1908

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1870s  1880s  1890s  – 1900s –  1910s  1920s  1930s
Years:	1905 1906 1907 – 1908 – 1909 1910 1911

1908 in other calendars

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 (Fire Goat) 4604 or 4544     — to — 戊申年 (Earth Monkey) 4605 or 4545
Coptic calendar	1624–1625
Discordian calendar	3074
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	908–909
Iranian calendar	1286–1287
Islamic calendar	1325–1326
Japanese calendar	Meiji 41 (明治４１年)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4241
Minguo calendar	4 before ROC 民前4年
Thai solar calendar	2450–2451

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1908.

1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar (dominical letter ED), the 1908th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 908th year of the 2nd millennium, the 8th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1900s decade. Note that the Julian day for 1908 is 13 calendar days difference, which continued to be used from 1582 until the complete conversion of the Gregorian calendar was entirely done in 1929.

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 Encyclopædia 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 on board.^[1]
• March 23 – American diplomat Durham Stevens, an employee of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is assassinated in San Francisco by two Korean immigrants unhappy with his recent support for the increasing Japanese presence in Korea.
• 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.^[2]
• 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.^[3]

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.^[4][5][6]

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.
• July 27-28 - The 1908 Hong Kong Typhoon sinks the passenger steamer Ying King, losing 421 lives.

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 – Émile 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 10 – The first Minas Geraes-class Dreadnought battleship for Brazil, Minas Geraes is launched at Armstrong Whitworth's yard on the River Tyne in England, catalysing the "South American dreadnought race".
• 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 1 – Penny Post established between the United Kingdom and United States.^[7]
• 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 M_w^[8] and tsunami hit Sicily and Calabria, destroying Messina and killing over 70,000 people.

Date unknown

• 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 16 – Günther Prien, German submarine commander (d. 1941)
• January 17 – Cus D'Amato, American Boxing trainer (d. 1985)
• January 22 – Lev Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
• January 24 – Duncan Sandys, British politician (d. 1987)
• January 26
  • Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (d. 1997)
  • Rupprecht Geiger, German painter (d. 2009)
• February 1 – George Pal, Hungarian-born animator (d. 1980)
• February 6 – Michael Maltese, American screenwriter (d. 1981)
• February 11
  • Philip Dunne, American screenwriter, director, and producer (d. 1992)
  • Vivian 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
  • John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
  • Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan president (d. 1981)
• February 23 – William McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
• February 26
  • Tex Avery, American cartoonist (d. 1980)
  • Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (d. 1949)
• February 29
  • Balthus, French painter (d. 2001)
  • Dee Brown, American writer and historian (d. 2002)

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
  • Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)
  • 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)
  • David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)
• 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 (d. 2013)
• 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
  • Eve Arden, American actress (d. 1990)
  • Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic prime minister (d. 1970)

May

• 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)
  • John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
  • Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix (d. 1934)
• May 25 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
• May 26
  • Robert Morley, British actor (d. 1992)
  • Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, First prime minister of South Vietnam
• May 25 – Barbara Luddy, American voice actress (d. 1979)
• May 28 – Ian Fleming, English writer (d. 1964)
• May 30
  • Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
  • Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)
• May 31 – Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)

June

• 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
  • Alfons Rebane, Estonian military commander (d. 1976)
  • Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
• June 26
  • Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)
  • William F. Knowland, American politician (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 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 6 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
• August 9 – A. I. Bezzerides, American screenwriter (d. 2007)
• August 10 – Rica Erickson, Australian naturalist and botanical artist (d. 2009)
• August 21
  • M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)
  • Tom Tully, American actor (d. 1982)
• 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
  • Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (d. 1996)
  • Fred MacMurray, American actor (d. 1991)
• 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)
• October 30 – Dmitriy Ustinov, Soviet Army officer and Minister of Defense (d. 1984)
• October 31 – Muriel Duckworth, Canadian pacifist and social activist (d. 2009)

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 10 – Noemí Gerstein, Argentine artist (d. 1996)
• 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)
  • "Baby Face" Nelson, American gangster (d. 1934)
• December 10 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer (d. 1992)
• December 11
  • Elliott Carter, American composer (d. 2012)
  • Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director (d. 2015)
  • 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 23 – Edward MacDowell, American composer (b. 1860)
• January 25 – Ouida, English writer (b. 1839)
• February 1
  • King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
  • Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal (b. 1887)
• February 17 – Baron 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 20 – Federico Chueca, Spanish composer (b. 1846)
• 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 theater impresario (b. 1837)
• August 31 – Leslie Green, British architect (b. 1875)

• 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)
• October 11 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican educator, poet and activist (b. 1846)
• October 18 – Nozu Michitsura, Japanese general (b. 1840)
• November 3 – Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b. 1861)
• November 4
  • Richard Gerstl, Austrian artist (b. 1883)
  • Tomás Estrada Palma, first President of Cuba (b. 1832)
• 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

References

Further reading

• The Annual Register for 1908, British and world events online