* 1878: Eadweard Muybridge captured a series of photographs of a horse running, proving that all four hooves leave the ground at the same time. This was a crucial step in understanding how to capture and display motion.
* 1888: Louis Le Prince recorded a short film, "Roundhay Garden Scene," but the film is lost. This is the earliest documented film.
* 1891: Thomas Edison's kinetoscope was developed, allowing viewers to watch a series of moving images through a peephole. This was a significant step towards public viewing.
* 1895: The Lumière brothers' Cinématographe premiered publicly, projecting moving images onto a screen. This is often considered the birth of cinema as we know it.
So, depending on your definition of "motion picture," you could argue for any of those years.