This page indexes the individual year in film pages.
Each year is annotated with its significant events.
Before Muybridge's 1878 work, photo sequences were not recorded in real-time because light-sensitive emulsions needed a long exposure time.
The sequences were basically made as time-lapse recordings.
It is possible that people at the time actually viewed such photographs come to life with a phénakisticope or zoetrope (this certainly happened with Muybridge's work).