This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time.
Brazilian supercentenarian Inah Canabarro Lucas was the last known person born in 1908 when she died on April 30, 2025.
Events
January
January 1 – The British Nimrod Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand for Antarctica on the Nimrod. January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean and is the 46th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 130. January 13 – A fire breaks out at the Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, killing 171 people. January 15 – Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first race inclusive sorority is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. January 24 – Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys begins publication in London. The book eventually sells 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.O., a well-known professional multi-sports club of Greece, is founded in Athens. February 12 – The first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race, begins. February 29 – The State Normal and Industrial School for Women, precursor to James Madison University, is founded in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
March March A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France, by Otto Hauser. Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopædia begins publication in London. Clifford W. Beers's memoir of psychiatric abuse, A Mind That Found Itself, was published. March 4 The Pretoria branch of Transvaal University College, precursor to the University of Pretoria, is established. The Collinwood school fire near Cleveland, Ohio kills 175. Bank of Communications, a major financial services provider in China, is founded in Beijing. March 9 – Football Club Internazionale is founded in Milan, Italy. 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. April 20 – Sunshine rail disaster: A rear-end collision of two trains in Melbourne, Australia kills 44 people and injures more than 400. 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 26 – Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, a future President of Finland, meets the 13th Dalai Lama in Shanxi, China, becoming only the third European to be granted an audience with him. June 28 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Central America, North America, Atlantic Ocean and Africa and is the 33rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135. June 29 – Kohlerer-Bahn by Bleichert opens in Bolzano, South Tyrol, the first modern aerial enclosed cable car solely for passenger service. June 30 (June 17 OS) – The Tunguska event 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 above the Earth's surface.
July
July 1 – comes into force internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy).. 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. 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. 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 26 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is founded in the United States. July 27–28 – The 1908 Hong Kong typhoon sinks the passenger steamer Ying King, causing 421 deaths.*July 29 - The White Star Line company begins the construction of the Titanic
August August 8 Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time, demonstrating controlled powered flight in Europe. The Hoover Company of Canton, Ohio, acquires manufacturing rights to the upright portable vacuum cleaner patented on June 22 by James M. Spangler. August 17 – “Fantasmagorie”, an animated short film by Émile Cohl, which is widely regarded as the first animated cartoon is officially released. 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, predecessor of United Parcel Service, is founded in Washington (state).
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. September 28 – Classes begin at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, established under the terms of Franklin's will.
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. The initial price is set at US$850.Approximately $21,597 in 2017, when adjusted for inflation. Penny Post is established between the United Kingdom and United States. 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 from the Ottoman Empire. October 8 – The University of Omaha, precursor of the University of Nebraska Omaha, is founded as a private non-sectarian college. October 29 – Olivetti, the well-known typewriter and business equipment company, is founded in Italy.
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 14 – The Guangxu Emperor of China dies, probably poisoned. The following day, his aunt and the power behind the throne, Empress Dowager Cixi, dies. 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 19 – Women's suffrage is passed in Victoria, Australia. November 25 The Christian Science Monitor newspaper is first published, in the United States. A fire breaks out on as it leaves Malta's Grand Harbour, resulting in the ship's grounding and the deaths of at least 118 people.
December December 2 – Emperor Puyi ascends the Chinese throne at age 2 in succession to his uncle. He will reign for 3 years, then again for 11 days, and finally for 11 years as a puppet emperor. December 16 – Construction begins on the , 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 Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 75,000 and 200,000.
Undated This is the coldest recorded year since 1880, according to NASA reports.
Births
January
January 8 William Hartnell, British actor (died 1975) Fearless Nadia (Mary Evans), Indian actress (died 1996) January 9 – Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (died 1986) January 10 – Paul Henreid, Austrian-born American actor (died 1992) January 15 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-born American physicist (died 2003) January 16 Günther Prien, German submarine commander (died 1941) Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (died 1984) January 22 – Lev Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) January 26 – Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (died 1997)
February
February 1 – George Pal, Hungarian-born American animator (died 1980) February 5 – Peg Entwistle, Welsh actress (died 1932) February 6 – Amintore Fanfani, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (died 1999) February 7 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer, actor (died 1983) February 11 – Vivian Fuchs, English geologist, explorer (died 1999) February 17 – Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (died 2007) February 22 Rómulo Betancourt, President of Venezuela (died 1981) John Mills, English actor (died 2005) February 23 – Sir William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1988) February 26 Tex Avery, American cartoonist (died 1980) Nestor Mesta Chayres, Mexican operatic tenor and bolero vocalist (died 1971) Jean-Pierre Wimille, French racing driver (died 1949) February 29 – Balthus, French painter (died 2001)
March
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 18 – Ivor Moreton, British singer and pianist (died 1984) March 20 – Michael Redgrave, English actor (died 1985) March 22 – Louis L'Amour, American author (died 1988) March 25 – David Lean, English film director (died 1991) March 29 – Arthur O'Connell, American actor (died 1981)
April
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 American composer, musician (died 1976) April 11 Masaru Ibuka, Japanese electronics industrialist (died 1997) Dan Maskell, British tennis coach, commentator (died 1992) April 12 – Carlos Lleras Restrepo, President of Colombia (died 1994) April 15 – Lita Grey, American actress (died 1995)