7 February, Cuba: The cameraman Gabriel Veyre, who is in Havana to demonstrate the Lumière Cinematograph, has made the first film to be actually filmed in Cuba, Simulacre d'un incendie (Enactment of a Fire). 6 March, Belgrade: The French cameraman André Carré has shot the first film to be made in Yugoslavia, Départ du roi Alexandre Obrenovic de la cour pour la cathédre (King Alexander's Departure for the Cathedral). 12 March, Paris: The cafe-concert Bataclan is projecting Georges Mèliés' films featuring Paulus. Paulus himself produces the sound by singing, behing the screen, songs such as "En revenant de la revue (Coming Home from the Theatre)." March, Paris: A Lumière Cinematograph has opened at 6 boulevard Saint Denis. The building was formerly a theater for magicians. Entry costs 50 centimes. It is the fifth Lumière auditorium to open up since 28 December 1895, and the first establishment to specialize in projections. 22 March, Montreuil-sous-Bois: Famous illusionist George Mèliés, a recent Cinematograph convert, opened his first studio for animated pictures, built in the garden of his property in Montreuil. Since last October he has been recording films outside in his garden, in the streets nearby or in his laboratory right next to the Opéra in Paris, but bad weather and insufficient light have often prevented him from working. As a result, he decided to have a studio built. The studio, designed by Mèliés himself and constructed (after extensive modifications) at a cost of 90,000 francs (!), is 17 metres long by seven metres wide, on a north-south orientation to ensure maximum exposure to natural light, and covered entirely with glass like a photographic studio. Ideas for films are already taking flight in Mèliés' imagination; the new studio is going to open up a whole new world. Mèliés intends to begin his first projects using reconstructed news films, and the recently started Greek-Turkish War should make an excellent subject. 31 March, New York: The caricaturist J. Stuart Blackton and the ventriloquist Albert E. Smith have founded the Vitagraph Company. They intend to project Edison's films in theaters. April, Paris: Léon Gaumont has started shooting films in his studios in rue des Alouettes near the Buttes Chaumont. Gaumont's secretary, Alice Guy, is in charge of production. April, England: The Cinematograph is creating increasing interest here. While James Williamson and George Albert Smith have commenced making their first films, the inventor Robert William Paul has founded the Paul Animatograph Company. 15 May, Stockholm: The cameraman Eugène Promio has filmed the jubilee celebrations of King Oscar II of Sweden. The King was able to watch the film on the same day. May, France: The Lumière Establishment in Lyon has put the Cinematograph on the market. The machine complete with all its accessories sells for 1,650 francs. The projector alone costs 300 francs. May, Brussels: A special exhibition of optics has opened for the World's Fair, which is being held in the parc du Cinquantenaire. The exhibition, which is run by the Belgian Optique company, a branch of the French Optique company directed by François Deloncle, is offering sessions of cinematographic projections. 4 May, Paris: A horrifying fire ravaged the Charity Bazaar last night, killing 121 people -- 110 women and 6 men. A meticulous inquiry, led by the Prefect of Police, M. Lépine, has enabled the authorities to reconstruct events leading up to the disaster. The Charity Bazaar, founded in 1885 by members of Catholic high society and presided over by Baron de Mackau, opened yesterday and seemed set for succes. The cream of Parisian society crowded in to the wooden building in rue Jean-Goujon, where charity stalls divided by sheets of pasteboard lines the long hall, leaving a central passage six to seven metres wide. Overhead, an enormous canopy of white canvas, lined with a tarred material, formed a false ceiling.     On this Tuesday, 4 May, 4,000 people were crowed into the building. At 3 p.m., Ernest Normandin, a concessionaire for the Cinematograph perfected by Henri Joli in 1895, decided to open the first session in the small nine-by-four projection room. The previous show had to be canceled due to a technical hitch with the lamp. As a replacement, Albert Molteni, the magic lantern manufacturer, had sent an oxyetheric lamp. A mixture of oxygen and ether fuled a flame that heated a small piece of lime up to incandescence. Ironically, the lamp was called Securitas. At 4:10 p.m., after the fourth session, the room was plunged into darkness, and the projectionist Bellac called for a pause to refuel the lamp. Brushing aside advice from the Baron's secretary to do it outside, he returned to his canvas projection box and started filling the reserve with ether. His assistant, Grègoire Bagrachow, having asked where the matches were, proceeded to strike one -- Bellac shouted in horror as soon as he realize his intention -- too late... In a split second a flame spurted out of the lamp, followed by a terrifying noise as the lamp and celluloid films exploded. In a few seconds the fire had spread to the canopy, and a general panic seized the public, turning the Bazaar into a deadly trap. Burning tar from the roof ignited the fleeing women's billowing skirts, turning them into human torches. Bagrachow was able to save more than 100 people by smashing down one of the wooden walls. Dozens of women died trampled underfoot as men, all trace of chivalry forgotten, pushed and beat their way through the ensuing melee.     Two other emergency exits were opened: a fireman's ladder and a window into an adjacent hotel. Firemen and locals worked miracles, but by 6 p.m. it was over. All that remained was a mass of charred wood and ashes over which hung a pall of dreadful smelling smoke. The bodies were taken to the Palais de l'Industrie for identification. For many, this catastrophe was an act of God: a punishment for the proud, whose acts of charity required no real sacrifice. The Cinematograph has also come under attack, accused of being a scientific conquest that thought it could outshine God. 1 July, Paris: Berthon, Dussaud and Jaubert have patented a system which "combines a microphone with a camera to enable filmmakers to reproduce living scenes and sounds." The words are recorded then mimed by the actors in front of the camera. 15 July, Paris: The film Premier cigare (First Cigar), made by Emile Reynaud for the Optic Theatre at the Grévin Museum, has just been projected for the public. The film took a year longer than expected to complete. The Museum has announced its intention to turn further toward the Cinematograph. July, Shanghai: The American James Ricalton is projecting Edison films in tea rooms and amusement parks. 28 July, New York: It all happened at dawn off the Hudson Estuary. A dinghy rocked gently on the calm morning swell. On board were two Frenchmen -- M. Lafont, the representative in America for the French Lumière Company, and his favorite cameraman Félix Mesguich. After waiting a considerable time, a transatlantic ship flying the French flag approached, took Lafont on board and immediately set sail for France. Thus ended the Cinematograph's short-lived American epic.     Congress had pulled the rug from underneath the French company four days earlier by voting in the Dingley Bill. This new law, aimed at protecting American manufacturers, hits foreign technical material with prohibitive import taxes, ranging from 25 to 65 percent of their value. American Mutoscope and the Biograph Co., whose links with President McKinley are common knowledge, quickly took advantage of the situation by lodging a complaint against the Lumière Co. for a supposed violation of customs regulations viz that its material, and in particular the Cinematographs, were brought into the US without the necessary authorization. Perhaps, faced with the threat of arrest, Lafont preferred to leave the country. However, for him and a number of his colleagues the American dream is well and truly over. 1 August, Paris: After the accident at the Charity Bazaar, A. Delille has suggested using a water tank to protect films from the heat of the rayons produced by the condenser. It is to be hoped that this will help in avoiding further fires. 5 August, Washington, DC: Admiral Cigarette, produced by Edison, is the first advertising film to be lodged for copyright at the Library of Congress. 24 August, Paris: Three people involved in the terrible fire at the Charity Bazaar appeared in court today on charges of negligence: Baron Mackau, the organizer; Bellac, Ernest Normandin's projectionist; and Bellac's friend and helper for the occasion, Grégoire Bagrachow. The verdict can only be described as controversial. Baron Mackau, who was in charge of the building and therefore the sole person in a position to ensure proper safety measures for the public, only received a 500-franc fine. Bellac, whose carelessness had inadvertently caused the fire, was given a one-year prison sentence as well as a 500-franc fine. But Bagrachow, who, though also responsible, had saved dozens by his courage, has been sentenced to eight months' imprisonment and fined 200 francs.     The public still find it difficult to understand why, once the fire had broken out, so few people were able to escape. On whom should responsibility for the disaster rest? Should the Cinematograph which, according to a deputy, "creates danger wherever it is used," be banned forever? No such decision has as yet been made. Moreover, the Cinematograph has become so firmly established that nobody seriously believes it can be stopped. October, New York: A short nickelodeon kinetoscope/film of a belly dancer named Fatima (well-known for her dancing shows at the Columbia World's Exhibition in 1893) becomes the first film in which a scene was censored -- for her gyrating and moving pelvis; it was covered up by what appeared to be a white picket fence (a grid-like pattern of white lines). 30 October, Paris: The Robert Houdin Theatre at 8 boulevard des Italiens is presenting the latest animated pictures produced by its owner Georges Mèliés in his studio in Montreuil. For the last six months the Cinematograph has been filling the house every evening. For 50 centimes a seat, the audience is treatied to wonderfully imaginative scenes. In L'Augerge encorcelèe (The Bewitched Inn), a man chases his boots, which walk unaided. A truly astonishing sight. 25 November, Paris: Raoul Grimoin-Sanson has obtained a patent for the Cinècosmorama. This innovative procedure can be used to film and project panoramic animated pictures on a circular screen, using 12 inter-connected projectors. 30 November, Paris: Léon Gaumont has given up the Demenÿ 60mm "Chrono" format. He is increasing his production output using 35mm film. His films, which sell for 35 to 75 francs and cover a variet of subjects, including news items, street scenes and comic acts such as Chez le barbier (At the Barber's), Une nuit agitèe (A Disturbed Night), are filmed by Alice Guy. 7 December, New York: A warning shot has been fired in the seething world of animated pictures. The International Film Co. has just been ordered to cease all its business activities by Dyer & Dyer, the well-know legal firm in charge of Thomas Alva Edison's interests. The company, which was founded in November 1896 by Charles H. Webster and Edward Kuhn, specializes in the importation of foreign films and is marketing a projector, the Projectorscope, an exact copy of existent models. Webster, no stranger to the world of images, was charged with the promotion of the Vitascope over in England. Impressed by the photographic superiority of European films, he worked to facilitate their arrival on the American market as soon as he returned. Kuhn, another former Edison collaborator, was one of the filmmakers responsible for the first Kinetoscope films. In order to justify this move against his former collaborators, Edison put forward the definitive registration of his patent to August of this year. By this legal artifice, the Wizard from West Orange has become de facto the sole inventor of animated projections, and, therefore, has the right to bring proceedings against his rivals under the shadowy pretest of unauthorized imitations. Will Biograph, Cinematograph, Magniscope and Polyscope be the next to go? 28 December, Paris: The brothers Charles and Emile Pathé have organized and founded the General Company of Cinematographs, Phonographs and Film, with strong financial backing from banker Jean Neyret and industrialist Claude Grivolas. The new company, with a capital of 1 million francs, takes over the Pathé Brothers' establishment. The head office an phonograph shop are located at 98 rue de Richelieu. The same district is also home to the General Photography Syndicate, which was acquired by Léon Gaumont on 11 September 1895. The Syndicate started out with the modest capital of 300,000 france at the beginning of this year. But this extremely active little company not only manufactures excellent quality cameras and projectors, made to George Demeny's patents, but has produced a few greatly appreciated films: At the Barber, Transformation of a Hat, Negros Bathing, Arrival of a Train to Auteuil Station... Gaumont offers over 80 different films and also sells the Lumière collection. Nonetheless, Charles Pathé looks set to take over the still-modest animated picture market, thanks largely to his backer's support.