Events of 1908

January

• 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 21 – Frenchman Henri Farman pilots the first passenger flight.

• 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 (over 100 seriously).

• 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

• 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 11–12 – 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 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.

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.

Undated

• Due to the evidence collected by Roger Casement, Léopold II of Belgium is forced to make reforms in the Congo, which is his personal colony.

• 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 (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 22 – Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)

• January 26 – Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (d. 1997)

• 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 – Jean Effel, French painter and journalist (d. 1982)

• February 17 – Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (d. 2007)

• February 22 – John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)

• February 23 – William McMahon, 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–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 17 – Brigitte Helm, German actress (d. 1996)

• March 19 – George Rodger, British photojournalist (d. 1995)

• March 20 – Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)

• March 20 – 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)

• March 25 – 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)

• April 5 – 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 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 – Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic prime minister (d. 1970)

May–June

• 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)

• May 23 – John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)

• May 23 – Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix (d. 1934)

• May 25 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)

• May 26 – Nguyen Ngoc Tho, First prime minister of South Vietnam

• 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 12 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina

• June 21 – Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against the Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)

• June 24 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian military commander (d. 1976)

• June 24 – Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)

• June 26 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)

• 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 12 – Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)

• 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 (d. 2007)

• August 10 – Rica Erickson, Australian naturalist and botanic

• August 21 – M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)

• August 22 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)

• August 27 – Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)

• August 27 – 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)

• 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 – 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 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)

• October 23 – Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)

• October 25 – Tauno Palo, Finnish actor (d. 1982)

• October 25 – Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d. 2004)

• October 28 – Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (d. 1995)

November–December

• November 4 – Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2005)

• November 12 – Harry Blackmun, American judge (d. 1999)

• 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)

• 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 22 – Kočo Racin, Macedonian poet and revolutionary (d. 1943)

• December 22 – 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 25 – Ouida, English writer (b. 1839)

• February 1

• *King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)

• *Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal (b. 1887)

• April 22 – Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1836)

• April 26 – Karl Möbius, German ecologist (b. 1825)

• May 24 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1821)

• May 26 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam (b. 1835)

• June 14 – Frederick Stanley, Governor-General of Canada and founder of the Stanley Cup (b. 1841)

• 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 (Br'er Rabbit) (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 impressario (b. 1837)

• September 17 – Thomas Selfridge, American Army officer & first aviation casualty (b. 1882)

• September 20 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)

• September 29 – Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (b. 1839)

• 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)

Unknown date

• 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