Year '1908' ('
MCMVIII') was a
leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar (or a
leap year starting on Tuesday
of the 13-day-slower
Julian calendar).
Events of 1908
January
★
January 1
★
★ British
Harry Bensley leaves for his would-be trip around the world pushing a
pram and wearing an iron mask, beginning from the
Trafalgar Square
★
★ A ball signifying
New Year's Day drops in
New York City's
Times Square for the first time.
★
January 8 - A train collision occurs in the
Park Avenue Tunnel in
New York City killing 17, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.
★
January 11 -
Grand Canyon National Monument is designated (becomes a National Park in February
1919).
★
January 12 - A long-distance
radio message is sent from the
Eiffel Tower for the first time.
★
January 15 -
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first Greek-letter organization by and for black college women is established.
★
January 21 -
New York City passes a law, the
Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to be vetoed by the mayor.
★
January 24 -
Robert Baden-Powell begins the
Boy Scout movement.
February
★
February 1 - King
Carlos I of Portugal and
Infante Luis Filipe are shot dead in
Lisbon.
★
February 11 - Australia regain
The Ashes with a 308 run
cricket victory over England.
★
February 12 - Start of the first around-the-world car race, from
New York to
Paris.
★
February 18 -
Japanese immigration to the USA is forbidden.
★
February 25 -
Los Angeles. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now
Biola University) founded.
March
★
March 4 - The
Collinwood School Fire,
Collinwood near
Cleveland,
Ohio, kills 174 people.
★
March 8 -
Milan, Italy.
Internazionale Football Club founded in Milan
★
March 25 -
Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Clube Atlético Mineiro founded in Minas Gerais, today one of biggest clubs in Brazil
April
★
April 19 - The
Garfield Park Conservatory in
Chicago, designed by
Jens Jensen (landscape architect), opens to the public for the first time.
★
April 21 -
Friedrich A Cook's claimed date to have reached
North Pole
★
April 24 - The
Amite, Louisiana Pine, Louisiana and
Purvis, Mississippi tornado killed 143 and injured 770 people. 7th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
★
April 27 - The opening ceremony of the
London Olympics is held.
May
★
May 10 -
Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in
Grafton, West Virginia).
★
May 13 -
Young Turks start revolution in the
Ottoman Empire, and force sultan
Abdul Hamid II to adhere to the constitution of
1876.
★
May 26 - At
Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest
Persia, the first major commercial
oil strike in the
Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the
United Kingdom.
June
★
June 30 - The
Tunguska impact event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs in
Siberia.
July
★
July 6 -
Robert Peary sets sail for the Arctic
North Pole.
★
July 11-
12 night - Explosion of a ship ''
Amalthea'' in the
Malmö harbor in
Sweden, housing 80 British
strikebreakers. 1 dead, 20 injured.
★
July 13 - Women compete in modern
Olympic Games for the first time.
★
July 19 -
Feyenoord Rotterdam was founded.
★
July 22 -
Albert Fisher establishes the
Fisher Body Company to manufacture carriage and
automobile bodies.
★
July 24 -
Dorando Pietri wins the Olympic marathon in
London in one of the most dramatic arrivals of the Olympic history, only to be disqualified soon afterwards.
★
July 26 - United States Attorney General
Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the
Federal Bureau of Investigation).
August
★
August 24 - After an intense power struggle,
Abd al-Aziz IV, sultan of
Morocco is deposed and is succeeded by his brother
Abd al-Hafiz. (Date of proclamation)
September
★
September 8 -
Danish minister of Justice,
Peter Adler Alberti, is revealed to be an
embezzler
★
September 17 -
Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in an aeroplane crash at
Ft Myer,
Virginia. The plane was flown by
Orville Wright who was also severely injured in the crash but recovered.
★
September 23 - The
University of Alberta is founded in
Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada.
★
September 27 -
Henry Ford produces his first
Model T automobile.
October
★ October - The
Bosnian Crisis begins after the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
★
October 5 -
Bulgaria declares its independence from the
Ottoman Empire -
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar
★
October 14 - The
Chicago Cubs win the
World Series by defeating the
Detroit Tigers 2-0 in the fifth game, their second World Championship win in a row.
November
★
November 3 -
William Howard Taft defeats
William Jennings Bryan in the
U.S. presidential election
★
November 6 - Western bandits
Butch Cassidy and The
Sundance Kid are supposedly killed in
Bolivia, after being surrounded by a large group of soldiers. There are many rumors to the contrary however, and the grave sites are unmarked.
★
November 13 -
Andrew Fisher becomes the 5th
Prime Minister of Australia.
★
November 14 -
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is the first woman in England to be elected
mayor (of
Aldeburgh)
December
★
December 5 -
Sunderland F.C. set a record for an away victory when they humiliate local rivals
Newcastle United 9-1 at St. James Park.
★
December 28 - A 7 Richter scale earthquake destroys
Messina,
Sicily and rocks
Calabria killing over 75,000.
Undated
★ British
suffragettes begin a campaign for female suffrage.
★ Due to the evidence collected by
Roger Casement,
Léopold II of Belgium is forced to make reforms in
Congo, which is his personal colony.
★ ''
The Children's Encyclopedia'' is first published.
★ Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the
FBI, is founded.
★ Blackball coal miner strike in New Zealand lasts 11 weeks.
★
Henri Matisse opens his own art academy.
★ Change of Emperor of
Qing Dynasty from
Guangxu Emperor of China (
1875-1908) to
Henry Puyi (
1909-
1911).
★ A 40,000-year-old
Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at
Le Moustier in southwest
France.
★ The Child Labour Act of Ontario is passed.
★ The
Irish Universities Act, 1908 is passed and creates the
National University of Ireland at
Dublin and the
Queen's University of Belfast.
★ First
Ideal Home Exhibition held.
★
De Meester's Dutch government resigns.
★ Discovery of
oil deposits near the
Persian city of
Abadan.
★ The Manila Business School was made into national school since the majority of its student came from different parts of the
Philippines; renaming as the Philippine School of Commerce; which later to be the
Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
★ The
University of the Philippines is founded at
Manila.
★ First year of
rugby league in
Australia.
★
American Temperance University closes.
★
Panathinaikos, the Athenian sports club, is founded.
★ Club Union becomes
Chivas de Guadalajara.
★
Vimto is invented by John Noel Nichols. Originally sold under the name Vimtonic, Nichols shortened it to Vimto in
1912.
Ongoing
★
Black Patch Tobacco Wars
★
Pig War
Births
January-February
★
January 8 -
William Hartnell, British actor (d.
1975)
★
January 9 -
Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (d.
1986)
★
January 12 -
Jean Delannoy, French film director
★
January 14 -
Russ Columbo, singer, bandleader, and composer (d.
1934)
★
January 15 -
Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d.
2003)
★
January 22 -
Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1968)
★
January 26 -
Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (d.
1997)
★
January 27 -
Oran "Hot Lips" Page, American jazz musician (d.
1954)
★
February 1 -
George Pál, Hungarian-born animator (d.
1980)
★
February 5 -
Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (d.
1969)
★
February 10 -
Onni Määttänen, the oldest living
Knight of the Mannerheim Cross
★
February 11 -
Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist and explorer (d.
1999)
★
February 12
★
★
Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (d.
1982)
★
★
August Neo, Estonian wrestler, Olympic medalist (d.
1982)
★
February 17
★
★
Red Barber, American baseball announcer and sports journalist (d.
1992)
★
★
Bo Yibo, Chinese politician and one of the
Eight Immortals of the Communist Party of China (d.
2007)
★
February 22 -
John Mills, English actor (d.
2005)
★
February 23 -
William McMahon, twentieth
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1988)
★
February 26
★
★
Tex Avery, American cartoonist (d.
1980)
★
★
Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (d.
1949)
★
February 29
★
★
Balthus, French painter (d.
2001)
★
★
Dee Brown, American writer and historian (d.
2002)
March-April
★
March 2 -
Walter Bruch, German engineer (d.
1990)
★
March 4 -
T.R.M. Howard, civil rights leader & surgeon (d.
1976)
★
March 5 -
Rex Harrison, English actor (d.
1990)
★
March 7 -
Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d.
1973)
★
March 12 -
Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (d.
1970)
★
March 13 -
Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (d.
2002)
★
March 17 -
Brigitte Helm, German actress (d.
1996)
★
March 20
★
★ Sir
Michael Redgrave, English actor (d.
1985)
★
★
Frank Stanton, American businessman (d.
2006)
★
March 22 -
Louis L'Amour, American author (d.
1988)
★
March 25
★
★
Helmut Käutner, German actor and director (d.
1980)
★
★
David Lean, English film director (d.
1991)
★
March 27 -
Semprini, English musician (d.
1990)
★
March 29 -
Arthur O'Connell, American actor (d.
1981)
★
April 1 -
Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d.
1970)
★
April 2 -
Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d.
2003)
★
April 4
★
★
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, American author (d.
2006)
★
★
Frances Ford Seymour, American socialite (d.
1950)
★
April 5
★
★
Bette Davis, American actress (d.
1989)
★
★
Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d.
1989)
★
★
Jagjivan Ram, Indian politician (d.
1986)
★
April 6 -
John P. Davies, American diplomat (d.
1999)
★
April 7 -
Percy Faith, Canadian-born composer, musician (d.
1976)
★
April 8 -
Tito Guízar, Mexican singer and film actor (d.
1999)
★
April 15 -
Eden Ahbez, American musician (d.
1995)
★
April 20 -
Lionel Hampton, American musician and bandleader (d.
2002)
★
April 24 -
Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor and medallic artist (d.
1963)
★
April 25 -
Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d.
1965)
★
April 28 -
Oskar Schindler, Austria-Hungary industrialist (d.
1974)
★
April 29 -
Jack Williamson, American science fiction author (d.
2006)
★
April 30 -
Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic foreign and later prime minister (d.
1970)
May-June
★
May 5 -
Kurt Böhme, German bass (d.
1989)
★
May 7 -
Max Grundig, German inventor and industrialist (d.
1989)
★
May 8 -
Cristian Vasile, Romanian singer (d.
1974)
★
May 19 -
Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d.
1982)
★
May 20 -
James Stewart, American actor (d.
1997)
★
May 23
★
★
John Bardeen, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1991)
★
★
Max Abramovitz, Architect of the
New York City firm Harrison, Abramovitz, & Abbe (d.
2004)
★
May 25 -
Theodore Roethke, American poet (d.
1963)
★
May 28 -
Ian Fleming, English writer (d.
1964)
★
May 30
★
★
Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1995)
★
★
Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d.
1989)
★
May 31 -
Don Ameche, American actor (d.
1993)
★
June 12 -
Marina Semenova, Russian ballerina
★
June 18 -
Bud Collyer, American voice actor and game show host (d.
1969)
★
June 20 -
Billy Werber, American baseball player
★
June 21 -
Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (d.
1932)
★
June 24 -
Hugo Distler, German composer (d.
1942)
★
June 27 -
Bill Kennedy, American actor (d.
1997)
★
June 29 -
Leroy Anderson, American composer (d.
1975)
★
June 30 -
Winston Graham, English writer (d.
2003)
July-August
★
July 12 -
Milton Berle, American comedian (d.
2002)
★
July 25 -
Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d.
1987)
★
July 27 -
Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d.
1996)
★
August 2 -
Al Alquist, California politician (d.
2006)
★
August 4 -
Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d.
1994)
★
August 5 -
Harold Holt,
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1967)
★
August 9 -
A. I. Bezzerides, American screenwriter (d.
2007)
★
August 10 -
Rica Erickson, Australian botanist
★
August 16 -
William Maxwell, American novelist and editor (d.
2000)
★
August 20 -
Al Lopez, baseball player and manager (d.
2005)
★
August 21 -
M. M. Kaye, British writer (d.
2004)
★
August 22 -
Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d.
2004)
★
August 23 -
Hannah Frank, Scottish artist and sculptor
★
August 26 -
Bernard Bierman, Lyricist, Songwriter (still living as of
Aug 23, 2007)
★
August 27
★
★ Sir
Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d.
2001)
★
★
Lyndon Johnson,
President of the United States (d.
1973)
★
August 28
★
★
Roger Tory Peterson, American naturalist, artist, and educator (d.
1996)
★
★
Robert Merle, French writer (d.
2004)
★
August 30 -
Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (d.
1996)
September-October
★
September 2 -
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, Russian astronomer/astrophysicist. (d.
1983)
★
September 3 -
Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (d.
1988)
★
September 4 -
Richard Wright, American author (d.
1960)
★
September 6
★
★
Louis Essen, English physicist (d.
1997)
★
★
Korczak Ziolkowski, American sculptor (d.
1982)
★
September 7
★
★
Paul Brown, American football coach (d.
1991)
★
★
Michael E. DeBakey, American physician
★
September 12 -
Reginald C. Fuller, Roman Catholic priest and writer in England
★
September 13 -
Mae Questel, American actress (d.
1998)
★
September 15 -
Penny Singleton, American actress (d.
2003)
★ towards
September 15 -
Miško Kranjec, Slovenian writer (d.
1983)
★
September 19 -
Paul Bénichou, French intellectual (d.
2001)
★
September 21 -
Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier (d.
1994)
★
September 29 -
Eddie Tolan, American athlete (d.
1967)
★
September 30 -
David Oistrakh, Ukrainian-born violinist (d.
1974)
★
October 1 -
Umar Dimayev, Chechen folk singer (d.
1972)
★
October 6 -
Carole Lombard, American actress (d.
1942)
★
October 14 -
Ruth Hale, American playwright and actress (d.
2003)
★
October 15 -
John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (d.
2006)
★
October 16 -
Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania (d.
1985)
★
October 17 -
Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese politician (d.
2007)
★
October 19
★
★
Sydney MacEwan, Scottish singer (d.
1990)
★
★
Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d.
1981)
★
October 20 Carl Stuart Hamblen, American musician and Presidential candidate (d.
1989)
★
October 21 -
Jorge Oteiza, Spanish painter (d.
2003)
★
October 22 -
John Gould, American humorist, essayist, and columnist (d.
2003)
★
October 23
★
★
Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, Chechen historian (d.
1997)
★
★
Ilya Frank, Russian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1990)
★
October 25
★
★
Tauno Palo, Finnish actor (d.
1982)
★
★
Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d.
2004)
★
October 28 -
Arturo Frondizi, President of
Argentina (d.
1995)
November-December
★
November 2 -
Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (d.
1983)
★
November 4 -
Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
2005)
★
November 12 -
Harry Blackmun, American judge (d.
1999)
★
November 16 -
Sœur Emmanuelle, French nun
★
November 18 -
Imogene Coca, American actress (d.
2001)
★
November 20 -
Alistair Cooke, English-born journalist (d.
2004)
★
November 23 -
Nelson S. Bond, American science fiction writer (d.
2006)
★
November 26 -
Charles Forte, Scottish businessman (d.
2007)
★
November 28 -
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born anthropologist
★
December 3 -
Edward Underdown, film and stage veteran (d.
1989)
★
December 4 -
Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1997)
★
December 6 -
Pierre Graber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d.
2003)
★
December 10 -
Olivier Messiaen, French composer (d.
1992)
★
December 11
★
★
Elliott Carter, American composer
★
★
Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director
★
December 17 -
Willard Libby, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1980)
★
December 23 -
Sol Carter, American baseball player
★
December 31 -
Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (d.
2005)
★ ''date unknown''
★
★
George Rodger, British photojournalist (d.
1995)
★
★
Howard Cary, American engineer (d.
1991)
★
★
Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, Somali politician
Deaths
January - June
★
January 9 -
Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet (b.
1832)
★
January 17 -
Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b.
1835)
★
January 25 -
Ouida, English writer (b.
1839)
★
February 1 - King
Charles of Portugal (b.
1863)
★
April 20 -
Henry Chadwick, English-born baseball writer and historian (b.
1824)
★
April 22 -
Henry Campbell-Bannerman,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b.
1836)
★
April 26 -
Karl Möbius, ecologist (b.
1825)
★
May 26 -
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the
Ahmadiyya movement in Islam (b.
1835)
★
June 21 -
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (b.
1844)
★
June 24 -
Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th
President of the United States (b.
1837)
July - December
★
July 3 -
Joel Chandler Harris, author (b.
1848)
★
July 5 -
Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (b.
1833)
★
July 6 -
Felipe Calderón y Roca, Filipino politician (b.
1868)
★
July 10 -
Phoebe Knapp, American hymn composer (b.
1839)
★
July 20 -
Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (b.
1835)
★
July 22 -
William Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1828)
★
August 4 -
Radoje Domanović, controversial Serbian writer (b.
1873)
★
August 25 -
Henri Becquerel, French physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1852)
★
August 26 -
Tony Pastor, American vaudeville and theater impresario (b.
1837)
★
September 20 -
Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b.
1844)
★
September 29 -
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (b.
1839)
★
October 30 -
Caroline Astor, American socialite (b.
1830)
★
November 4
★
★
Richard Gerstl, artist (b.
1883)
★
★
Tomás Estrada Palma, first President of Cuba (b.
1832)
★
November 14 - The
Guangxu Emperor of China (b.
1871)
★
November 15 -
Empress Dowager Cixi, ruler of China (b.
1835)
★ ''date unknown'' -
Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b.
1861)
Nobel prizes
★
Physics -
Gabriel Lippmann
★
Chemistry -
Ernest Rutherford
★
Medicine -
Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov,
Paul Ehrlich
★
Literature -
Rudolf Christoph Eucken
★
Peace -
Klas Pontus Arnoldson,
Fredrik Bajer
See also
★
Boy Scouts of America - are founded circa this time period.
Notes
External links
Table of contents
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