1908

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 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 13 - 170 people were trapped in the Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, and burned to death. The tragedy would be a catalyst for stricter fire safety laws nationwide.
• 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 3 - Greek multisport club Panathinaikos is founded.
• February 11 - Australia regains The Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
• February 12
• Start of the first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race.
• De Meester's Dutch government leaves office.
• 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 7 - The University of British Columbia is established by the British Columbia University Act.
• March 9 - Internazionale Football Club founded in Milan, Italy.
• March 21 - Frenchman Henri Farman pilots the first passenger flight.
• March 25 - Clube Atlético Mineiro founded in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
• March 27 - First overseas Scout Troop formed in Gibraltar.

April

• April 8 - Harvard University votes to establish Harvard Business School.
• April 19 - The Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, designed by Jens Jensen, opens to the public for the first time.
• April 20 - Sunshine train disaster in Melbourne,Australia. Two trains collide killing 44 people and injuring more than 400 (over 100 seriously).
• April 21 - Frederick Cook's claimed date to have reached North Pole
• April 24 - The seventh deadliest tornado in U.S. history strikes the towns of Amite, Louisiana, Pine, Louisiana and Purvis, Mississippi, killing 143 people and injuring 770.
• 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 24 - Empire Day is accepted as the traditional formation date of the 1st Arundel (Earl of Arundel's) Own Scout Group, although Scouting was probably active in Arundel prior to this date.
• May 26 - At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.

June

• June 18 - The University of the Philippines System is founded.
• June 20 - The Georgia Tech Alumni Association is chartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
• June 30 - The Tunguska event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire.

July

• July 3 - Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire: Major Ahmed Niyazi, with 200 followers (Ottoman troops and civilians), begins open revolution by defecting from the 3rd Army Corps in Macedonia, decamping into the hill country.
• July 6 - Robert Peary sets sail for the North Pole.
• July 11-12 night - Steamship Amalthea, housing 80 British strikebreakers while in Malmö harbour, Sweden, bombed by Anton Nilson. 1 dead, 20 injured.
• July 19 - Feyenoord Rotterdam football club founded.
• July 22 - Automobile manufacturing company Fisher Body founded.
• July 23 - Young Turk Revolution: The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) issues a formal ultimatum to Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the constitution of 1876, within the Ottoman Empire.
• July 24 - Young Turk Revolution: Abdul Hamid II announces the restoration of the Ottoman Empire's constitution.
• 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)
• August 31 - Charter granted for Wayland Literary and Technical Institute in Plainview, Texas, now Wayland Baptist University.

September

• September 8 - Danish minister of Justice, Peter Adler Alberti, is revealed to be an embezzler.
• September 16 - William C. Durant founds the company which will eventually become General Motors.
• September 17 - At Ft Myer, Virginia, Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in an airplane crash. The pilot, Orville Wright, is severely injured in the crash but recovers.
• September 23 - The University of Alberta is founded in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
• September 27 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.

October

• October 5 - Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire - Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar
• October 6 - The Bosnian Crisis begins after the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• October 13 - The Church of the Nazarene is organised officially at Pilot Point, Texas as the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. This is the official "birthday" of the denomination.

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 their 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)
• November 24 - The first credit union in the United States begins operation in Manchester, New Hampshire.
• November 29 - Iraklis Thessaloniki, the historic Greek sports club is founded, named after the mythical Greek hero Hercules.

December

• December 2 - Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two.
• December 28 - A 7 Richter scale earthquake destroys Messina, Sicily and rocks Calabria killing over 75,000 people.

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, New Zealand coal miners strike for 11 weeks, an important step in the formation of the New Zealand Labour Party.
• Henri Matisse opens his own art academy.
• 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.
• The Manila Business School renamed the Philippine School of Commerce; 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.
• 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.
• Converse Rubber Shoe Company (also known as the Boston Rubber Shoe Company) formed in Malden, Massachusetts.

Ongoing

• Black Patch Tobacco Wars

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 (d. 2008)
• 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 2 - Justice M. Chambers, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1982)
• February 5 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (d. 1969)
• February 11 - Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist and explorer (d. 1999)
• February 12 - Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (d. 1982)
• February 12 -August Neo, Estonian wrestler, Olympic medalist (d. 1982)
• February 17 - Red Barber, American baseball announcer and sports journalist (d. 1992)
• February 17 - 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)
• February 26 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (d. 1949)
• February 29 - Balthus, French painter (d. 2001)
• February 29 - 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 19 - George Rodger, British photojournalist (d. 1995)
• March 20 - Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)
• March 20 - 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)
• March 25 - 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)
• April 4 - Frances Ford Seymour, American socialite (d. 1950)
• April 5 - Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
• April 5 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
• April 5 - 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 prime minister (d. 1970)

May-June

• May 1 - Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born heroine of World War II (d. 1952)
• 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 - Max Abramovitz, American architect (d. 2004)
• May 23 - John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
• May 23 - Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix (d. 1934)
• May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
• May 26 - Nguyen Ngoc Tho, first prime minister of South Vietnam.
• May 28 - Ian Fleming, English writer (d. 1964)
• May 30 - Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
• May 30 - 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 - Alfons Rebane, Estonian military commander (d. 1976)
• June 24 - Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
• June 26 - Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)
• June 26 - William F. Knowland, Americian politician, U.S. Senate Leader, newspaperman (d. 1974)
• 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 25 - Kathryn Eames, American actress (d. 2004)
• 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 27 - Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
• August 27 - Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (d. 1973)
• August 28 - Roger Tory Peterson, American naturalist, artist, and educator (d. 1996)
• August 28 - Robert Merle, French writer (d. 2004)
• August 30 - Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (d. 1996)
• August 31 - William Saroyan, American writer (d. 1981)

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)
• September 6 - Korczak Ziolkowski, American sculptor (d. 1982)
• September 7 - Paul Brown, American football coach (d. 1991)
• September 7 - Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and medical researcher. (d. 2008)
• September 10 - Raymond Scott, composer, bandleader, electronic music pioneer (d. 1994)
• 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)
• 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 9 - Lee Wiley, American jazz singer (d. 1975)
• 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)
• October 19 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
• October 20 - Carl Stuart Hamblen, American musician and U.S. 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)
• October 23 - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• October 25 - Tauno Palo, Finnish actor (d. 1982)
• October 25 - 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 10 - Charles Merritt, Canadian Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II (d. 2000)
• 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 American 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
• December 11 - Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director
• December 17 - Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
• December 22 - Kočo Racin, Macedonian poet and revolutionary (d. 1943)
• December 23 - Sol Carter, American baseball player (d. 2006)
• December 31 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (d. 2005)

Date unknown

• Howard Cary, American engineer (d. 1991)
• Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, Somali politician (d. 2007)

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 Carlos I 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 24 - Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1821)
• May 26 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam (b. 1835)
• June 13 - Henry Lomb, German-American optician who co-founded Bausch & Lomb (b. 1848)
• June 14 - Frederick Stanley, founder of the Stanley Cup, the NHL Championship Trophy (b. 1841)
• 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 3 - Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b. 1861)
• 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)

Unknown date

• Qasim Amin, Egyptian writer (b. 1863)

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