Méliès's 1902 A Trip to the Moon was a smash hit and a piracy victim.
Copies were duplicated in the US, Edison's people among them, and Méliès never saw most of the profits.
More amazing facts
- 1901 · 1913 Canberra exists because neither Sydney nor Melbourne would let the other be capital.
- 1901 · 1902 The greatest find from the Antikythera wreck went unnoticed at first.
- 1901 · 1976 A bulb in a Livermore fire station has been lit since 1901 and has hardly ever been off. When it was moved to a new station in 1976 it went dark for about 22 minutes; rather than unscrew it, they cut the cord.
- 1903 · 1961 · 1969 Just 58 years separate the Wright brothers' first flight from Gagarin's, and 66 from the Moon landing — some who saw the first airplanes lived to see the Moon.
- 1903 The Wright brothers' first flight was shorter than a Boeing 747's wingspan: Orville covered 37 metres, while the first jumbo jet's wings spanned about 60.
- 1903 · 1969 Bits of the Wright Flyer have been to the Moon and Mars.