This Day in History: 1902-09-01

A Trip to the Moon — one of the first feature length films (at 18 minutes)  — is released on this day in 1902 by French film director Georges Méliès.  Based on  Jules Verne‘s novel From the Earth to the Moon, the film depicts a group of explorers who are  shot from the barrel of a long cannon in a  bullet-like spacecraft. The moment it lands in the eye of the Man in the Moon  is the most iconic image in the history of early cinema.