Paintball is usually thought to have started in the 1980's, marking trees to be cut with paint, but it can be traced much further back to the 1900's in Paris, to the much-more-badass "Bloodless Dueling" at the Paris school of dueling, using wax bullets.
Full article/source here, found by Robert Smith:
http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2011/12/paintball-edwardian-style-bloodless-duelling-with-wax-bullets-circa-1908/
Credit Alex Hodge for this thread @ Hodge.co.nz
