* 1878: Eadweard Muybridge's experiments with sequential photography showed that a series of still images could create the illusion of movement.
* 1888: Louis Le Prince created a series of moving pictures, but his work was lost.
* 1891: Thomas Edison's kinetoscope was invented, a device that allowed viewers to see moving images through a peephole.
* 1895: The Lumière brothers projected moving pictures onto a screen for a paying audience, marking a pivotal moment in the history of cinema.
Therefore, depending on what you consider the "invention" of cinema, you could argue that it happened in the late 1880s or early 1890s.