Here is a nice article on the history of film lighting.
http://www.mole.com/aboutus/history/smpte/1967-07p671.html
And here is a timeline of significant events in film history. I would image night filming was tried early on.
http://www.filmsite.org/milestonespre1900s.html
The first night shoot I did was quite a learning experience. We were shooting at the Dean's house just off campus. Of course we had extension cords running into the house through open windows, with 4 Omni's, a few Totas and one big tungsten softlight going. We blew many fuses. Using a 3-tube Hitachi Z1C all the light in the world would not have helped. We still got a grainy picture. Day for night would have been better.
Mike Cohen
