1908

This article is about the year 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 by topic:

Subject

Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Aviation – Awards – Comics – Film – Literature (Poetry) – Meteorology – Music – Rail transport – Radio – Science – Sports – Television

By country

Australia – Canada – China – Ecuador – France – Germany – Greece – India – Ireland – Italy – Japan – Malaya – Mexico – New Zealand – Norway – Ottoman Syria – Philippines – Russia – Singapore – South Africa – UK – USA

Leaders

Sovereign states – State leaders – Religious leaders – Law

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works – Introductions

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
Iranian calendar	1286–1287
Islamic calendar	1325–1326
Japanese calendar	Meiji 41 (明治41年)
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 24: Boy Scout movement.

• 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 – Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.

February

• February 1 – 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 immigration to the U.S.A. is forbidden.

March

• March 4 – The Collinwood School Fire, near Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., kills 174.
• March 9 – A team from Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition becomes the first to reach the crater of Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
• March 21 – French aviator Léon Delagrange pilots the first passenger flight with Henri Farman inside.
• March 27 – The first overseas Scout Troop is formed in Gibraltar.

April

• April 20 – Sunshine train disaster: Two trains collide in Melbourne, Australia, killing 44 people and injuring more than 400.
• April 21 – Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date.
• April 27 – The 1908 Summer Olympics begin 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

Evidence of the Tunguska event (June 30). Photo taken 19 years later.

• June 30 – The Tunguska event, also known as the Russian explosion, occurs near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire.

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–July 12 – The steamship Amalthea, housing 80 British strikebreakers while 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.

August

• August 8 – Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time demonstrating true controlled powered flight.
• August 17 – Emile Cohl makes the first fully animated film, Fantasmagorie.
• August 24 – After an intense power struggle, Sultan Abd al-Aziz IV of Morocco is deposed, and is succeeded by his brother Abd al-Hafiz.

September

• September 17 – At Ft. 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 Congo (known as Congo Free State) over to Belgium (becoming Belgian Congo).

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 Shipyards in Belfast.
• December 28 – An earthquake and tsunami destroys Messina, Sicily and Calabria, killing over 70,000 people.

Date unknown

• Due to the evidence collected by Roger Casement, Léopold II of Belgium is forced to make reforms in the Congo, his personal colony.
• Penny post established between the United Kingdom and United States.
• The Children's Encyclopedia is first published.
• 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.

Births

January–February

• January 8 – William Hartnell, British actor (died 1975)
• January 9 – Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (died 1986)
• January 12 – Jean Delannoy, French film director (died 2008)
• January 14 – Russ Columbo, Italian-American singer, bandleader, and composer (died 1934)
• January 15 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (died 2003)
• January 22 – Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968)
• January 26
  • Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (died 1997)
  • Rupprecht Geiger, German painter (died 2009)
• February 1 – George Pal, Hungarian-born animator (died 1980)
• February 6 – Michael Maltese, American screenwriter (died 1981)
• February 11 – Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist and explorer (died 1999)
• February 12 – Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (died 1982)
• February 17 – Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (died 2007)
• February 22
  • John Mills, English actor (died 2005)
  • Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan president (died 1981)
• February 23 – William McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia (died 1988)
• February 26
  • Tex Avery, American cartoonist (died 1980)
  • Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (died 1949)
• February 29
  • Balthus, French painter (died 2001)
  • Dee Brown, American writer and historian (died 2002)

March–April

• March 2 – Walter Bruch, German engineer (died 1990)
• March 5 – Rex Harrison, English actor (died 1990)
• March 7 – Anna Magnani, Italian actress (died 1973)
• March 17 – Brigitte Helm, German actress (died 1996)
• March 19 – George Rodger, British photojournalist (died 1995)
• March 20
  • Michael Redgrave, English actor (died 1985)
  • Frank Stanton, American businessman (died 2006)
• March 22 – Louis L'Amour, American author (died 1988)
• March 25
  • Helmut Käutner, German actor and director (died 1980)
  • David Lean, English film director (died 1991)
• March 29 – Arthur O'Connell, American actor (died 1981)
• April 1 – Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (died 1970)
• April 2 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (died 2003)
• April 5
  • Bette Davis, American actress (died 1989)
  • Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (died 1989)
• April 7 – Percy Faith, Canadian-born composer, musician (died 1976)
• April 8 – Tito Guízar, Mexican singer and film actor (died 1999)
• April 20 – Lionel Hampton, African-American musician and bandleader (died 2002)
• April 24– Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor and medallic artist (died 1963)
• April 25 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (died 1965)
• April 28 – Oskar Schindler, Austro-Hungarian (Sudeten German) industrialist (died 1974)
• April 29 – Jack Williamson, American science fiction author (died 2006)
• April 30
  • Eve Arden, American actress (died 1990)
  • Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic prime minister (died 1970)

May–June

• May 1 – Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born heroine of World War II (died 1952)
• May 5 – Kurt Böhme, German bass (died 1989)
• May 7 – Max Grundig, German inventor and industrialist (died 1989)
• May 8 – Cristian Vasile, Romanian singer (died 1974)
• May 19 – Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (died 1982)
• May 20 – James Stewart, American actor (died 1997)
• May 23
  • Max Abramovitz, American architect (died 2004)
  • John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1991)
  • Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix (died 1934)
• May 25 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (died 1963)
• May 26 – Nguyen Ngoc Tho, First prime minister of South Vietnam
• May 28 – Ian Fleming, English writer (died 1964)
• May 30
  • Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1995)
  • Mel Blanc, American voice actor (died 1989)
• May 31 – Don Ameche, American actor (died 1993)
• June 11 – Francisco Marto, Portugese, beatified (died 1919)
• June 12 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina (died 2010)
• June 21 – Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against the Japanese occupation of Korea (died 1932)
• June 24
  • Alfons Rebane, Estonian military commander (died 1976)
  • Hugo Distler, German composer (died 1942)
• June 26 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile (died 1973)
• June 27 – Bill Kennedy, American actor (died 1997)
• June 29 – Leroy Anderson, American composer (died 1975)
• June 30 – Winston Graham, English writer (died 2003)

July–August

• July 12 – Milton Berle, American comedian (died 2002)
• July 23 – Karl Swenson, American actor (died 1978)
• August 4 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (died 1994)
• August 5 – Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (died 1967)
• August 9 – A. I. Bezzerides, American screenwriter (died 2007)
• August 10 – Rica Erickson, Australian naturalist and botanical artist (died 2009)
• August 21
  • M. M. Kaye, British writer (died 2004)
  • Tom Tully, American actor (died 1982)
• August 22 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (died 2004)
• August 27
  • Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (died 2001)
  • Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (died 1973)
• August 28 – Robert Merle, French writer (died 2004)
• August 30
  • Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (died 1996)
  • Fred MacMurray, American actor (died 1991)
• August 31 – William Saroyan, American writer (died 1981)

September–October

• September 2 – Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, Russian astronomer/astrophysicist (died 1983)
• September 3 – Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (died 1988)
• September 4 – Richard Wright, African-American author (died 1960)
• September 6
  • Josué de Castro, Brazilian activist against hunger (died 1973)
  • Louis Essen, English physicist (died 1997)
• September 7 – Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and medical researcher (died 2008)
• September 10 – Raymond Scott, American composer, bandleader, electronic music pioneer (died 1994)
• September 13 – Mae Questel, American actress (died 1998)
• September 15 – Miško Kranjec, Slovenian writer (died 1983)
• September 18 – Viktor Hambardzumyan, Soviet Armenian scientist (died 1996)
• September 19 – Paul Bénichou, French intellectual (died 2001)
• September 21 – Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier (died 1994)
• September 25 – Eugen Suchoň, Slovak composer (died 1993)
• September 29 – Eddie Tolan, American athlete (died 1967)
• September 30 – David Oistrakh, Ukrainian-born violinist (died 1974)
• October 1 – Umar Dimayev, Chechen folk singer (died 1972)
• October 6 – Carole Lombard, American actress (died 1942)
• October 15 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (died 2006)
• October 16 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian dictator (died 1985)
• October 17 – Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese politician (died 2007)
• October 19 – Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (died 1981)
• October 21 – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish painter (died 2003)
• October 23
  • Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, Chechen historian (died 1997)
  • Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1990)
• October 25
  • Tauno Palo, Finnish actor (died 1982)
  • Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (died 2004)
• October 28 – Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (died 1995)

November–December

• November 3 – Giovanni Leone, former Prime Minister of Italy (died 2001)
• November 4 – Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (died 2005)
• November 12 – Harry Blackmun, American judge (died 1999)
• November 16 – Sœur Emmanuelle, French nun (died 2008)
• November 18 – Imogene Coca, American actress (died 2001)
• November 20 – Alistair Cooke, English-born American journalist (died 2004)
• November 28 – Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born French anthropologist (died 2009)
• December 4 – Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1997)
• December 6 – Pierre Graber, Swiss Federal Councilor (died 2003)
• December 10 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer (died 1992)
• December 11
  • Elliott Carter, American composer
  • Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director
  • Alfred Proksch, Austrian Olympic athlete (died 2011)
• December 17 – Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1980)
• December 22
  • Kočo Racin, Macedonian poet and revolutionary (died 1943)
  • Giovanni Luigi Bonelli, Italian comic book author and writer (died 2001)
• December 31 – Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (died 2005)

Date unknown

• Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, Somali politician (died 2007)

Deaths

January–June

• January 9 – Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet (born 1832)
• January 17 – Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1835)
• January 25 – Ouida, English writer (born 1839)
• February 1
  • King Carlos I of Portugal (born 1863)
  • Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal (born 1887)
• April 22 – Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1836)
• April 26 – Karl Möbius, German ecologist (born 1825)
• May 24 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (born 1821)
• May 26 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam (born 1835)
• June 14 – Frederick Stanley, Governor-General of Canada and founder of the Stanley Cup (born 1841)
• June 21 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (born 1844)
• June 24 – Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (born 1837)

July–December

• July 3 – Joel Chandler Harris, American author (Br'er Rabbit) (born 1848)
• July 5 – Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (born 1833)
• July 6 – Felipe Calderón y Roca, Filipino politician (born 1868)
• July 20 – Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (born 1835)
• July 22 – William Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1828)
• August 4 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian writer (born 1873)
• August 25 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)
• August 26 – Tony Pastor, American theater impressario (born 1837)
• September 17 – Thomas Selfridge, American Army officer & first aviation casualty (born 1882)
• September 20 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (born 1844)
• September 29 – Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (born 1839)
• November 3 – Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (born 1861)
• November 4
  • Richard Gerstl, Austrian artist (born 1883)
  • Tomás Estrada Palma, first President of Cuba (born 1832)
• November 7 – Butch Cassidy, American outlaw (born 1866)
• November 14 – The Guangxu Emperor of China (born 1871)
• November 15 – Empress Dowager Cixi, ruler of China (born 1835)
• November 17 – Lydia Thompson, English dancer and actress (born 1838)
• November 22 – Claude-Paul Taffanel French flautist and composer (born 1844)
• December 13 – Augustus Le Plongeon, American archaeologist (born 1825)

Date unknown

• Qasim Amin, Egyptian writer (born 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