THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On September 1, 1902, A TRIP TO THE MOON, directed by the former stage magician Georges Méliès, was released in France. It is considered the first science fiction film.

Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon (loosely based on Jules Verne) remains one of cinema’s great leaps of imagination: a whimsical voyage in which a band of astronomers fires themselves skyward, lands in the Moon’s blinking eye, and discovers a world of acrobatic Selenites before tumbling back to Earth in triumph. The film’s handmade magic—painted sets, theatrical gestures, and Méliès’s pioneering special effects— is one of the most charming and influential works of early cinema.

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