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1908

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

Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s - 1900s - 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s

Years: 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 - 1908 - 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913

Events

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 21 - 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.
January 24 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement
February 11 - Australia regain The Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
First Ideal Home Exhibition held.
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 Virgina).
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 occurs in Siberia.
July 6 - Robert Peary sets sail for the Arctic North Pole.
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).
December 28 - An earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000.
De Meester's Dutch government resigns.
November - George Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
Change of Emperor of Qing Dynasty from Guangxu Emperor of China (1875-1908) to Henry Puyi (1909-1911)
Henry Ford produces its first Model T automobile.
A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France.
The Child Labour Act of Ontario is passed.

Art, Culture & Fashion

1908 in film
1908 in literature
1908 in music
1908 in science
1908 in sports
- The third Summer Olympic Games are held in London, England.
- September 23 - Baseball/History: the "Merkle incident"
- December 26 - Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia

Births

January 9 - Simone de Beauvoir, feminist philosopher
January 12 - Jean Delannoy, film director
January 14 - Rus Columbo, singer, bandleader, composer
January 15 - Edward Teller
January 26 - Stéphane Grappelli, musician, composer (d. 1997)
January 27 - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, jazz trumpet (d. 1954)
February 1 - George Pal, director, producer (d. 1980)
February 5 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses (d. 1969)
February 7 - Buster Crabbe, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist, actor
February 8 - Emil Staiger, scientist of literature (d. 1987)
February 11 - Sutan Takdir Alishahbana, Indonesian linguistic/author/novelist.
February 11 - Vivian Ernest Fuchs, geologist/explorer.
February 11 - Josh White, musician
February 15 - HAP Grieshaber, painter and graphic artist (d. 1981)
February 17 - Red Barber, baseball announcer, sports journalist (d. 1992)
February 22 - John Mills, actor
February 26 - Tex Avery, cartoonist (d. 1980)
February 26 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, race car driver (d. 1949)
February 29 - Balthus, painter (d. 2001)
February 29 - Dee Brown, writer, historian (d. 2002)
March 2 - Walter Bruch, engineer (d. 1990)
March 5 - Rex Harrison, actor (d. 1990)
March 8 - Claire Trevor, actress
March 7 - Anna Magnani, actress (d. 1973)
March 13 - Walter Annenberg, publisher, philanthropist (d. 2002)
March 17 - Brigitte Helm, actress (d. 1996)
March 20 - Sir Michael Redgrave, actor (d. 1985)
March 22 - Louis L'Amour, author (d. 1988)
March 23 - Joan Crawford, actor (d. 1977)
March 25 - Helmut Käutner, actor and film director (d. 1980)
March 25 - David Lean, film director (d. 1991)
March 29 - Arthur O'Connell, actor (d. 1981)
April 1 - Abraham Maslow, psychologist
April 2 - Buddy Ebsen, actor, dancer
April 5 - Bette Davis, US-american actress (d. 1989)
April 5 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
April 7 - Percy Faith, composer, musician (d. 1976)
April 15 - Eden Ahbez, hermit, musician
April 25 - Edward R. Murrow, journalist (d. 1965)
May 7 - Max Grundig, industrialist (d. 1989)
May 19 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
May 20 - Jimmy Stewart, American actor
May 23 - John Bardeen, physicist (d. 1991)
May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet
May 28 - Ian Fleming, author of James Bond books (d. 1964)
May 30 - Mel Blanc, voice actor
May 31 - Don Ameche (actor)
August 4 - Kurt Eichhorn, conductor
August 27 - Don Bradman, cricket player
August 27 - Lyndon Johnson, 36th president of the United States
August 28 - Roger Tory Peterson, naturalist, artist, and educator
November 28 - Claude Levi-Strauss
October 16 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania
December 6 - Pierre Graber, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 2003)
December 10 - Olivier Messiaen, composer
December 31 - Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi hunter

Deaths

January 25 - Ouida, writer
February 1 - King Charles of Portugal
April 20 - Henry Chadwick, baseball writer and historian
July 20 - Demetrius Vikelas, Greek IOC president
May 26 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi sect
August 25 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist
September 20 - Pablo de Sarasate, violinist
November 15 1-3 pm - Empress Dowager Cixi
November 14 5-7 pm - Guangxu Emperor of China

Nobel Prizes

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1908".