1908

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v t

1908 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1908 MCMVIII
Ab urbe condita	2661
Armenian calendar	1357 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԷ
Assyrian calendar	6658
Bahá'í calendar	64–65
Balinese saka calendar	1829–1830
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	1829–1830
- Kali Yuga	5008–5009
Holocene calendar	11908
Igbo calendar	908–909
Iranian calendar	1286–1287
Islamic calendar	1325–1326
Japanese calendar	Meiji 41 (明治４１年)
Javanese calendar	1837–1838
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4241
Minguo calendar	4 before ROC 民前4年
Nanakshahi calendar	440
Thai solar calendar	2450–2451
Tibetan calendar	阴火羊年 (female Fire-Goat) 2034 or 1653 or 881     — to — 阳土猴年 (male Earth-Monkey) 2035 or 1654 or 882

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1908.

1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, 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. As of the start of 1908, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events[]

January[]

• January 1 – The British Nimrod Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the Nimrod for Antarctica.
• January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in Pacific Ocean, and is the 46th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 130.
• January 13 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 170.
• January 15 – Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is founded on the campus of Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
• January 21 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.^[1]
• January 24 – Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys begins publication in London. The book eventually sold over 100 million copies, and effectively begins the worldwide Boy Scout movement.

February[]

• February 1 – Lisbon Regicide: King Carlos I of Portugal and Prince Luis Filipe are shot dead in Lisbon.
• February 3 – Panathinaikos, a well known professional multi-sports club of Greece, is founded in Athens.^[2]
• 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 Pretoria branch of the Transvaal University College, precursor to the University of Pretoria, is established.
  • The Collinwood school fire near Cleveland, Ohio kills 174.
• March 9 – Inter Milan, a well-known football club in Italy, is founded.^[3]
• 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.
• March 29 – French aviator Henri Farman makes the world's first flight with a passenger, Léon Delagrange.

April[]

• April 8 – H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.^[4]
• April 20 – Sunshine rail disaster: A rear-end collision of two trains in Melbourne, Australia kills 44 people, and injures more than 400.^[5]
• April 21 – Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date.

May[]

• May 14–October 31 – The Franco-British Exhibition (1908) is held in London.
• May 26 – At Masjed Soleyman 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 28 – An annular solar eclipse was visible from Central America, North America, Atlantic Ocean and Africa, and was the 33rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135.
• June 30 (June 17 OS) – The Tunguska event or "Russian explosion" near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire, is 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.^[6][7][8]

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 8 – French aviator Léon Delagrange makes the world's first flight with a female passenger, his partner and fellow sculptor Thérèse Peltier.^[9]
• 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 13–25 – The 1908 Summer Olympics are held in London, originally scheduled to be in Rome, but changed due to the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 1906.^[10] (Figure skating events are held in London from October 28–29.)
• July 19 – Feyenoord, the first Dutch football club to win the UEFA Champions League, is founded at Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 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 – Italian Dorando Pietri wins the Olympic marathon (run from Windsor Castle to London) in one of the most dramatic arrivals in Olympic history, only to be disqualified soon afterwards for receiving assistance; victory is awarded to Irish-American Johnny Hayes.
• July 27–28 – The 1908 Hong Kong typhoon sinks the passenger steamer Ying King, causing 421 deaths.

August[]

• August 8
  • Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time, demonstrating true controlled powered flight in Europe.
  • 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.
• August 28 – American Messenger Company, as predecessor of United Parcel Service founded in Washington State, United States.^{[citation needed]}
• August 31 – The Great Storm of 1908 starts to pound the Bristol Channel, lasting into the morning of September 2.^[11]

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, Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in an airplane crash. The pilot, Orville Wright, is severely injured in the crash but recovers.

October[]

• October 1
  • Official launch of Henry Ford's Ford Model T automobile, the first having left the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan, on September 27.^[12] The initial price is set at US$850.^[13]
  • Penny Post is established between the United Kingdom and United States.^[14]
• October 5
  • Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire; Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar.
  • The Melting Pot, a play by Israel Zangwill, opens in Washington, D.C. The title quickly becomes a widely used symbol for assimilation of immigrants to the United States.
• October 6 – The Bosnian crisis begins, after the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Ottoman Empire.
• October 14 – The Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers in the 1908 World Series. The Cubs would not win another World Series for 108 years.
• October 29 – Olivetti, the well known typewriter and business equipments company, is founded in Italy.^{[citation needed]}

November[]

• November 3 – 1908 United States presidential election: Republican candidate William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan, 321 electoral votes to 162.
• 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 (becoming Belgian Congo) to Belgium, following evidence collected by Roger Casement of maladministration.
• November 25
  • The Christian Science Monitor newspaper is first published, in the United States.
  • A fire breaks out on SS Sardinia as it leaves Malta's Grand Harbour, resulting in the ship's grounding and the deaths of at least 118 people.^[15]
• November 28 – A mine explosion in Marianna, Pennsylvania, kills 154 men, leaving only one survivor.

December[]

• December 2 – Young Emperor Puyi ascends the Chinese throne at age 2.
• December 16 – Construction begins on the RMS Olympic, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.
• December 23 – A hybrid solar eclipse is visible from Atlantic Ocean, and is the 23rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 140.
• December 28 – The 7.1 M_w  Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 75,000 and 200,000.

Date unknown[]

• According to NASA reports, 1908 was the coldest recorded year since 1880.^[16]
• A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France, by Otto Hauser.
• The Western University of Pennsylvania is renamed the University of Pittsburgh.
• The State Normal and Industrial School for Women, precursor to James Madison University, is founded in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
• The University of Omaha, precursor of the University of Nebraska Omaha is founded as a private non-sectarian college.
• Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, is established under the terms of Franklin's will.
• Hitachi, an electromechanics company, is founded as a mining machine repair factory in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.^[17]

Births[]

January[]

• January 8
  • William Hartnell, British actor (d. 1975)
  • Fearless Nadia (Mary Evans), Indian actress (d. 1996)
• January 9 – Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (d. 1986)^[18]
• January 10 – Paul Henreid, Austrian-born American actor (d. 1992)
• January 12 – Jean Delannoy, French film director (d. 2008)
• January 15 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d. 2003)
• January 16 – Günther Prien, German submarine commander (d. 1941)
• January 22 – Lev Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
• January 26 – Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (d. 1997)^[19]

February[]

• February 1 – George Pal, Hungarian-born American animator (d. 1980)
• February 5 – Peg Entwistle, English actress (d. 1932)
• February 6
  • Amintore Fanfani, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1999)
  • Michael Maltese, American screenwriter (d. 1981)
• February 7 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer, actor (d. 1983)
• February 11 – Vivian Fuchs, English geologist, explorer (d. 1999)
• February 17 – Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (d. 2007)
• February 19 – Qin Hanzhang, Chinese engineer (d. 2019)
• February 22
  • Rómulo Betancourt, President of Venezuela (d. 1981)
  • John Mills, British actor (d. 2005)
• February 23 – William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
• February 26
  • Tex Avery, American cartoonist (d. 1980)
  • Nestor Mesta Chayres, Mexican operatic tenor and bolero vocalist (d. 1971)
  • Jean-Pierre Wimille, French racing driver (d. 1949)
• February 29 – Balthus, French painter (d. 2001)

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 14 – Ed Heinemann, American aircraft designer (d. 1991)
• March 20 – Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)
• March 22 – Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
• March 25 – David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)
• March 29 – Arthur O'Connell, American actor (d. 1981)

April[]

• April 1 – Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d. 1970)^[20]
• 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 American composer, musician (d. 1976)
• April 9 – Paula Nenette Pepin, French composer, pianist and lyricist (d. 1990)
• April 11
  • Masaru Ibuka, Japanese electronics industrialist (d. 1997)
  • Dan Maskell, British tennis coach, commentator (d. 1992)
• April 12 – Carlos Lleras Restrepo, President of Colombia (d. 1994)
• April 15 – Lita Grey, American actress (d. 1995)
• April 20 – Lionel Hampton, African-American musician and bandleader (d. 2002)
• April 24 – Józef Gosławski, Polish sculptor, medallic artist (d. 1963)
• April 25 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)
• April 26 – Fred Phillips, American make-up artist (d. 1993)
• 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 World War II heroine (d. 1952)
• May 5 – Kurt Böhme, German bass (d. 1989)
• May 7 – Max Grundig, German inventor, industrialist (d. 1989)
• May 17 – Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub, Sudanese author, 6th Prime Minister of Sudan (d. 1976)
• May 19 – Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)^[21]
• May 20 – James Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)^[22]
• May 23
  • John Bardeen, American physicist, twice awarded the Nobel Prize (d. 1991)
  • Hélène Boucher, French aviator (d. 1934)
• May 25 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
• May 26
  • Robert Morley, British actor (d. 1992)
  • Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, 1st Prime Minister of South Vietnam (d. 1976)
• May 28 – Ian Fleming, English novelist (d. 1964)^[23]
• 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)^[24]

June[]

• June 11 – Francisco Marto, Portuguese saint (d. 1919)
• June 12 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina (d. 2010)
• June 21 – Yun Bong-gil, Korean resister against the Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)
• June 24
  • Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
  • Alfons Rebane, Estonian military commander (d. 1976)
• June 25 – Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher, academic (d. 2000)^[25]
• June 26
  • Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)^[26]
  • Estrellita Castro, Spanish singer and actress (d. 1983)
• June 29 – Leroy Anderson, American composer (d. 1975)

July[]

• July 1 – Luis Regueiro, Spanish footballer (d. 1995)^[27]
• July 2 – Thurgood Marshall, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1993)^[28]
• July 5 – Henri of Orléans, Count of Paris, Orléanist claimant to the throne of France (d. 1999)
• July 8 – Nelson Rockefeller, American businessman, philanthropist, public servant and politician, 41st Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
• July 9 – Aden Abdulle Osman Daar, Somali politician (d. 2007)^{[citation needed]}
• July 12
  • Alois Hudec, Czechoslovak gymnast, Olympic champion (d. 1997)
  • Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
• July 13 – Garfield Todd, 5th Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia (d. 2002)
• July 17 – Mohammad Natsir, Indonesian scholar and politician; 5th Prime Minister of Indonesia (d. 1993)
• July 18 – Lupe Vélez, Mexican actress, dancer and singer (d. 1944)
• July 23 – Karl Swenson, American actor (d. 1978)

August[]

• August 4 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
• August 5 – Harold Holt, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
• August 6 – Helen Jacobs, American tennis player and commander (d. 1997)^[29]
• August 8
  • Arthur Goldberg, American politician, diplomat, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1990)
  • Chivu Stoica, 48th Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1975)
• August 10 – Lauri Lehtinen, Finnish Olympic athlete (d. 1973)^[30]
• August 13 – Gene Raymond, American actor (d. 1998)
• August 18 – Edgar Faure, 2-time Prime Minister of France (d. 1988)
• August 21
  • M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)
  • Tom Tully, American actor (d. 1982)
• August 22 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)^[31]
• August 27
  • Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
  • Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th 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)^[32]

September[]

• September 2 – Dorothea Leighton, American social psychiatrist, founder of the field of medical anthropology (d. 1989)
• September 3 – Lev Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (d. 1988)^[33]
• September 4 – Richard Wright, African-American author (d. 1960)
• September 5
  • Ahmed Balafrej, Moroccan politician, Foreign Minister and 2nd Prime Minister of Morocco (d. 1990)
  • Cecilia Seghizzi, Italian composer, painter (d. 2019)
• September 7 – Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon, medical researcher (d. 2008)
• September 13 – Mae Questel, American actress (d. 1998)^[34]
• September 18 – Viktor Ambartsumian, Soviet Armenian scientist (d. 1996)^[35]
• September 19 – Mika Waltari, Finnish author (d. 1979)^[36]
• September 21 – Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier, twice winner of the Victoria Cross (d. 1994)^[37]
• September 25 – Eugen Suchoň, Slovak composer (d. 1993)
• September 29 – Eddie Tolan, American athlete (d. 1967)^[38]
• September 30 – David Oistrakh, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 1974)

October[]

• October 6 – Carole Lombard, American actress (d. 1942)
• October 7 – Baek Du-jin, Korean politician, 4th Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) (d. 1993)
• October 15 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (d. 2006)
• October 16 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian communist dictator (d. 1985)
• October 21 – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish painter (d. 2003)
• October 23 – Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• October 27 – Lee Krasner, American painter (d. 1984)
• October 28 – Arturo Frondizi, 35th President of Argentina (d. 1995)
• October 30 – Dmitriy Ustinov, Soviet Army officer, Minister of Defense (d. 1984)

November[]

• November 3 – Giovanni Leone, 68th Prime Minister of Italy, 6th President of Italy (d. 2001)
• November 4 – Joseph Rotblat, Polish physicist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2005)
• 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 24 – Libertad Lamarque, Argentine-Mexican actress, singer (d. 2000)
• November 28 – Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born French anthropologist (d. 2009)

December[]

• December 4 – Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
• December 6 – Baby Face Nelson, American gangster (d. 1934)
• December 10 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer (d. 1992)
• December 11
  • Carlos Arias Navarro, Spanish politician, 71st President of Spain (d. 1989)
  • Elliott Carter, American composer (d. 2012)
  • Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director and screenwriter (d. 2015)
  • Hákun Djurhuus, 4th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1987)
  • Alfred Proksch, Austrian Olympic athlete (d. 2011)^[39]
• December 14 – Laurence Naismith, English actor (d. 1992)
• December 16 – Hans Schaffner, 69th President of Switzerland (d. 2004)
• December 17 – Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
• December 28 – Lew Ayres, American actor (d. 1996)
• December 31 – Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (d. 2005)^[40]

Date Unknown[]

• Takieddin el-Solh, 2-Time Prime Minister of Lebanon (d. 1988)^[41]
• Suleiman Nabulsi, 12th Prime Minister of Jordan (d. 1976)

Deaths[]

January-March[]

• January 9 – Wilhelm Busch, German painter, poet (b. 1832)
• January 14 – Holger Drachmann, Danish poet (b. 1846)^[42]
• 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)^[43]
• February 1
  • King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
  • Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal (b. 1887)
• February 17
  • Annie Ryder Gracey, American missionary (b. 1836)
  • Baron Ignaz von Plener, 3rd Minister-President of Cisleithania (b. 1810)
• February 22 – Eliza A. Pittsinger, "The California Poetess" (b. 1837)
• February 29
  • John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, 1st Governor-General of Australia (b. 1860)
  • Pat Garrett, Sheriff in the Old West; shot Billy the Kid in 1881 (b. 1850)
• March 3 – Sidney Hill, English philanthropist (b. 1829)
• March 11 – Edmondo De Amicis, Italian novelist (b. 1846)^[44]
• March 24 – Eduard von Pestel, Prussian military officer and German general (b. 1821)
• March 27 – Charles N. Sims, American Methodist preacher, third chancellor of Syracuse University (b. 1835)
• March 29 – Esther Pugh, American temperance reformer (b. 1834)
• March 30 – Chester Gillette, American murderer (executed) (b. 1883)

April-June[]

• April 20 – Henry Chadwick, English-born American baseball writer (b. 1824)
• April 22
  • Qasim Amin, Egyptian writer (b. 1863)
  • Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1836)
• April 26 – Karl Möbius, German ecologist (b. 1825)
• May 2 – Prince Yamashina Kikumaro, Japanese Prince (b. 1873)
• May 17 – Carl Koldewey, German explorer (b. 1837)
• May 23 – François Coppée, French poet, playwright and novelist (b. 1842)^[45]
• May 24 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1821)
• May 26 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Sikh Empire-born founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam (b. 1835)
• June 2 – Sir Redvers Buller, British general, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1839)
• June 5 – Jef Lambeaux, Belgian sculptor (b. 1852)
• June 13 – Henry Lomb, German-American optician, founder of Bausch & Lomb (b. 1828)
• June 14 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, Governor-General of Canada, 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-September[]

• July 3 – Joel Chandler Harris, American author (b. 1848)
• July 5 – Jonas Lie, Norwegian writer (b. 1833)
• July 6 – Felipe Calderón y Roca, Filipino politician (b. 1868)
• July 19 – Ignacio de Veintemilla, 11th President of Ecuador (b. 1828)
• July 20 – Demetrius Vikelas, 1st President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1835)
• July 22 – Sir Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1828)
• July 24 – Sigismondo Savona, Maltese educator and politician (b. 1835)^[46]
• August 4 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian writer (b. 1873)
• August 7 – Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì, 12th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1839)
• August 24 – Éleuthère Mascart, French physicist (b. 1837)
• 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, first person killed in an airplane crash (b. 1882)
• September 20 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist, composer (b. 1844)
• September 21
  • Ernest Fenollosa, Spanish-born American art historian and philosopher (d. 1908)
  • Sir Arnold Kemball, British army officer and diplomat (b. 1820)
  • Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso, 3rd President of Spain (b. 1838)
• September 25 – Frank Robison, American baseball executive, early owner of the St. Louis Cardinals (b. 1852)
• September 29 – Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (b. 1839)

October-December[]

• October 11 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican educator, poet and activist (b. 1846)
• October 16 – John Berthier, French Roman Catholic priest, missionary and servant of God (b. 1840)
• October 18 – Nozu Michitsura, Japanese general (b. 1840)
• October 26 – Enomoto Takeaki, Japanese samurai, admiral (b. 1836)
• October 30 – Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, American socialite (b. 1830)
• November 3 – Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b. 1861)
• November 4
  • Richard Gerstl, Austrian artist (b. 1883)
  • Tomás Estrada Palma, 1st President of Cuba (b. 1832)
• November 7
  • Butch Cassidy, American outlaw (b. 1866)
  • Sundance Kid, American outlaw (b. 1867)
• November 8
  • Josephine E. Keating, American literary critic and musician (b. 1838)
  • Victorien Sardou, French dramatist (b. 1831)
• November 14 – Emperor Guangxu of China (b. 1871)
• November 15 – Empress Dowager Cixi of China (b. 1835)^[47]
• November 17 – Lydia Thompson, English dancer, actress (b. 1838)
• November 22 – Paul Taffanel, French flautist, composer (b. 1844)
• December 13 – Augustus Le Plongeon, American archaeologist (b. 1825)

Date unknown[]

• Jacob W. Davis, Latvian American tailor, inventor of jeans (b. 1831)
• Eleanor Kirk, American publisher (b. 1831)

Nobel Prizes[]

• Physics – Gabriel Lippmann
• Chemistry – Ernest Rutherford
• Medicine – Élie Metchnikoff, 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
• Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume 1 1900-1933 (1997); global coverage of politics, diplomacy and warfare; pp 105 – 22.