Thanks to Airgun Designs for their help.

1970

James Hale of Daisy Manufacturing, invented and patented what would become the first paintball gun. This original paintgun was manufactured and used for marking trees and cattle, and was later sold for paintball use under the Nelson name.

June 27, 1981

The first game of paintball was played with twelve players competing against each other with Nel-spot 007 pistols. These pistols were originally used by the forestry service for marking trees for excavation. The players included Wall Street stockbroker, Hayes Noel, Robert Gurnsey, author of "Pumping Iron", Charles Gaines, and nine others. The game was capture the flag. The winner, Ritchie White, captured all flags without firing a shot.

April 1982

The first outdoor paintball field was opened in Rochester, N.Y., by Caleb Strong one of the current owners of PMI Northeast.

1982

Charles Gaines marketed paintball as the National Survival Game (NSG). PMI (Pursuit Marketing Inc.), was founded to market and distribute paintball products. Articles about the first game, written by the actual players, were published in Sports Illustrated and other national publications.

1983

The first NSG National Championship were held with a $14,000 cash purse.  The first outdoor paintball fields opened in Toronto, Canada.

1984

Paintball started in Australia under the name Skirmish Games.

Nov 1984

The first indoor playing field opened in Buffalo N.Y., by Caleb Strong.

1985

The first indoor playing field opened up in England.

1988

IPPA (International Paintball Players Association) was founded as a non-profit association dedicated to the education, growth and safety of the sport of paintball.

1991

Paintball begins in France, Denmark and other countries in Europe.

1992-1993

NPPL (National Professional Paintball League ) was founded and the NPPL Pro-Am Series started with tournaments in Reno, New York, Boston, and other cities around the U.S..

1993

ESPN filmed and aired PCRI's NPPL "DC Cup" in Washington D.C. suburb, Bowie, Maryland. This was the first time ESPN covered paintball.

1994

Warpig (www.warpig.com) introduced the first internet paintball site.

1996

ESPN and Paintball Sports produced and aired the ESPN World Championships of Paintball from Orlando, Florida.

1996

Paintball playing fields, stores and tournaments can now be found in Canada, the United States, Australia, England, Scotland, Denmark, France, Holland. Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Greece, Italy. Norway, Sweden, Africa, Russia, New Zealand, Brazil, Venezuela, Israel, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines.

1998

Focus International staged the largest indoor paintball tournament ever in the Skydome in Toronto, Canada. PCRI, Airgun Designs, and Worr Game Products produced the first and largest to this date, technical certification conference to train paintball store and field owners on teching their paintguns.