1903 - First Silent Movie: The Great Train Robbery

First Silent Movie, The Great Train Robbery (1903): Produced by Thomas Edison but directed and filmed by Edison Company employee Edwin S. Porter, The Great Train Robbery was the first narrative movie, one that told a story. The film is a classic western with four bandits who rob a train and its passengers of their valuables and then make their grand escape only to be killed in a shootout by a posse sent after them.

The Great Train Robbery was hugely popular with audiences. The approximately twelve minutes of film that starred Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson was played across the country in 1904 and then played in the first nickelodeons (theaters in which movies cost a nickel to see) in 1905. The Great Train Robbery's popularity lead directly to the opening up of permanent movie theaters and opened up the possibility of a future film industry.

This was taken from an article written by By Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com