1908

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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:

Arts

Architecture - Art - Film - Literature Music (Country, UK) - Television - Home video

Science and technology

Archaeology - Aviation Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science

By country

Australia - Canada - France - Germany - India Ireland - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe

Other topics

Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January-February 1.2 March 1.3 April-June 1.4 July-December 1.5 Unknown dates 2 Births 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June-July 2.7 August 2.8 September 2.9 October 2.10 November 2.11 December 2.12 Unknown date 3 Deaths 4 Marriages 5 Nobel prizes

Events

January-February

• 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
• January 1 - 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 created
• 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 aliens to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
• January 24 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement
• February 1 - King Carlos I of Portugal and Crown Prince Luis shot 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 USA forbidden
• February 25 - Los Angeles. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) founded.

March

• March 25 - Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Clube Atlético Mineiro founded in Minas Gerais, today one of biggest clubs in Brazil

April-June

• 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
• May 10 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia).
• 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 30 - The Tunguska impact event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs in Siberia.

July-December

• 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 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 15 - Winston Churchill is ordained as a Druid in England.
• 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 8 - Danish minister of Justice, Alberti, is revealed to be an embezzler
• September 23 - The University of Alberta is founded in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
• September 27 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
• 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. They haven't won the World Series since.
• 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 Mexican soldiers. There are many rumours 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 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.

Unknown dates

• First Zionist colony in Palestine
• 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 first published
• Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of FBI, founded
• Blackball coal miner strike in New Zealand lasts 11 weeks
• Isak Saba, the first Sami in the Norwegian parliament
• Henri Matisse open his own art academy
• Serial killer Belle Guinness disappears in Laporte
• Young Turks revolution in the Ottoman Empire
• Change of Emperor of Qing Dynasty from Guangxu Emperor of China (1875-1908) to Henry Puyi (1909-1911)
• A 40,000-year-old Neandertal 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 Young Turks rebel and force sultan Abd al-Hamid II to adhere to the constitution of 1876.
• 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 Guadalajara
• Michael Smith completes Discourses.

Births

January

• 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

• February 1 - George Pál, Hungarian-born animator (d. 1980)
• 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 - August Neo, Estonian wrestler, Olympic medalist (d. 1982)
• February 17 - Red Barber, American baseball announcer and sports journalist (d. 1992)
• 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

• 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)
• March 20 - Frank Stanton, American Businessman
• 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 29 - Arthur O'Connell, American actor (d. 1981)

April

• 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 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 15 - Eden Ahbez, American musician (d. 1995)
• April 20 - Lionel Hampton, American musician and bandleader (d. 2002)
• 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

• 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)
• 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)
• May 30 - Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)
• May 31 - Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)

June-July

• 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 12 - Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
• July 25 - Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
• July 27 - Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d. 1996)

August

• 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
• 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 - Sir 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)

September

• September 3 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (d. 1988)
• 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 physician
• September 13 - Mae Questel, American actress (d. 1998)
• September 15 - Penny Singleton, American actress (d. 2003)
• September 19 - Paul Bénichou, French intellectual (d. 2001)
• September 21 - Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier (d. 1994)
• September 26 - SK Brann, Norwegian football (Soccer) team founded
• September 29 - Eddie Tolan, American athlete (d. 1967)
• September 30 - David Oistrakh, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 1974)

October

• October 6 - Carole Lombard, American actress (d.1942)
• October 14 - Ruth Hale, American playwright and actress (d. 2003)
• October 14 - Allan Jones, American actor and singer (d. 1992)
• October 15 - John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (d. 2006)
• October 16 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania (d. 1985)
• October 19 - Sydney MacEwan, Scottish singer (d. 1990)
• October 19 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
• October 22 - John Gould, American humorist, essayist, and columnist (d. 2003)
• October 23 - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• October 25 - Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d. 2004)
• October 28 - Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (d. 1995)

November

• 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
• November 26 - Charles Forte, Scottish Businessman
• November 28 - Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born anthropologist

December

• 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 23 - Sol Carter, American Baseball Player
• December 31 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (d. 2005)

Unknown date

• Jorge Oteiza, Spanish painter(d. 2003)
• George Rodger, British photojournalist (d. 1995)
• Carl Stuart Hamblen, American musician and Presidential candidate (d. 1989)
• Frances Ford Seymour, American socialite (d. 1950)
• Howard Cary, American engineer (d. 1991)

Deaths

• 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)
• May 26 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Punjabi founder of the Qadianism (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 5 - Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (b. 1833)
• 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 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)
• October 30 - Caroline Astor, American socialite (b. 1830)
• November 14 - The Guangxu Emperor of China (b. 1871)
• November 15 - Empress Dowager Cixi, ruler of China (b. 1835)
• Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b. 1861)

Marriages

• February 14 - Lee De Forest & Nora Stanton Blatch
• February 28 - King Ferdinand & Eleanor Reuss
• April 7 - Knud Kristensen & Else Christensen
• June 13 - Carl Sandburg & Lilian Steichen
• July 19 - Shoeless Joe Jackson & Katherine Wynn
• August 6 - Roscoe Arbuckle & Minta Durfee
• August 8 - Ty Cobb & Charlotte Lombard
• August 30 - Harry Solter & Florence Lawrence
• September 12 - Winston Churchill & Clementine Churchill
• November 20 - Vilhelm Buhl & Thyra Schmidt
• November 25 - Will Rogers & Betty Blake
• December 22 - Sybil Thorndike & Lewis Casson

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Gabriel Lippmann
• Chemistry - Ernest Rutherford
• Medicine - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Paul Ehrlich
• Literature - Rudolf Christoph Eucken
• Peace - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Fredrik Bajer