1908 Events

January 1 - A ball signifying New Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time.
January 11 - Grand Canyon National Monument is designated.
January 24 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.
February 12 - Start of the first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race.
March 21 - Frenchman Henri Farman pilots the first passenger flight.
May 10 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia).
June 30 - The Tunguska event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire.
July 6 - Robert Peary sets sail for the North Pole.
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).
August 7 - Mrs. Adaline Dickman Miller founds the first post office in Ruskin, Florida.
September 27 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
October 13 - The Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene and The Holiness Church of Christ merged in 1908 in Pilot Point, Texas and formed THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE. This is the official "birthday" of the denomination.
October 14 - The Chicago Cubs win the World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers 2–0 in the fifth game, their second World Championship win in a row and the most recent championship the team has won.
November 3 - William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
November 6 - Western bandits Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid are supposedly killed in Bolivia, after being surrounded by a large group of soldiers.
 

1908 Births

January 14 - Russ Columbo, singer, bandleader, and composer (d. 1934)
January 15 - Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d. 2003)
February 1 - George Pál, Hungarian-born animator (d. 1980)
February 22 - John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
March 5 - Rex Harrison, English actor (d. 1990)
March 22 - Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
April 5 - Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
April 7 - Percy Faith, Canadian-born composer, musician (d. 1976)
April 20 - Lionel Hampton, American musician and bandleader (d. 2002)
April 25 - Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)
May 20 - James Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
May 28 - Ian Fleming, English writer (d. 1964)
May 31 - Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)
July 12 - Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
August 27 - Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (d. 1973)
September 4 - Richard Wright, American author (d. 1960)
October 6 - Carole Lombard, American actress (d.1942)
October 15 - John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (d. 2006)
November 18 - Imogene Coca, American actress (d. 2001)
 

1908 Deaths

January 9 - Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet (b. 1832)
April 26 - Karl Möbius, ecologist (b. 1825)
June 14 - Frederick Stanley, founder of the Stanley Cup, the NHL Championship Trophy (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)
November 3 - Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (b. 1861)
November 15 - Empress Dowager Cixi, ruler of China (b. 1835)

1908 Music

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" w. Jack Norworth m. Albert Von Tilzer
"Fig Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin
"Love Is Like A Cigarette" w. Glen MacDonough m. Victor Herbert
"Make A Noise Like A Hoop And Roll Away" w. Ren Shields m. J. Fred Helf
"Meet Me In Rose-Time, Rosie" w. William Jerome m. Jean Schwartz
"Pine Apple Rag" by Scott Joplin
"She Sells Sea-Shells" w. Terry Sullivan m. Harry Gifford
"Shine On Harvest Moon" w. Jack Norworth m. Nora Bayes & Jack Norworth
"Up In A Balloon" w. Ren Shields m. Percy Wenrich
"You're In The Right Church, But The Wrong Pew" w. Cecil Mack m. Chris Smith

The Chocolate Soldier (Der tapfere Soldat) is an operetta composed by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man. The libretto is by Rudolf Bernauer and Leopold Jacobson.As Der tapfere Soldat, it premièred on 14 November 1908 at the Theater an der Wien, under the baton of Robert Stolz with Grete Holm singing Nadina, where it was a considerable success.

1908 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1908
Ab urbe condita 2661
Armenian calendar 1357
Bahá'í calendar 64 – 65
Berber calendar 2858
Buddhist calendar 2452
Burmese calendar 1270
Chinese calendar 4544/4604-11-28 — to — 4545/4605-12-9
Coptic calendar 1624 – 1625
Ethiopian calendar 1900 – 1901
Hebrew calendar 5668 – 5669
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat 1963 – 1964
- Shaka Samvat 1830 – 1831
- Kali Yuga 5009 – 5010
Holocene calendar 11908
Iranian calendar 1286 – 1287
Islamic calendar 1325 – 1326
Japanese calendar Meiji 41
Korean calendar 4241
Thai solar calendar 2451