1908

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Years

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1870s  1880s  1890s  - 1900s -   1910s   1920s   1930s
Years: 1905 1906 1907 - 1908 - 1909 1910 1911

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

11 January: Grand Canyon designated as a monument, and later, in 1919, becomes a National Park.
11 January: Grand Canyon designated as a monument, and later, in 1919, becomes a National Park.
24 January: Boy Scout movement.
24 January: Boy Scout movement.
  • 1 January
    • 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.
  • 11 January - Grand Canyon National Monument is designated (becomes a National Park in February 1919).
  • 12 January - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
  • 13 January - 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.
  • 15 January - Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first Greek-letter organization by and for black college women is established.
  • 21 January - 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.
  • 24 January - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.

February

  • 1 February - King Carlos I of Portugal and Infante Luis Filipe are shot dead in Lisbon.
  • 3 February - Greek multisport club Panathinaikos is founded.
  • 11 February - Australia regains The Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
  • 12 February
    • Start of the first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race.
    • De Meester's Dutch government leaves office.
  • 18 February - Japanese immigration to the USA is forbidden.
  • 25 February - Los Angeles. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) founded.

March

  • 4 March - The Collinwood School Fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.
  • 7 March - The University of British Columbia is established by the British Columbia University Act.
  • 9 March - Internazionale Football Club founded in Milan, Italy.
  • 21 March - Frenchman Henri Farman pilots the first passenger flight.
  • 25 March - Clube Atlético Mineiro founded in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
  • 27 March - First overseas Scout Troop formed in Gibraltar.

April

  • 8 April - Harvard University votes to establish Harvard Business School.
  • 19 April - The Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, designed by Jens Jensen, opens to the public for the first time.
  • 20 April - Sunshine train disaster in Melbourne,Australia. Two trains collide killing 44 people and injuring more than 400 (over 100 seriously).
  • 21 April - Frederick Cook's claimed date to have reached North Pole
  • 24 April - 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.
  • 27 April - The opening ceremony of the London Olympics is held.

May

  • 10 May - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia).
  • 24 May - 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.
  • 26 May - 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

Evidence of the Tunguska event (June 30). Photo taken 19 years later.
Evidence of the Tunguska event (June 30). Photo taken 19 years later.
  • 18 June - The University of the Philippines System is founded.
  • 20 June - The Georgia Tech Alumni Association is chartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
  • 30 June - The Tunguska event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire.

July

  • 3 July - 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.
  • 6 July - Robert Peary sets sail for the North Pole.
  • 11 July- 12 night - Steamship Amalthea, housing 80 British strikebreakers while in Malmö harbour, Sweden, bombed by Anton Nilson. 1 dead, 20 injured.
  • 19 July - Feyenoord Rotterdam football club founded.
  • 22 July - Automobile manufacturing company Fisher Body founded.
  • 23 July - 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.
  • 24 July - Young Turk Revolution: Abdul Hamid II announces the restoration of the Ottoman Empire's constitution.
  • 24 July - 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.
  • 26 July - 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

  • 24 August - 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)
  • 31 August - Charter granted for Wayland Literary and Technical Institute in Plainview, Texas, now Wayland Baptist University.

September

  • 8 September - Danish minister of Justice, Peter Adler Alberti, is revealed to be an embezzler.
  • 16 September - William C. Durant founds the company which will eventually become General Motors.
  • 17 September - 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.
  • 23 September - The University of Alberta is founded in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
  • 27 September - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.

October

  • 5 October - Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire - Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar
  • 6 October - The Bosnian Crisis begins after the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • 13 October - 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

  • 3 November - William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
  • 6 November - 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.
  • 13 November - Andrew Fisher becomes the 5th Prime Minister of Australia.
  • 14 November - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is the first woman in England to be elected mayor (of Aldeburgh)
  • 24 November - The first credit union in the United States begins operation in Manchester, New Hampshire.
  • 29 November - Iraklis Thessaloniki, the historic Greek sports club is founded, named after the mythical Greek hero Hercules.

December

  • 2 December - Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two.
  • 28 December - 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 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.
  • 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

Births

1908 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1908
MCMVIII
Ab urbe condita 2661
Armenian calendar 1357
ԹՎ ՌՅԾԷ
Bahá'í calendar 64 – 65
Berber calendar 2858
Buddhist calendar 2452
Burmese calendar 1270
Byzantine calendar 7416 – 7417
Chinese calendar 丁未年十一月廿八日
(4544/4604-11-28)
— to —
戊申年十二月初九日
(4545/4605-12-9)
Coptic calendar 1624 – 1625
Ethiopian calendar 1900 – 1901
Hebrew calendar 5668 – 5669
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat 1963 – 1964
 - Shaka Samvat 1830 – 1831
 - Kali Yuga 5009 – 5010
Holocene calendar 11908
Iranian calendar 1286 – 1287
Islamic calendar 1325 – 1326
Japanese calendar Meiji 41
(明治41年)
Korean calendar 4241
Thai solar calendar 2451

January-February

  • 8 January - William Hartnell, British actor (d. 1975)
  • 9 January - Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (d. 1986)
  • 12 January - Jean Delannoy, French film director (d. 2008)
  • 14 January - Russ Columbo, singer, bandleader, and composer (d. 1934)
  • 15 January - Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d. 2003)
  • 22 January - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
  • 26 January - Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (d. 1997)
  • 27 January - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, American jazz musician (d. 1954)
  • 1 February - George Pál, Hungarian-born animator (d. 1980)
  • 2 February - Justice M. Chambers, Medal of Honour recipient (d. 1982)
  • 5 February - Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (d. 1969)
  • 11 February - Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist and explorer (d. 1999)
  • 12 February - Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (d. 1982)
  • 12 February - August Neo, Estonian wrestler, Olympic medalist (d. 1982)
  • 17 February - Red Barber, American baseball announcer and sports journalist (d. 1992)
  • 17 February - Bo Yibo, Chinese politician and one of the Eight Immortals of the Communist Party of China (d. 2007)
  • 22 February - John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
  • 23 February - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
  • 26 February - Tex Avery, American cartoonist (d. 1980)
  • 26 February - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (d. 1949)
  • 29 February - Balthus, French painter (d. 2001)
  • 29 February - Dee Brown, American writer and historian (d. 2002)

March-April

  • 2 March - Walter Bruch, German engineer (d. 1990)
  • 4 March - T.R.M. Howard, civil rights leader & surgeon (d. 1976)
  • 5 March - Rex Harrison, English actor (d. 1990)
  • 7 March - Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d. 1973)
  • 12 March - Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (d. 1970)
  • 13 March - Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (d. 2002)
  • 17 March - Brigitte Helm, German actress (d. 1996)
  • 19 March - George Rodger, British photojournalist (d. 1995)
  • 20 March - Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)
  • 20 March - Frank Stanton, American businessman (d. 2006)
  • 22 March - Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
  • 25 March - Helmut Käutner, German actor and director (d. 1980)
  • 25 March - David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)
  • 27 March - Semprini, English musician (d. 1990)
  • 29 March - Arthur O'Connell, American actor (d. 1981)
  • 1 April - Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d. 1970)
  • 2 April - Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
  • 4 April - Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, American author (d. 2006)
  • 4 April - Frances Ford Seymour, American socialite (d. 1950)
  • 5 April - Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
  • 5 April - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
  • 5 April - Jagjivan Ram, Indian politician (d. 1986)
  • 6 April - John P. Davies, American diplomat (d. 1999)
  • 7 April - Percy Faith, Canadian-born composer, musician (d. 1976)
  • 8 April - Tito Guízar, Mexican singer and film actor (d. 1999)
  • 15 April - Eden Ahbez, American musician (d. 1995)
  • 20 April - Lionel Hampton, American musician and bandleader (d. 2002)
  • 24 April - Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor and medallic artist (d. 1963)
  • 25 April - Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)
  • 28 April - Oskar Schindler, Austria-Hungary industrialist (d. 1974)
  • 29 April - Jack Williamson, American science fiction author (d. 2006)
  • 30 April - Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic prime minister (d. 1970)

May-June

  • 1 May - Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born heroine of World War II (d. 1952)
  • 5 May - Kurt Böhme, German bass (d. 1989)
  • 7 May - Max Grundig, German inventor and industrialist (d. 1989)
  • 8 May - Cristian Vasile, Romanian singer (d. 1974)
  • 19 May - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
  • 20 May - James Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
  • 23 May - Max Abramovitz, American architect (d. 2004)
  • 23 May - John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
  • 23 May - Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix (d. 1934)
  • 25 May - Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
  • 26 May - Nguyen Ngoc Tho, first prime minister of South Vietnam.
  • 28 May - Ian Fleming, English writer (d. 1964)
  • 30 May - Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
  • 30 May - Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)
  • 31 May - Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)
  • 12 June - Marina Semenova, Russian ballerina
  • 18 June - Bud Collyer, American voice actor and game show host (d. 1969)
  • 20 June - Billy Werber, American baseball player
  • 21 June - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)
  • 24 June - Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
  • 26 June - Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)
  • 26 June - William F. Knowland, Americian politician, U.S. Senate Leader, newspaperman (d. 1974)
  • 27 June - Bill Kennedy, American actor (d. 1997)
  • 29 June - Leroy Anderson, American composer (d. 1975)
  • 30 June - Winston Graham, English writer (d. 2003)

July-August

  • 12 July - Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
  • 25 July - Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
  • 25 July - Kathryn Eames, American actress (d. 2004)
  • 27 July - Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d. 1996)
  • 2 August - Al Alquist, California politician (d. 2006)
  • 4 August - Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
  • 5 August - Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
  • 9 August - A. I. Bezzerides, American screenwriter (d. 2007)
  • 10 August - Rica Erickson, Australian botanist
  • 16 August - William Maxwell, American novelist and editor (d. 2000)
  • 20 August - Al Lopez, baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
  • 21 August - M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)
  • 22 August - Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)
  • 23 August - Hannah Frank, Scottish artist and sculptor
  • 27 August - Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
  • 27 August - Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (d. 1973)
  • 28 August - Roger Tory Peterson, American naturalist, artist, and educator (d. 1996)
  • 28 August - Robert Merle, French writer (d. 2004)
  • 30 August - Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (d. 1996)
  • 31 August - William Saroyan, American writer (d. 1981)

September-October

  • 2 September - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, Russian astronomer/astrophysicist. (d.1983)
  • 3 September - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (d. 1988)
  • 4 September - Richard Wright, American author (d. 1960)
  • 6 September - Louis Essen, English physicist (d. 1997)
  • 6 September - Korczak Ziolkowski, American sculptor (d. 1982)
  • 7 September - Paul Brown, American football coach (d. 1991)
  • 7 September - Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and medical researcher. (d. 2008)
  • 10 September - Raymond Scott, composer, bandleader, electronic music pioneer (d. 1994)
  • 12 September - Reginald C. Fuller, Roman Catholic priest and writer in England
  • 13 September - Mae Questel, American actress (d. 1998)
  • 15 September - Penny Singleton, American actress (d. 2003)
  • 15 September - Miško Kranjec, Slovenian writer (d. 1983)
  • 19 September - Paul Bénichou, French intellectual (d. 2001)
  • 21 September - Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier (d. 1994)
  • 29 September - Eddie Tolan, American athlete (d. 1967)
  • 30 September - David Oistrakh, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 1974)
  • 1 October - Umar Dimayev, Chechen folk singer (d. 1972)
  • 6 October - Carole Lombard, American actress (d.1942)
  • 9 October - Lee Wiley, American jazz singer (d. 1975)
  • 14 October - Ruth Hale, American playwright and actress (d. 2003)
  • 15 October - John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (d. 2006)
  • 16 October - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania (d. 1985)
  • 17 October - Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese politician (d. 2007)
  • 19 October - Sydney MacEwan, Scottish singer (d. 1990)
  • 19 October - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
  • 20 October - Carl Stuart Hamblen, American musician and U.S. presidential candidate (d. 1989)
  • 21 October - Jorge Oteiza, Spanish painter (d. 2003)
  • 22 October - John Gould, American humorist, essayist, and columnist (d. 2003)
  • 23 October - Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, Chechen historian (d. 1997)
  • 23 October - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
  • 25 October - Tauno Palo, Finnish actor (d. 1982)
  • 25 October - Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d. 2004)
  • 28 October - Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (d. 1995)

November-December

  • 2 November - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (d. 1983)
  • 4 November - Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2005)
  • 10 November - Charles Merritt, Canadian Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II (d. 2000)
  • 12 November - Harry Blackmun, American judge (d. 1999)
  • 16 November - Sœur Emmanuelle, French nun
  • 18 November - Imogene Coca, American actress (d. 2001)
  • 20 November - Alistair Cooke, English-born American journalist (d. 2004)
  • 23 November - Nelson S. Bond, American science fiction writer (d. 2006)
  • 26 November - Charles Forte, Scottish businessman (d. 2007)
  • 28 November - Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born anthropologist
  • 3 December - Edward Underdown, film and stage veteran (d. 1989)
  • 4 December - Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
  • 6 December - Pierre Graber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 2003)
  • 10 December - Olivier Messiaen, French composer (d. 1992)
  • 11 December - Elliott Carter, American composer
  • 11 December - Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director
  • 17 December - Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
  • 22 December - Kočo Racin, Macedonian poet and revolutionary (d. 1943)
  • 23 December - Sol Carter, American baseball player (d. 2006)
  • 31 December - 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

  • 9 January - Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet (b. 1832)
  • 17 January - Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1835)
  • 25 January - Ouida, English writer (b. 1839)
  • 1 February - King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
  • 20 April - Henry Chadwick, English-born baseball writer and historian (b. 1824)
  • 22 April - Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1836)
  • 26 April - Karl Möbius, ecologist (b. 1825)
  • 24 May - Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1821)
  • 26 May - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam (b. 1835)
  • 13 June - Henry Lomb, German-American optician who co-founded Bausch & Lomb (b. 1848)
  • 14 June - Frederick Stanley, founder of the Stanley Cup, the NHL Championship Trophy (b. 1841)
  • 21 June - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (b. 1844)
  • 24 June - Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (b. 1837)

July - December

  • 3 July - Joel Chandler Harris, author (b. 1848)
  • 5 July - Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (b. 1833)
  • 6 July - Felipe Calderón y Roca, Filipino politician (b. 1868)
  • 10 July - Phoebe Knapp, American hymn composer (b. 1839)
  • 20 July - Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (b. 1835)
  • 22 July - William Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1828)
  • 4 August - Radoje Domanović, controversial Serbian writer (b. 1873)
  • 25 August - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
  • 26 August - Tony Pastor, American vaudeville and theatre impresario (b. 1837)
  • 20 September - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)
  • 29 September - Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (b. 1839)
  • 30 October - Caroline Astor, American socialite (b. 1830)
  • 3 November - Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b. 1861)
  • 4 November
    • Richard Gerstl, artist (b. 1883)
    • Tomás Estrada Palma, first President of Cuba (b. 1832)
  • 14 November - The Guangxu Emperor of China (b. 1871)
  • 15 November - 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

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