - John Lasseter at Pixar publishes a paper describing traditional animation principles.
1988 - Willow uses morphing in live action film
1992 - Beier and Neely, at SGI and PDI respectively publish an algorithm where line correspondences guide morphing between 2D images. 
1993 - Chen and Williams at Apple publish a paper on view interpolation for 3D walkthroughs.
1993 - Jurassic Park use of CG for realistic living creatures.
1995 - Toy Story first full-length 3D CG feature film.
1997 -  First computer animated movie viewed with 3D glasses Marvin the Martian.
1998 - First ever computer animated widescreen film A Bugs Life.
1999 - First use of CG interpolation in Bullet Time effects The Matrix.
2004 - First movie shot completely on a green screen using digitally scanned images as backgrounds Able Edwards.
2007 - Flatland First CGI feature film to be animated by one person. Made with Lightwave 3D and Adobe After Effects.
2009 - Avatar First full length movie made using performance-capture to create photo-realistic 3D characters and to feature fully CG 3D photo-realistic world.
2010 - Coronation Street Live first use of CGI in live broadcast.