1908

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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

Years:
1905 1906 1907 - 1908(MCMVIII) - 1909 1910 1911

Decades:
1870s 1880s 1890s - 1900s - 1910s 1920s 1930s

Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1908 by topic:
Arts	Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology	Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science
Countries	Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - South Africa
Other	Births - Deaths - Sport - State leaders - Religious leaders - Video gaming

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Marriages
5 Nobel Prizes

[edit]

Events

[edit]

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 18 - Japanese immigration to USA forbidden
February 25 - Los Angeles. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) founded.

[edit]

April-June

April 7 - Herbert Henry Asquith takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
April 21 - Friedrich A Cook's claimed date to have reached North Pole
April 27 - The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.
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.

[edit]

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 Olympics 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).
September 27 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
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.
December 28 - An 7 Richter scale earthquake destroys Messina, Sicily and rocks Calabria killing over 75,000.
November - William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
November 13 - Andrew Fisher becomes the 5th Prime Minister of Australia.

[edit]

unknown dates

First Zionist colony in Palestine
British suffragettes begin a campaign for female suffrage
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is the first woman in England to be elected mayor (of Aldeburgh)
Due to the evidence collected by Roger Casement, Léopold II of Belgium is forced to make reforms in Congo, which is his personal colony
Danish minister of Justice, Alberti, is revealed to be an embezzler
The Children's Encyclopedia
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.
Abd al-Aziz IV, sultan of Morocco is deposed and is succeeded by his brother Abd al-Hafiz.
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.
The University of Alberta is founded in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

[edit]

Births

[edit]

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)

[edit]

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 17 - Red Barber, 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)

[edit]

March

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 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 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)

[edit]

April

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)
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)

[edit]

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 - Jimmy 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)

[edit]

June-July

June 18 - Bud Collyer, American voice actor and game show host (d. 1969)
June 21 - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)
June 24 - Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
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)