1577 - James Burbage opened first theatre in London.

1581 - Catherine De Medici commissioned first ballet, "Ballet Comique de la Reine," in Paris, to celebrate betrothal of her sister.

October 12, 1609 - Thomas Ravenscroft, London teenage songwriter, published "Three Blind Mice".

1618 - Avedis I discovered secret process for treating alloys (fusing of copper, tin and silver), applied it to art of making cymbals of extraordinary clarity; used in Turkey for daily calls to prayer, religious feasts, royal weddings, Ottoman army. Sultan Osman II called Zildjian founder of craft of Turkish cymbal making, bestows name 'Zildjian' (cymbal smith in Armenian); 1623 - Sultan Murad IV allows Avedis to leave Ottoman palace to start cymbal foundry ouside Constantinople; 1929 - Avedis Zildjian III left candy business, incorporated, opened cymbal factory in Quincy, MA; 1930 - developed close relationship with Gene Krupa, made thinner marching cymbals to adapt to emerging drum set; invented and named many of the cymbals used in modern drumming (splash, ride, crash, hi-hat, sizzle cymbals).

March 23, 1743 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio ''Messiah'' had London premiere.

May 31, 1759 - Lawmakers in Pennsylvania adopted law forbidding the performance of plays, in response to pressure from religious groups, particularly Baptists, who found theatrical performances immoral; fined 500 pounds if found guilty.

August 3, 1778 - The opera house La Scala (Teatro alla Scala) opened in Milan, Italy, with a performance of Antonio Salieri's ''Europa riconosciuta.''.

May 1, 1786 - Mozart's opera ''The Marriage of Figaro'' premiered in Vienna.

October 29, 1787 - Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance in Prague.

May 27, 1796 - James Sylvanus McLean, of New Jersey, received first U.S. patent for "Piano Forte"; September 18, 1769 - Boston Gazette described first piano-like instrument, known in the U.S. was called a spinet, built by John Harris.

March 11, 1818 - "Frankenstein", or The Modern Prometheus, published; written by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, frequently called the world's first science fiction novel. In Shelley's tale, a scientist animates a creature constructed from dismembered corpses. The gentle, intellectually gifted creature is enormous and physically hideous. Cruelly rejected by its creator, it wanders, seeking companionship and becoming increasingly brutal as it fails to find a mate; story explores philosophical themes and challenges Romantic ideals about the beauty and goodness of nature.

February 7, 1827 - French danseuse Mme. Francisquy Hutin introduced ballet to U.S. with performance of "The Deserter" at Bowery Theater.

February 27, 1827 - First Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans.

April 5, 1827 - James H. Hackett became first American actor to appear abroad as he performed at Covent Garden in London, England.

1833 - Christian F. Martin Sr. set up luthier shop in New York City; first guitar maker to craft Stauffer style headstock in America; 1840s - created, perfected X-bracing to give strength to guitar top to handle pressure of taut strings, heavy playing while still maintaining very high quality Martin tone (still considered best bracing pattern, imitated by luthiers around world); 1873 - C. F. Martin Jr. took command; 1888 - Frank Henry Martin (22, grandson) assumed control; 1890s - began production of mandolins; 1917 - built first steel-string Hawaiian guitars played with steel bar; 1918 - discontinued use of elephant ivory, used celluloid ("ivoroid"); 1922 - first line of guitars for steel strings; 1845 - C. F. Martin III (great grandson) took over; 1969 - discontinued hard-to-obtain Brazilian rosewood for most stock models, replaced with rosewood from East India; 1986 - C. F. "Chris" Martin IV (great great grandson) took over; 1990 - completed 500,00th guitar; 1999 - completed 700,00th guitar; 2004 - completed 1,000,000th guitar.

November 17, 1839 - Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, "Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio", debuted in Milan at La Scala, Italy's most prestigious theater.

December 7, 1842 - New York Philharmonic gave first concert.

March 21, 1846 - Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax, of Paris, FR, received a French patent for a new System of wind instruments called Saxophones ("instrument, which by the character of its voice can be reconciled with the stringed instruments, but which possesses more force and intensity than the strings...able to change the volume of its sounds better than any other instrument").

November 22, 1847 - Astor Place Opera House, New York City's first operatic theater, opened.

June 19, 1849 - Charles Austin, of Concord, NH, received a patent for a "Melodeon Reed"; melodeon, small reed organ, with treadle-operated bellows to draw air through the reeds.

1853 - Henry Engelhard Steinway, a German immigrant, master cabinetmaker, founded Steinway & Sons in a Manhattan loft; 1866 - opened Steinway Hall, quickly became New York City’s artistic and cultural center; 1867 - awarded prestigious "Grand Gold Medal of Honor" for excellence in manufacturing and engineering at Paris Exhibition; first time an American Company had received award.

January 19, 1853 - Verdi's opera ''Il Trovatore'' premiered in Rome.

December 5, 1854 - Aaron H. Allen, of Boston, MA, received a patent for an "Opera Chair" (a "Seat for Public Buildings", a "new and Improved Self-Adjusting Opera Seat"); folding chair for theatres or other public buildings; pivoted seat constructed with weights or springs to assume and retain a vertical position when pressure upon it is relieved as the occupant rises from it.

October 9, 1855 - Joshua C. Stoddard of Worcester, MA, received a patent for a "Musical Instrument" ("Apparatus for Producing Music by Steam or Compressed Air"); a calliope; consisted of 15 whistles, of graduated sizes, attached in a row to the top of a small steam boiler, a long cylinder with pins of different shapes driven into it so that when the cylinder revolved, the pins pressed the valves and blew the whistles in proper sequence; later, Stoddard replaced the cylinder with a keyboard; wires running from the keys to the valves enabled the operator to play the instrument like a piano.

1856 - Rudolph Wurlitzer founded The Wurlitzer Company; imported musical instruments and opened sales outlets in all big American cities; 1880 - started production of pianos in America; 1896  - 'Tonophone', first coin-operated piano, 
introduced; 1933 - first jukebox built.

August 12, 1856 - Anthony Faas, of Philadelphia, PA, received a patent for an "Accordion".

February 5, 1861 - Coleman Sellers, of Philadelphia, PA, received a patent for "Exhibiting Stereoscopic Pictures of Moving Objects"; kinematoscope - a photographic attempt to show motion (box in which rolled film moves past a light);  inventor wished to show pictures such as human motion or the revolving wheels of machinery.

February 5, 1861 - Samuel D. Goodale, of Cincinnati, OH, received a patent for a "Stereoscope"; first peep show machine; Mutoscope was operated by hand and gave a stereoscopic image; pictures were fastened by one edge to an axis in such a way that they stood out like spokes; different images appeared to present an image in motion as the shaft rotated.

April 23, 1867 - William E. Lincoln, of Providence, RI, received a patent for a "Toy"; Zoetrope; machine showed animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel; appeared to move when viewed through a slit; became standard fixtures in entertainment arcades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

May 1, 1869 - Folies Bergere opened in Paris.

August 10, 1869 - O. B. Brown, of Malden, MA, received a patent for an "Optical Instrument" ("by means of which figures represented in different relative attitudes are seen successively, so as to produce the appearance of objects in motion"); moving picture projector.

February 5, 1870 - Henry R. Heyl, using his Phasmatrope, presented animated photographic picture projection before  theatre audience in Philadelphia for first time; disc with 16 openings near the edge, each carrying a photographic plate rotated in front of converted projecting lantern ; series of plates showed dancers who appeared to move as rotating disc showed successive positions; pictures were continuous loop that did not change.

November 21, 1877- Inventor Thomas A. Edison unveiled the phonograph (to record, play back sound);  experimented with stylus on tinfoil cylinder; December 6, 1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrated first sound recording at his Menlo Park Laboratory; recited "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into a large horn which transmitted vibrations to a needle which scribed a recording on a cylinder rotated by hand; first surviving recording of the human voice.

February 19, 1878 - Edison received patent for a "Phonograph of Speaking Machine"; phonograph; used spirally grooved, tinfoil–coated cylinder with mouthpiece for recording sound by scratching "hill–and–dale" impressions in the foil with an attached needle; crank rotated the cylinder; funnel horn replaced mouthpiece for listening; established Edison Speaking Phonograph Co. (5 stockholders including Gardiner G. Hubbard, Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law.

February 17, 1880 - Emile Berliner, of Boston, MA, received a patent for a "Microphone".

December 20, 1880 - New York's Broadway first lighted by electricity and became known as the "Great White Way" as Charles F. Brush successfully demonstrated his arc lamps along Broadway (preceded Edison's incandescent light bulb in commercial use).

June 14, 1881 - John McTammany, Jr., of Cambridge, MA, received a patent for a "Mechanical Musical Instrument"; player piano; mechanism for automatic playing of organs using narrow sheets of perforated flexible paper which governed the notes to be played; February 27, 1879 - Edward H. Leveaux received English patent for Angelus, first completely automatic piano player; February 1897 - first to be manufactured in the U.S.; October 4, 1881 -received U.S. patent for an "apparatus for storing and transmitting motive power."

September 30, 1881 - Clement Adler received a German patent for first stereo system, telephonic broadcasting service.

October 4, 1881 - Edward H. Leveaux, of Sussex, UK, received a patent for an "Apparatus for Storing and Transmitting Motive Power"; first completely automatic piano player manufactured in the U.S.

May 1, 1883 - Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) staged his first Wild West Show; July 4, 1883 - staged outdoor event, called the "Wild West, Rocky Mountain, and Prairie Exhibition" in North Platte, NE; May 9, 1887 - opened in London at Earls Court show ground, gave Queen Victoria, her subjects first look at real cowboys and Indians; 1913 - show collapsed from financial pressures

October 22, 1883 - Original Metropolitan Opera House in New York held grand opening with performance of Gounod's ''Faust.''.

March 26, 1885 - Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company of Rochester, NY manufactured commercial motion-picture film negatives; first film produced in continuous strips on reels.

February 3, 1886 - Alexander Graham Bell, associates incorporated Volta Graphophone Co. in Virginia to demonstrate, promote the graphophone; 1886 - Bell & Charles Sumner Tainter established American Graphophone Co. to manufacture, sell graphophones in United States, Canada under license from Volta Graphophone Co.; Jesse H. Lippincott, Pittsburgh businessman who had made a lot of money in glass business, acquired exclusive right to rent or sell the Graphophone under Bell and Tainter patents.

February 12, 1889 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Phonograph" ("to permit of the use upon the tapering phonogram-cylinder of the phonograph of slightly-tapering or true cylindrical phonograms, such as paper cylinders covered with indenting material").

September 30, 1890 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Phonograph" ("means for providing a double record of matter to be recorded by the phonograph, so that one record can be preserved while the other is sent to the person for whom the matter is intended"); received a second patent for a "Phonograph" ("use of flexible phonogram-blanks which may be sheets of flexible material capable of being indented by the recording point of the phonograph"); received a patent for a "Phonograph-Recorder" ("recorder of my improved phonograph is provided with a cutting-tool recording-point presenting a cutting-edge in advance of the stock of the tool"); received a third patent for a "Phonograph" ("to increase the effectiveness and convenience in use of the phonograph...to provide means for indicating upon the record a point at which a pause is made in dictating to the instrument...and to provide means for removing from the phonogram-surface the fine chips or shavings which are produced by the cutting action of the recording-point"); received a patent for a "Method of Making Phonogram-Blanks ("to simplify the construction of phonogram-blanks. to make them more durable, and especially to so construct them that they shall not crack by reason of expansion or contraction due to large changes in temperature to which they are often subjected"); received a second patent for a "Phonogram Blank".

June 9, 1891 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Phonograph" ("adjusting a phonograph reproducing-point into exact alignment with the phonogram-record").

September 29, 1891 - Thomas A. Edison, of Menlo Park, NJ, received a patent for a ""Phonogram-Blank Carrier" ("devices for supporting and protecting phonogram-blanks or recording-surfaces on which a phonographic recording has been or is to be recorded").

1893 - Emile Berliner established United States Gramophone Company in Washington, DC; caretaker of rights to 1887 patent.

February 1, 1893 - Thomas Edison opened America's first film-production studio, "Black Maria" (aka Kinetographic Theater after Kinetograph, forerunner of movie camera), in West Orange, NJ on grounds of Edison's laboratories; dark room covered in tar paper with retractable roof built at cost of $637.67; 1903 - demolished.

1894 - Orville Gibson, restaurant clerk in Kalamazoo, MI, began making mandolins, guitars in his home workshop; 1902 - group of Kalamazoo businessmen organized The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Co., Ltd. (Orville Gibson not a partner); initially focused on mandolins; maintained industry leadership role as musical tastes changed to banjo (1920s), guitar (1930s); 1923 -name changed to Gibson, Inc.; 1935 - introduced its first electric guitar; 1952 - introduced Les Paul Model, company's first solidbody electric guitar; 1994 - acquired Slingerland Company.

July 2, 1895 - Thomas A. Edison received two patents for a "Phonograph" ("to enable such devices to work satisfactorily not withstanding irregularities in the surface of the phonogram blank or recording surface").

October 5, 1895 - Emile Berliner (minority stock holder) established Berliner Gramophone Company of Philadelphia, PA (owned copyright for 1887, 1888, 1895 patents), with help of group of businessmen in Philadelphia who invested $25,000.00; produced records and record playing machines; October 29, 1895 - Berliner received a patent for a "Sound Record and Method of Making Same" ("production of copies or duplicates of the flat sound-records as made by gramophone"); 1896 - signed contract with Eldridge Johnson to manufacture improved spring motor for an improved gramophone (developed by machinist Levi Montross).

December 28, 1895 - Birth of film industry: French film pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumiére publicly unveiled their camera/projector, the Cinématographe (first real cinema) at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris;  about 30 people paid to see short films showing scenes from ordinary French life (feeding of a baby, game of cards, street activity, working blacksmith, soldiers marching); brothers made 2,000 short films during the next five years.

1896 - Charles Jenkins lost Phantoscope patent dispute to Thomas Armat (declared joint vs. sole patent); sold his interest; Armat altered improved Phantoscope, renamed it Vitascope; sold rights to Edison, who marketed the invention; became basis of Thomas Edison's Vitascope projector; George Eastman's invention of roll film, followed by transparency film, enabled the same camera to make multiple photographs in a series.

January 12, 1897 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Phonograph" (two-point recorder or reproducer adapted to make or travel in a double track or on a phonogram-blank or recording-surface").

May 16, 1897 - Stuart Blackton, Albert E. Smith, of newly formed Vitagraph film company, shot their first fictional film, The Burglar. on the Roof, on roof of New York City building; company flourished in silent film era, introduced future stars like Rudolph Valentino, Norma Talmadge; 1925 - acquired by Warner Bros.

June 14, 1898 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Phonograph" ("means for throwing a phonograph-recorder out of operative position and throwing the reproducer into operative position, or vice versa, in that class of phonographs which have a separate diaphragm for the recorder and for the reproducer").

March 28, 1899 - William B. Fleming, of Detroit, MI, received a patent for "Electrical Action for Musical Instruments"; player piano using electricity.

July 18, 1899 - National Phonograph Company registered "Thomas A. Edison" trademark first used December 15, 1897 (phonographs, parts of phonographs, phonographblanks, and other phonographic supplies, such as the containing-cases).

October 4, 1899 - The Gramophone Company (founded 1897 by Emile Berliner) paid 50 pounds for Francis Barraud  painting of his dog, Nipper (titled "His Master's Voice"),, 50 pounds for copyright to painting; July 10, 1900 - Emile Berliner registered "His Master's Voice" trademark first used May 1900 (gramophones).

May 22, 1900 - Edwin S. Votey, of Detroit, MI, received a patent for a "Pneumatic Piano Attachment" ("to provide self-playing piano attachment of practical and economical construction which can be quickly applied to and removed from any piano"); pianola, first truly musical piano-playing device in world; August 29, 1905 - The Aeolian Company registered 'Pianola" trademark (pneumatically-controlled players for keyboard instruments).

September 1900 - Eldridge R. Johnson formed The Consolidated Talking Machine Co. to produced machines for playing disc records; October 3, 1901 - merged with US division of Emile Berliner's Berliner Gramophone Company (developed flat–disc records that could be mass-produced in hard rubber or shellac from a master record; lost legal battle over rights to manufacture flat-disc Gramophones), incorporated The Victor Talking Machine Company, leading American producer of phonographs, phonograph records, in Camden, NJ; March 24, 1914 - Victor Talking Machine Company registered "His Master's Voice" (HMV) trademark first used May 24, 1900 (sound recording or reproducing machines and parts thereof); 1924 - acquired controlling interest in Berliner Gram-o-phone Company, March 9, 1926 - Victor Talking Machine Company registered "Victor" trademark (radio apparatus, parts and appurtenances); March 15, 1929 - acquired by RCA.  

May 20, 1901 - Claude Grivolas, one of Pathe's main shareholders in Paris, France, invented projector that produced three-dimensional pictures.

June 11, 1901 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Phonographic Recording Apparatus" ("to relieve the diaphragm of all or substantially all stress now resulting from the pressure necessary to properly engage the cutting or recording tool with the record-surface to the requisite depth").

December 10, 1901 - Joseph W. Jones, of New York, NY, received a patent for "Production of Sound-Records" ("stylus vibrating laterally and engraving a groove of approximately uniform depth"); lateral disc recording in wax; acquired by Columbia.

1902 - Columbia Phonograph Co. acquired patents originally belonging to Joseph Jones, former Berliner employee; December 8, 1903 - cross-licensing agreement between the American Graphophone Company (Columbia) and Victor Talking Machine Co. (Berliner patents and Jones patents; ultimately not satisfactory for Victor); birth of phonographic industry; 1906 - American Graphophone company reorganized, name changed to Columbia Graphophone Company; leader in recording cylinders for coin-operated phonographs; first company to produce pre-recorded records (vs. blank cylinders); June 3, 1907 - new cross-licensing agreement;  1922 - sold British subsidiary, Columbia Phonograph Co., Ltd., to its London manager; Louis Sterling; 1923 - receivers appointed; 1925 - acquired by Columbia Gramophone Company of Great Britain (Sterling); reorganized it as as Columbia International in London, General Phonograph Co. Inc. in U. S.; 1931 - American Columbia operations sold due to anti-trust concerns to Grigsby Grunow Company (makers of the Majestic Radio); 1934 - acquired by American Record Corporation for $75,000; 1938 - acquired by Columbia Broadcasting System for $700,000. 

1902 - Amusement arcades began opening small storefront theaters called Nickelodeans (so called because admission cost 5 cents); showed short silent films (usually less than 15 minutes), accompanied by a live pianist; 1907 - some 2 million Americans had visited a Nickelodean.

March 10, 1902 - U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Edison v. American Mutoscope Company that Thomas Edison did not invent movie camera; admitted that Edison invented sprocket system that moved perforated film through movie camera.

April 2, 1902 - Thomas L. Tally opened first permanent movie theater designed specifically for exhibition of films, 262 South Main Street in Los Angeles; dubbed "The Electric Theater"; earliest pictures included "New York in a Blizzard"; admission cost about 10 cents for one-hour show; Henry Miles of San Francisco began renting films to theaters, formed basis of today's film distribution system.

1903 - Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack L. Warner, sons of Benjamin Eichelbaum, immigrant Polish cobbler and peddler, began in film business as traveling exhibitors; moved throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania with portable projector; 1907 - operated Cascade Theatre, converted store in Newcastle, PA; 1908 - had acquired 200 film titles.

1904 - William Fox (born Wilhelm Fuchs) acquired 146-seat Brooklyn storefront Nickelodeon theatre for $1,660.67, started Greater New York Film Rental Company; 1912 - Supreme Court ruled against movie monopoly of Motion Picture Patents Company (Thomas Edison); 1913 - Theater "chain" pioneer William Fox (born Wilhelm Fuchs) established Greater New York Film Rental, distribution firm, Fox Office Attractions Company, production company.; 1915 - consolidated companies, formed Fox Film Corporation; concentrated on acquiring, building theaters; 1916 - moved company to 13 acres in Hollywood, CA; March 3, 1929 - acquired Loew's Corporation's 500 theatres (added to existing nationwide circuit of 1100 theatres), large equity position in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture Studios; July 1929 - Fox seriously injured in car accident; October 1929 - net worth valued over $400 million wiped out; 1930 - Fox forced out as CEO; May 31, 1935 - president Sidney Kent, new owners merged company with Twentieth Century Pictures, formed 20th Century Fox; 1936 - Fox forced into personal bankruptcy; 1942 - began jail time for felony conviction of bribing judge during bankruptcy proceedings; 1985 - Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation acquired by News Corporation; renamed Fox, Incorporated; 1989 - film production unit renamed the Fox Film Corporation; October 7, 1996 - Fox News Channel made its debut.

October 18, 1904 - Thomas Edison received a patent for "Photographic Film for Moving Picture Machines"; motion picture film.

May 23, 1905 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a "Process of Duplicating Phonographic Records" ("from a matrix or mold, and particularly to production of an improved master from which the matrices or molds are made").

April 6, 1906 - First animated cartoon copyrighted.

May 12, 1906 - One month after San Francisco's earthquake, Sarah Bernhardt performed role in Racine's intense verse drama "Phèdre" in opening of Cal Performances, Berkeley, CA performing arts organization, in grand open-air Greek Theatre in the Berkeley hills; Putnam's Monthly called it "one of the great performances in world dramatic history"; donated "Phèdre" proceeds to earthquake victims.

June 12, 1906 - John Ballance, of New York, NY, received a patent for "Combined Phonograph and Stereopticon"; sound movies.

August 9, 1906 - The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, NJ introduced the Victrola, first internal horn phonograph, for $200; instant success, produced over 500 machines by year's end; speaker horn, turntable mechanism totally concealed in cabinet made by Pooley Furniture Company of Philadelphia; set pattern of wood cabinetry enclosures later imitated by radios and television sets well into the 1950s; March 24, 1914 - registered "HIS MASTER'S VOICE" trademark first used May 24, 1900 (sound recording or reproducing machines and parts thereof, talking-machine needles, talking-machine horns and amplifiers, and talking-machine records). 

December 26, 1906 - World's first full-length feature film (70 minutes), 'Story of the Kelly Gang', presented in Town Hall at Melbourne, Australia (filmed at  cost of £450); subject was Ned Kelly, bandit who lived 1855 to 1880.

June 4, 1907 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Diaphragm for Talking-Machines" ("both for recording and producing...to provide an improved diaphragm that will be readily responsive to vibrations of comparatively great amplitude"); assigned to New Jersey Patent Company.

July 8, 1907 - Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. opened Ziegfeld Follies at the New York Theater's rundown roof garden; combination of creative visual spectacle, topical comedy and beautiful girls; $13,800 production netted over $130,000 at the box office; 1922 - 541 performances; 1924 - 520 performances; spent $170,000 on revue; 1931 - Follies ended.

November 28, 1907 - Scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opened small movie theater in Haverhill, MA; owned largest theater chain in New England; was distributing films within a few years; 1917 - started production company, became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) through mergers, named general manager of MGM; 1951 - Mayer ousted. 

1908 - Selig Film Manufacturing Company became first major film company to move to Los Angeles; 1909 - built first permanent film studio.

January 28, 1908 - Author and activist Julia Ward Howe, composer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," became first woman elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters.

July 14, 1908 - Biograph Pictures released D.W. Griffith's first film, The Adventures of Dollie; became most influential director