1908
Related subjects: Years
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SOS Children, an education charity, organised this selection. SOS mothers each look after a a family of sponsored children.
| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
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| Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
| Decades: | 1870s 1880s 1890s – 1900s – 1910s 1920s 1930s |
| Years: | 1905 1906 1907 – 1908 – 1909 1910 1911 |
| 1908 by topic: |
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| By country |
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| Leaders |
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| Birth and death categories |
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| Establishments and disestablishments categories |
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| Works and introductions categories |
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| Gregorian calendar | 1908 MCMVIII |
| Ab urbe condita | 2661 |
| Armenian calendar | 1357 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԷ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6658 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 64–65 |
| Bengali calendar | 1315 |
| Berber calendar | 2858 |
| British Regnal year | 7 Edw. 7 – 8 Edw. 7 |
| 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 | 1964–1965 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1830–1831 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5009–5010 |
| Holocene calendar | 11908 |
| Igbo calendar | |
| - Ǹrí Ìgbò | 908–909 |
| Iranian calendar | 1286–1287 |
| Islamic calendar | 1325–1326 |
| Japanese calendar | Meiji 41 (明治41年) |
| Juche calendar | N/A (before 1912) |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4241 |
| Minguo calendar | 4 before ROC 民前4年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2451 |
Year 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar.
Events
January
- January 1 – Nimrod Expedition: Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the Nimrod for Antarctica.
- January 12 – A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
- January 13 – A fire at the Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., kills 170.
- January 24 – Start of publication of Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys in London. The book will over time sell over 100 million copies and effectively begin the worldwide Boy Scout movement.
February
- February 1 – Lisbon Regicide: King Carlos I of Portugal and Infante Luis Filipe are shot dead in Lisbon.
- February 12 – The first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race, begins.
- February 18 – Japanese emigration to the United States is forbidden under terms of the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907.
March
- March – The Children's Encyclopedia begins publication in London.
- March 4 – The Collinwood School Fire, near Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., kills 174.
- March 21 – French aviator Léon Delagrange pilots the first passenger flight with Henri Farman onboard.
- March 27 – The first Scout Troop outside the U.K. is formed in Gibraltar.
April
- April 20 – Sunshine train disaster: A rear-end collision of two trains in Melbourne, Australia, kills 44 people and injures more than 400.
- April 21 – Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date.
- April 27– October 31 – The 1908 Summer Olympics are held in London.
May
- 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 30 (June 17 OS) – Tunguska event or "Russian explosion" near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire, an explosion believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 mi) above the Earth's surface.
July
- July 3 – Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire: Major Ahmed Niyazi, with 200 followers (Ottoman troops and civilians), begins an 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 – The steamship Amalthea, housing 80 British strikebreakers in Malmö harbour, Sweden, is bombed by Anton Nilson; 1 is killed, 20 injured.
- 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. It is restored the following day.
- 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 for receiving assistance.
August
- August 8 – Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time demonstrating true controlled powered flight in Europe.
- August 8 – The Hoover Company of Canton, Ohio, acquires manufacturing rights to the upright portable vacuum cleaner just invented by James M. Spangler.
- August 17 – Emile Cohl makes the first fully animated film, Fantasmagorie.
- August 24 – After an intense power struggle, Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco is deposed, and is succeeded by his brother Abd al-Hafid.
September
- September 17 – At Fort Myer, Virginia, U.S.A., 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 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 annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
November
- 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 15 – King Leopold II of Belgium formally relinquishes his personal control of the Congo Free State to Belgium (becoming Belgian Congo) following evidence collected by Roger Casement of maladministration.
- November 25 – The Christian Science Monitor newspaper is first published, in the United States.
December
- December 2 – Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at age 2.
- December 16 – Construction begins on the RMS Olympic at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
- December 28 – Messina earthquake: An earthquake of 7.1 Mw and tsunami hit Sicily and Calabria, destroying Messina and killing over 70,000 people.
Date unknown
- Penny post established between the United Kingdom and United States.
- Henri Matisse opens his own art academy in France.
- A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France by Otto Hauser.
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, Italian-American singer, bandleader, and composer (d. 1934)
- January 15 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d. 2003)
- January 17 – Cus D'Amato, American Boxing trainer (d. 1985)
- January 22 – Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- January 24 – Duncan Sandys, British politician (d. 1987)
- January 26
- February 1 – George Pal, Hungarian-born animator (d. 1980)
- February 6 – Michael Maltese, American screenwriter (d. 1981)
- February 11 – Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist and explorer (d. 1999)
- February 12 – Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (d. 1982)
- February 17 – Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (d. 2007)
- February 22
- February 23 – William McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
- February 26
- February 29
March–April
- March 2 – Walter Bruch, German engineer (d. 1990)
- March 5 – Rex Harrison, English actor (d. 1990)
- March 7 – Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d. 1973)
- March 14 – Ed Heinemann, American aircraft designer (d. 1991)
- March 19 – George Rodger, British photojournalist (d. 1995)
- March 20
- March 22 – Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
- March 25
- 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 5
- Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
- Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
- April 7 – Percy Faith, Canadian-born composer, musician (d. 1976)
- April 8 – Tito Guízar, Mexican singer and film actor (d. 1999)
- April 11 – Masaru Ibuka, Japanese electronics industrialist (d. 1997)
- April 12 – Ida Pollock, British writer
- April 20 – Lionel Hampton, African-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, Austro-Hungarian (Sudeten German) industrialist (d. 1974)
- April 29 – Jack Williamson, American science fiction author (d. 2006)
- April 30
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
- 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
- May 31 – Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)
- June 11 – Francisco Marto, Portuguese, beatified (d. 1919)
- June 12 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina (d. 2010)
- June 21 – Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against the Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)
- June 24
- June 26 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)
- 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 8 – Nelson Rockefeller, American businessman, philanthropist, public servant, and politician (d. 1979)
- July 12 – Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
- July 23 – Karl Swenson, American actor (d. 1978)
- 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 naturalist and botanical artist (d. 2009)
- August 21
- August 22 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)
- August 27
- Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
- Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (d. 1973)
- August 28 – Robert Merle, French writer (d. 2004)
- August 30
- 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, African-American author (d. 1960)
- September 6
- Josué de Castro, Brazilian activist against hunger (d. 1973)
- Louis Essen, English physicist (d. 1997)
- September 7 – Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and medical researcher (d. 2008)
- September 10 – Raymond Scott, American composer, bandleader, electronic music pioneer (d. 1994)
- September 13 – Mae Questel, American actress (d. 1998)
- September 15 – Miško Kranjec, Slovenian writer (d. 1983)
- September 18 – Viktor Hambardzumyan, Soviet Armenian scientist (d. 1996)
- September 19 – Paul Bénichou, French intellectual (d. 2001)
- September 21 – Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier (d. 1994)
- September 25 – Eugen Suchoň, Slovak composer (d. 1993)
- 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 15 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (d. 2006)
- October 16 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian dictator (d. 1985)
- October 17 – Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese politician (d. 2007)
- October 19 – Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
- October 21 – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish painter (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 3 – Giovanni Leone, former Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2001)
- November 4 – Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- November 12 – Harry Blackmun, American judge (d. 1999)
- November 14 – Joseph McCarthy, American politician (d. 1957)
- November 16 – Sœur Emmanuelle, French nun (d. 2008)
- November 18 – Imogene Coca, American actress (d. 2001)
- November 20 – Alistair Cooke, English-born American journalist (d. 2004)
- November 28 – Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born French anthropologist (d. 2009)
- December 4 – Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, Nobel Prize laureate (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 (d. 2012)
- Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director
- Alfred Proksch, Austrian Olympic athlete (d. 2011)
- December 17 – Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
- December 22
- Kočo Racin, Macedonian poet and revolutionary (d. 1943)
- Giovanni Luigi Bonelli, Italian comic book author and writer (d. 2001)
- December 31 – Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (d. 2005)
Date unknown
- 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
- February 17 – Ignaz von Plener, 3rd Minister-President of Cisleithania (b. 1810)
- February 29 – John Hope, 1st Governor-General of Australia (b. 1860)
- April 22 – Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1836)
- April 26 – Karl Möbius, German ecologist (b. 1825)
- May 23 – François Coppée, French poet and novelist (b. 1842)
- May 24 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1821)
- May 26 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam (b. 1835)
- June 2 – Redvers Buller, British general and Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1839)
- June 14 – Frederick Stanley, Governor-General of Canada and founder of the Stanley Cup (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, American author (b. 1848)
- July 5 – Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (b. 1833)
- July 6 – Felipe Calderón y Roca, Filipino politician (b. 1868)
- July 20 – Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (b. 1835)
- July 22 – William Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1828)
- August 4 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian writer (b. 1873)
- August 25 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- August 26 – Tony Pastor, American theatre impressario (b. 1837)
- September 17 – Thomas Selfridge, United States Army officer and first person killed in an airplane crash (b. 1882)
- September 20 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)
- September 29 – Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (b. 1839)
- November 3 – Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b. 1861)
- November 4
- November 7 – Butch Cassidy, American outlaw (b. 1866)
- November 14 – The Guangxu Emperor of China (b. 1871)
- November 15 – Empress Dowager Cixi, ruler of China (b. 1835)
- November 17 – Lydia Thompson, English dancer and actress (b. 1838)
- November 22 – Claude-Paul Taffanel French flautist and composer (b. 1844)
- December 13 – Augustus Le Plongeon, American archaeologist (b. 1825)
Date unknown
- 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
