Posted 10/09/2005 07:34 am
I could not find a cost of living for 1908, but did find this neat timeline.
1908 Jan 1, The 1st time-ball signifying new year was dropped at Times Square, NYC.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1908 Jan 4, Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal, Austrian nude model, Hitler's cousin and lover, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 4, Antony Winkler Prins (70), writer (Grolier Encyclopedia), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 8, A subway linking New York's Brooklyn and Manhattan opened.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1908 Jan 9, Simone de Beauvoir, author (Mandarins, 2nd Sex), was born in France.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1908 Jan 9, Count Zeppelin announced plans for his airship to carry 100 passengers.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1908 Jan 9, Italians reported that Somaliland was under siege by the Abyssinians.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1908 Jan 12, A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1908 Jan 15, Edward Teller (d.2003), US physicist known as the "Father of the H-bomb," was born in Budapest. In 2001 he authored his "Memoirs."
(HN, 1/15/99)(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A21)(SFC, 9/10/03, p.A1)
1908 Jan 18, Jacob Bronowsky, British mathematician, cultural historian, was born.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1908 Jan 20, The Sullivan Ordinance barred women from smoking in public facilities in the United States.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1908 Jan 21, New York City's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance that effectively prohibited women from smoking in public. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1908 Jan 23, Edward Alexander MacDowell (47), US composer (Indian Suite), died.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1908 Jan 24, The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell. Lieutenant General Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, had achieved fame as a hero in the Boer War and applied his methods of training British soldiers in South Africa in woodcraft and survival methods to young English boys in the early 1900s. The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in 1910 and united with two previously existing organizations, the Sons of Daniel Boone, founded by Daniel Beard in 1905 and Ideals of the Woodcraft Indians, founded by Ernest Seton in 1902.
(AP, 1/24/98)(HNQ, 11/12/01)
1908 Jan, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt created Pinnacles National Monument in California. The area was expanded in 2000 for the 7th time and covered 24,000 acres in San Benito and Monterey counties.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.C1)
1908 Feb 1, Carlos I (44), King of Portugal (1889-1908), assassinated by mob.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1908 Feb 3, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that union-sponsored boycotts were illegal, and applied the Sherman Antitrust Act to labor as well as capital.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1908 Feb 11, Phillipe Dunne, screenwriter and director, was born. His films included "How Green Was My Valley."
(HN, 2/11/01)
1908 Feb 14, Russia and Britain threatened action in Macedonia if peace was not reached soon.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1908 Feb 17, Walter Lanier "Red" Barber, baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees, was born.
(HN, 2/17/01)
1908 Feb 18, The 1st US postage stamps in rolls were issued.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1908 Feb 24, Japan officially agreed to restrict immigration to the U.S.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1908 Feb 25, The 1st tunnel under Hudson River (railway tunnel) opened. The McAdoo Tunnel was completed March 8, 1904, but only officially opened on this date.
(PCh, 1992, p.655)(MC, 2/25/02)
1908 Feb 27, Baseball's sacrifice fly was adopted. It was repealed in 1931 and reinstated in 1954.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1908 Feb 27, The forty-sixth star was added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma's admission to statehood.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1908 Mar 2, An international conference on arms reduction opened in London.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1908 Mar 2, Gabriel Lippman introduced the new three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1908 Mar 4, The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1908 Mar 4, A Collingwood, OH, primary school caught fire and 180 died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1908 Mar 5, Rex Harrison, actor (My Fair Lady, Dr Doolittle), was born in England.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1908 Mar 7, Anna Magnani, Italian actress, was born.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1908 Mar 7, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before city council and announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."
(MC, 3/7/02)
1908 Mar 8, The House of Commons, London, turned down the women's suffrage bill.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1908 Mar 8, Collingwood Elementary in Cleveland burned. 173 kids and 2 teachers were killed.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1908 Mar 11, Lawrence Welk, orchestra leader, was born in Strasburg, ND.
(HN, 3/11/98)(MC, 3/12/02)
1908 Mar 13, Walter Annenberg (d.2002), publisher (Triangle-TV Guide), Ambassador to GB, was born in Milwaukee, the 6th of 9 children.
(MC, 3/13/02)(SFC, 10/2/02, p.A2)
1908 Mar 13, Jerusalem's inhabitants saw their first automobile owned by Charles Glidden of Boston.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1908 Mar 15, 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's "Rhapsodie Espagnole."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1908 Mar 16 The Chinese released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1908 Mar 19, Maryland banned Christian Scientists from practicing medicine unless they had a medical diploma.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1908 Mar 20, Frank Stanton, broadcasting executive (CBS), was born in Muskegon, Mich.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1908 Mar 20, Michael Redgrave, actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes), was born in Bristol, England.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1908 Mar 21, Frenchman Henri Farman carried a passenger in a bi-plane for the first time.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1908 Mar 22, Louis L'Amour (d.1998), American author, was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. He wrote 116 western novels.
(HN, 3/22/97)(USAT, 6/10/98, p.1D)(MC, 3/22/02)
1908 Mar 23, Joan Crawford, American actress, was born. She is best known for her role in Mildred Pierce.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1908 Mar 25, Bridget D'Oyly Carte, British theater and hotel director, was born.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1908 Mar 25, David Lean (d.1991), British film director (Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia), was born.
(HN, 3/25/01)
1908 Mar 28, Automobile owners lobbied Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing and federal registration.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1908 Apr 5, Bette Davis (d.1989), film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve), was born. "Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone -- but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding."
(AP, 7/15/99)(HN, 4/5/01)
1908 Apr 5, Herbert von Karajan, Nazi, conductor (Berlin Philharmonic), was born in Austria.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1908 Apr 5, George Schick, conductor (Chicago Symphony), was born in Prague, Czech.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1908 Apr 5, Japanese Army reached the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1908 Apr 7, Percy Faith, conductor (Summer Place), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1908 Apr 11, Karel Ancerl, Czech conductor (Prague, Toronto), was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1908 Apr 11, Leo Rosten, writer, humorist, was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1908 Apr 12, Fire left 17,000 homeless in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1908 Apr 18, Joseph Keilberth, German conductor (Bayreuther Festspiele), was born.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1908 Apr 21, Arctic explorer Frederick A. Cook claimed to have discovered the North Pole a year ahead of Peary. Many historians suspect that neither explorer succeeded. The term "Dr. Cook weather" refers to an incident where Dr. Cook once left a chilly New York baseball game after which the city papers trumpeted; "Game called, even too cold for Dr. Cook." Cook's assertion was later proved false. [see Apr 6, 1909]
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B8)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)(MC, 4/21/02)
1908 Apr 25, Edward R. Murrow, war correspondent and newscaster, was born. He hosted See It Now and Person to Person. During World War II broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow became known for opening his radio reports from London with the ominous-sounding "This is London." He later turned to television, becoming the host of a celebrity interview show called Person to Person, and was named head of the U.S. Information Agency in 1961.
(HNQ, 3/29/99)(HN, 4/25/99)
1908 Apr, Hootch Simpson, a saloon keeper in Skidoo, Ca. (Death Valley), shot and killed Joe Arnold, the town banker. Simpson was hung and buried the next morning, but was dug up and re-hung for a newspaper reporter.
(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.C5)
1908 May 5, Rex Harrison, actor, was born. He starred in My Fair Lady.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1908 May 5, Jacques Massu, French general (Algeria), was born.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1908 May 5, Great White Fleet arrived in SF.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1908 May 9, Dirk Fock became governor of Suriname.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1908 May 10, Carl Albert, speaker of the House of Representatives, was born.
(HN, 5/10/98)
1908 May 10, The first Mother's Day observance took place during church services in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia. In 1997 Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia first proposed the idea that all mothers wear a carnation on the 2nd Sunday of May.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1908 May 12, George Bernard Shaw's "Getting Married," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1908 May 12, Wireless Radio Broadcasting was patented by Nathan B. Stubblefield.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1908 May 14, 1st passenger flight in an airplane.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1908 May 20, Jimmy Stewart, actor, was born in Pennsylvania. He is best remembered for his roles in "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
(WSJ, 5/20/97, p.A18)(HN, 5/20/99)(MC, 5/20/02)
1908 May 22, The Wright brothers registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1908 May 23, John Bardeen, physicist, co-inventor of the transistor, was born.
(HN, 5/23/01)
1908 May 23, Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, Washington.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1908 May 23, A dirigible exploded over the SF Bay. 16 passengers fell but none died.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1908 May 25, Theodore Rothke, poet, was born.
(HN, 5/25/01)
1908 May 26, Robert Morley, actor (High Road to China, African Queen), was born in England.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1908 May 28, Ian Fleming, author, was born in London, England. He wrote the James Bond novels, about a British spy during the Cold War.
(HN, 5/28/99)(MC, 5/28/02)
1908 May 30, Hannes Alfven, Swedish, Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist, was born.
(HN, 5/30/01)
1908 May 30, Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig in Warner Brothers cartoons, was born. When he died he had "That's All Folks" inscribed on his tombstone.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, Z1 p.8)(HN, 5/30/99)
1908 May 30, 1st federal workmen's compensation law was approved.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1908 May, Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for president in the US, began his national campaign in the courthouse square of Girard, Kansas. The town was the home of the national socialist newspaper "Appeal to Reason" edited by J.A. Wayland.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-16)
1908 Jun 4, Rosalind Russell, actress (Mame, Take a Letter Darling), was born in Waterbury, CT.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1908 Jun 8, King Edward VII of England visited Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve relations between the two countries.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1908 Jun 10, Ernst B. Chain, German chemist, bacteriologist (penicillin, Nobel 1945), was born.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1908 Jun 12, Otto Skorzeny, German-Austrian SS colonel who led glider rescue of Mussolini, was born.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1908 Jun 12, Lusitania crossed the Atlantic in record 4 days 15 hours (NYC).
(MC, 6/12/02)
1908 Jun 21, Nikolai A. Rimsky-Korsakov (64), prolific Russian composer, orchestrator (Scheherazade, The Tsar's Bride, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh), died.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1908 Jun 21, Mulai Hafid again proclaimed himself the true sultan of Morocco.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1908 Jun 24, The 22nd and 24th president (1893-1897) of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died in Princeton, N.J., at age 71. In 1988 Richard E. Welch authored "The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland."
(SFEC, 1/12/97, Z 3 p.4)(AP, 6/24/97)(ON, 10/99, p.12)
1908 Jun 26, Shah Muhammad Ali's forces squelched the reform elements of Parliament in Persia.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1908 Jun 30, An explosion near the Tunguska River in Siberia incinerated some 300 sq. km. that encircled the impact of an estimated 60 meter diameter stony meteorite. It flattened some 40,000 trees over 900 sq. miles and caused damage equivalent to a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb. An explosion in Siberia, which knocked down trees in a 30-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away, is believed by some scientists to be caused by a falling fragment from a meteorite.
(NH, 9/97, p.85)(SFC, 3/12/98, p.A15)(HN, 6/30/98)(MC, 6/30/02)
1908 Jul 1, Estee Lauder, CEO of Estee Lauder's cosmetics, was born.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1908 Jul 2, Thurgood Marshall (d.1993), first African-American US Supreme Court Justice, was born. He served on the US Supreme Court from 1967-1991. As a civil rights lawyer in the 1950s he maintained a confidential relationship with the FBI.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A3)(HN, 7/2/98)
1908 Jul 3, M.F.K. Fisher, food writer, was born.
(HN, 7/3/01)
1908 Jul 3, Joel Chandler Harris (59), creator of Uncle Remus, died.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1908 Jul 6, Robert Peary's expedition sailed from NYC for north pole.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1908 Jul 7, Great White Fleet left SF Bay.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1908 Jul 8, Nelson Rockefeller, 41st U.S. vice president, was born. He served under Pres. Gerald Ford from 1974-77.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1908 Jul 9, Minor White, abstract photographer, was born.
(HN, 7/9/01)
1908 Jul 12, Milton Berle (d.2002), comedian, movies and on television star, was born.
(HN, 7/12/98)(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A15)
1908 Jul 12, The Missouri Gazette began publishing under Joseph Charless.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M5)
1908 Jul 22, Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997), sculptor and painter, was born to a pioneer family in Coos Bay, Or. Her father, Louis Frederick Falkenstein, was a timber executive.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A22)
1908 Jul 22, Amy Vanderbilt (d.1974), American journalist, etiquette expert: "One face to the world, another at home makes for misery."
(AP, 5/12/97)(HN, 7/22/02)
1908 Jul 26, U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order creating an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1908 Jul 26, Salvador Allende Gossens, Chile's last elected president (1970-73), was born.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1908 Jul 27, Joseph Mitchell (d.1996), writer for The New Yorker, was born. He pursued the "general of nuisance: flops, drunks, con-artists, panhandlers, gin-mill owners and their bellicose bartenders..."
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A19)(HN, 7/27/01)
1908 Jul 30, An around the world automobile race ended in Paris.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1908 Jul, African-American Matthew Alexander Henson, born on August 8, 1866, and four Inuits accompanied U.S. Naval Commander Robert E. Peary on the third attempt to reach the North Pole. Henson became an Arctic expert during Peary's first two failed expeditions. Henson's strength, knowledge of the Eskimo language and dog driving skills made him an essential member of the team. Whether Peary's party actually reached the North Pole or missed it by as much as 60 miles due to a navigational miscalculation remains controversial to this day.
(HNPD, 8/8/98)
1908 Aug 3, Allan Allensworth filed the site plan for the first African-American town, Allensworth, California.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1908 Aug 5, Miriam Rothschild, English scientist and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/5/00)
1908 Aug 8, Arthur J. Goldburg, labor lawyer, UN ambassador, Supreme Court justice (1962-65), was born in Illinois. He was instrumental in the merger of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
(HN, 8/8/98)(MC, 8/8/02)
1908 Aug 11, Britain's King Edward VII met with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1908 Aug 12, Henry Ford's first Model T rolled off the assembly line. It's later advertising slogan was "Gets Ya There, and Gets Ya Back." From when it was first put on the market in 1908 to when it was discontinued in 1927, some 15 million of the Ford Model T were built. The model T featured steering on the left side of the car for a better line of sight when passing other cars.
(HN, 8/12/98)(SFEC, 11/8/98, Z1 p.8)(HNQ, 4/5/99)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)
1908 Aug 14, There was a race riot in Springfield, Illinois.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1908 Aug 17, The San Francisco Bank of Italy opened new HQ at Clay and Montgomery.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1908 Aug 18, Edgar Faure (d.1988), thriller writer, PM of France (1952, 52-56), was born.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1908 Aug 20, The American Great White Fleet arrived in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1908 Aug 22, Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer, was born in Chanteloup, France.
(HN, 8/22/00)(MC, 8/22/02)
1909 Aug 24, Workers started pouring concrete for Panama Canal.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1908 Aug 25, The National Association of Colored Nurses was formed.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1908 Aug 27, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States (1963-1969), was born near Stonewall, Texas.
(AP, 8/27/97)(HN, 8/27/98)
1908 Aug 28, Roger Tory Peterson, author, was born. His work included the innovative bird book "A Field Guide to Birds."
(HN, 8/28/00)
1908 Aug 31, William Saroyan (d.1981), American writer, was born outside Fresno, Ca., to Armenian parents. "He was a prolific and bombastic writer who never threw anything away." He was a native of Fresno, Ca. and his unpublished materials, held by the Saroyan Foundation, were turned over to Stanford Univ. in 1996. His work included "The Human Comedy."
(HFA, '96, p.36)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A1)(WUD, 1994, p.1269)(HN, 8/31/00)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M1)
1908 Sep 3, James Barries "What Every Woman Knows," premiered in London.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1908 Sep 3, Orville Wright began two weeks of flight trials that impressed onlookers with his complete control of his new Type A Military Flyer. In addition to setting an altitude record of 310 feet and an endurance record of more than one hour, he had carried aloft the first military observer, Lieutenant Frank Lahm.
(HNPD, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 4, Richard Wright (d.1960), novelist who wrote about the abuses of blacks in white society, best known for "Native Son" (1940), was born.
(HN, 9/4/98)(SSFC, 8/12/01, DB p.61)
1908 Sep 6, Paul Lavalle, bandleader, was born in Beacon, NY.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1908 Sep 7, Michael E. DeBakey, heart surgery pioneer, was born in Lake Charles, La.
(www.fact-index.com)
1908 Sep 9, Orville Wright made the 1st 1-hr airplane flight at Fort Myer, Va.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1908 Sep 9, Russia grabbed part of Poland.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1908 Sep 12, Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1908 Sep 16, General Motors filed papers of incorporation.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 17, Orville Wright's passenger on a test flight was Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. They were circling the landing field at Fort Myer, Va., when a crack developed in the blade of the aircraft's propeller. Wright lost control of the Flyer and the biplane plunged to the ground. Selfridge became powered flight's first fatality, and Wright was seriously injured in the crash. But despite the tragic mishap, the War Department awarded the contract for the first military aircraft to Wright.
(HNPD, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 19, Gustav Mahler's 7th Symphony, premiered in Prague.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1908 Sep 20, Alexander Mitscherlich, German psychotherapist, was born.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1908 Sep 20, Pablo Martin Melitou de Sarasate y Navascuez, composer, died at 64.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1908 Sep 22, Bulgaria declared independence from Ottoman Empire (Turkey).
(MC, 9/22/01)
1908 Sep 26, An ad for the Edison Phonograph appeared in "The Saturday Evening Post". The phonograph offered buyers free records by both the Democratic and Republican US presidential candidates.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1908 Sep 30, David Oistrakh, violinist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, was born in Odessa, Russia (Ukraine).
(HN, 9/30/00)(MC, 9/30/01)
1908 Sep, Bones of the 10,000 year-old Bison bison antiquus were initially discovered by cowboy George McJunkin (1851-1922) in eastern New Mexico.
(NH, 2/97, p.17)
1908 Oct 1, The Ford Model T, the first car for millions of Americans, hit the market. Each car cost $825. Over 15 million Model Ts were eventually sold, all of them black. The Model T automobile cost $850 when it was first introduced to the public. Ford lowered the price of automobiles—previously regarded as a toy of the rich—by maintaining control of raw materials and using new mass production techniques. The price of this two-seater, affectionately known as the "tin Lizzy," fluctuated over the years, dipping below $300 in 1924. Electric lights and an optional electric starter were among the few improvements over the years. The model was discontinued in 1927 after more 15,000,000 had been produced.
(CFA, '96, p.56)(AP, 10/1/97)(HN, 10/1/98)(HNQ, 7/11/00)
1908 Oct 6, Carol Lombard, American comedienne and actress who was nominated for an Oscar for My Man Godfrey, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Lombard started during the silent movie era revealed herself to be a wonderful amusing and witty actress after the advent of the talkies and quickly became one of the top box office draws of the 1930's in such films as 'My Man Godfrey'. Clark Gable was married to Lombard. (My Man Godfrey, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Made for Each Other).
(HN, 10/6/98)(MC, 10/5/01)
1908 Oct 6, Sammy Price, jazz pianist, was born.
(HN, 10/6/00)
1908 Oct 6, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1908 Oct 15, John Kenneth Galbraith, economist, writer and diplomat, was born. His work included "A History of Economics" and "Affluent Society." He won the Hillman Award in 1958.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)(HN, 10/15/00)(MC, 10/15/01)
1908 Oct 16, The first airplane flight in England was made at Farnsborough, by Samuel Cody, a U.S. citizen.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1908 Nov 3, Republican William Howard Taft was elected the 27th president, outpolling William Jennings Bryan. James Sherman was the VP.
(AP, 11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)
1908 Nov 4, The Brooklyn Academy of Music opened in NYC.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1908 Nov 6, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed. [see 1907 Bolivia]
(MesWP)
1908 Nov 8, Victorien Sardou (77), French opera author (Madame Sans-Gene), died.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1908 Nov 12, Harry Blackmun (d.1999), later Supreme Court Justice, was born in Nashville, Ill., and grew up in St. Paul, Minn.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A15)
1908 Nov 14, Joseph McCarthy was born. He became an anti-Communist Senator from Wisconsin who gave the name "McCarthyism" to his communist witch-hunts. In 1999 William F. Buckley Jr. published "The Redhunter," a historical novel about Joe McCarthy.
(HN, 11/14/98)(WSJ, 7/22/99, p.A24)
1908 Nov 14, Harrison Sallisbury, journalist for The New York Times, was born.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1908 Nov 14, Oscar Strauss' musical "The Chocolate Soldier," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1908 Nov 14, Albert Einstein presented his quantum theory of light.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1908 Nov 16, Arturo Toscanini debuted conducting NY's Metropolitan Opera.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1908 Nov 18, Imogene Coca d.2001), later co-star with Sid Caesar of the 1950s "Your Show of Shows" TV program, was born in Philadelphia.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A29)
1908 Nov 20, Alistair Cooke (d.2004), English journalist, who hosted "Masterpiece Theater," was born in Salford, England.
(HN, 11/20/98)(SFC, 3/31/04, p.A2)
1908 Nov 21, Elizabeth G. Speare, writer of historical novels for children, was born.
(HN, 11/21/00)
1908 Nov 22, Michael Balfour, historian, was born.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1908 Nov 24, Harry Kemelman, US detective author (rabbi omnibus), was born.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1908 Nov 28, Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist, was born.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1908 Nov 28, 154 men died in a coal mine explosion at Marianna, Pa.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1908 Nov 29, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and Civil Rights leader, was born.
(HN, 11/29/98)
1908 Dec 1, The Italian Parliament debated the future of the Triple Alliance and asked for compensation for Austria's action in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1908 Dec 2, Emp. Zxuan Tong (Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, 2 1/2 years old) ascended the dragon throne and became China's Last Emperor.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.A24)(MC, 12/2/01)
1908 Dec 3, Edward Elgar's 1st Symphony in A premiered.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1908 Dec 6, First flight of the Silverdart with Canadian JAD McCurdy at the controls.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1908 Dec 9, A child labor bill passed German Reichstag forbidding work for children under age 13.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1908 Dec 10, Oliver Messian, French composer, was born. His work included "Quartet for the End of Time."
(HN, 12/10/00)
1908 Dec 13, The Dutch took two Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1908 Dec 14, The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opened.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1908 Dec 17, Willard Frank Libby, American chemist who won a Nobel Prize (1960) for his part in creating the carbon-14 method in dating ancient findings, was born.
(HN, 12/17/98)(MC, 12/17/01)
1908 Dec 23, Yousuf Karsh, portrait photographer (Life Magazine), was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1908 Dec 25, Jack Johnson (1878-1946) of Texas knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become the 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion. He was not officially given the title until 1910 when he beat Jim Jeffries in Las Vegas. In 1913 Johnson fled the US because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution. Johnson held the title until 1915. In 1920 he returned to the US, was arrested and sentenced to Leavenworth in Kansas, where he was appointed athletic director of the prison.
(SSFC, 9/11/04, Par p.2)(www.famoustexans.com/jackjohnson.htm)
1908 Dec 28, Some 70,000-100,000 people died in the Messina earthquake in Sicily. The government hired a number of steamships, including the Florida, to ship survivors to America.
(WUD, 1994, p.899)(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A21)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1908 Dec 29, A patent was granted for a 4-wheel automobile brake in Clintonville, Wisc.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1908 Dec 31, Simon Wiesenthal, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust who dedicated his life to tracking down former Nazis, was born.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1908 Balthazar Klossowski was born in Paris. He later became known as the artist Balthus. In 1919 his mother, Baladine, moved with her 2 sons to Switzerland and became the lover of the German poet Rainier Maria Rilke, who became a mentor to the boy. In 1999 Nicholas Fox Weber published: "Balthus: A Biography."
(WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A24)
1908 James Stewart, actor, was born.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)
1908 Victor Vasarely, the father of op art, was born in Pecs, Hungary.
(Hem., 6/98, p.128)
1908 Braque and Picasso began vying with one another in their artwork and ended up by teaching everyone to see the world in an entirely new way. Picasso created his oil painting "Three Women" this year.
(V.D.-H.K.p.361)(SFC, 10/30/01, p.B1)
1908 Kees Van Dongen painted his seated nude "The Maid's Bed."
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)
1908 Natalia Goncharova, Russian artist, painted "Bleaching Linen."
(WSJ, 5/2/03, p.W6)
1908 Claude Monet made his last trip abroad to Venice with his wife Alice and made a number of paintings.
(WSJ, 8/26/97, p.A14)
1908 Rene Lalique was making glass perfume bottles for Francois Coty.
(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)
1908 Elsa Bernstein (d.1949), Austrian-Jewish playwright (Ernst Rosmer), authored "Maria Arndt." The 1st English production was made in 2002.
(WSJ, 3/11/02, p.A16)
1908 Kenneth Grahame wrote the classic British children's book "Wind in the Willows." It was made into a movie in 1997.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.D3)
1908 Walter H. Gaskell (1847-1914), English physiologist, published "The Origin of Vertebrates."
(NH, 2/97, p.24)
1908 Percival Lowell published the results of his observations of Mars titled: "Mars as the Abode of Life." He recorded no fewer than 180 canals.
(Smith., 8/95, p.72)(NH, 10/96, p.74)
1908 The novel "Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1908 Free atonality commenced with the finale of the Second Quartet by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951).
(WSJ, 1/31/02, p.A16)
1908 The song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" sealed the popularity of Cracker Jacks, a popcorn candy.
(AH, 10/01, p.34)
1908 The Goldfield Hotel was completed in Goldfield, Nevada, to accommodate a gold-mining frenzy. In 2004 the hamlet had shrunk to 356 people from 25,000 at its peak.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)
1908 In Fort Worth, Texas, the Cowtown Coliseum was built.
(HT, 4/97, p.49)
1908 Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science Monitor in Boston.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.A17)
1908 Olive Dame Campbell came to the Appalachian Mountains with her minister husband and began researching the local music. Her music collection was published in 1915 by English musicologist Cecil Sharp. Their work laid the basis for the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown N.C.
(WSJ, 6/7/01, p.A20)
1908 Pierre Cartier, a French jeweler, acquired the blue Hope Diamond.
(THC, 12/3/97)
1908 The French dip sandwich got its start at Phillipe's Original Sandwich Shop in Los Angeles.
(SFEC,12/797, p.T3)
1908 Willis & Geiger outfitted Teddy Roosevelt for journeys to Alaska and Africa.
(NH, 9/96, p.17)
1908 The first organized dog-sled race in Alaska was a 408 mile roundtrip from Nome to Candle
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.37)
1908 The Chicago Cubs won the Baseball World Series.
(Hem., 4/97, p.103)
1908 The Univ. of Pittsburgh introduced the 1st football jerseys with numbers on the back. Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg of the Univ. of Chicago instituted numbered jerseys for football players in 1913.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)
1908 The Vanderbilt Cup was won by the Old 16, the first American car to win an int'l. racing competition.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A8)
1908 The marathon of the Olympic Games was changed from 24 to 26 miles so that the finish line would fall in front of the Royal Box in England. The length was set at 26 miles 385 yards.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, Z1 p.2)(Econ, 5/29/04, p.81)
1908 The US won a gold medal in the men's metric mile.
(WSJ, 9/12/00, p.A24)
1908 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt declared parts of the Klamath Basin the first federal wildlife refuge.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.B4)
1908 American battleships of the Great White Fleet visited San Francisco on their "round-the-world cruise to show Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick." Fort Baker under Gen. Frederick Funston was opened to the public to view the fleet's entry.
(The Park, Summer "95)
1908 The National Child Labor Committee estimated that one of every four miners was a child between the ages of 7 and 16. Lewis W. Hine photographed young Pennsylvania coal miners, who worked from dawn to dusk. Early-20th-century reformers crusaded against many social problems caused by America's rapid industrialization and urbanization, including child labor. Teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine documented industrial child labor for the National Child Labor Committee. Disguised to evade suspicious employers, Hine captured some of the most powerful images in the history of documentary photography.
(HNPD, 2/19/99)
1908 The US Supreme Court ruled that player-piano rolls based on copyrighted music are not a copyright violation but a piece of machinery. [see 1909]
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.E1)
1908 A Chicago Auto Show was held. Walter P. Chrysler saw his first "Locomobile" at the show.
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)
1908 Marquis Mills Converse founded the Converse shoe company. In 1917 the All-Stars basketball shoe was introduced. In 1923 it was renamed the Chuck Taylor All-Star. In 2003 the company was sold to Nike.
(WSJ, 7/10/03, p.A6)
1908 William Crapo Durant (1861-1947) a salesman who founded GM with 25 companies incorporated General Motors and acquired Buick, Oldsmobile and Oakland, which would later be renamed Pontiac. He was not a good manager and was kicked out from GM in 1920. He then started Durant Motors, but with no success.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1908 Frederic J. Fisher (1878-1941) and his brother Charles (1880-1963) established the Fisher Body Co. They sold their operations to GM in 1926.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1908 Industry experts in 1996 picked the 1908 Ford Model T as the number 8 favorite car. The Model T was the first car to feature interchangeable parts.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 3/15/97, p.E3)
1908 Gideon Sundback, Swedish-born engineer working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey, designed a new fastener, the "Plako," for use in the placket of a woman's skirt.
(ON, 7/04, p.5)
1908 William Henry Hoover, an inventive janitor and founder of the Hoover Vacuum Co., produced the Model O, the first commercially successful portable electric vacuum cleaner. The Hoover Historical Center in North Canton, Ohio, was devoted to carpet-cleaning history.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T3)
1908 Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, proposed the idea of "panspermia," the idea that our solar system was inoculated with living organisms from outside the galaxy.
(PacDis, Winter '97, p.34)
1908 George Ellery Hale, American astronomer, studied the Zeeman effect from sunspots, which were splits in the Fraunhofer lines, and always observed when a line spectrum was placed between the poles of a strong electromagnet.
(SCTS, p.92)
1908 F.B. Taylor, American geologist, proposed that the rifting and displacement of the continents had caused the circum-Pacific ring to form and the Tethyan ranges to be pushed up. He attributed the action to the supposed capture of the moon from outer space in the Cretaceous period.
(DD-EVTT, p.188)
1908 Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes, Dutch physicist, was the first to liquefy helium.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A15)
1908 Jacques Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist, came up with cellophane when he tried to invent a stain-proof tablecloth. [2nd source says 1912]
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)
1908 Monosodium glutamate (MSG) was isolated from seaweed.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.E3)
1908 Argentine ants were 1st noticed in California. They had reached New Orleans by 1891 and became successful because their colonies did not fight each other and their nests contained multiple queens and males.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A1)
1908 The Dry Tortugas, west of Key West, was declared protected bird preserve and feeding ground.
(NH, 4/97, p.37)
1908 The Wichita National Bison Range opened in Oklahoma and received 15 bison from New York.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1908 Pres. Roosevelt formally established the National Bison Range in Montana.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1908 An Italian expedition on Crete discovered a terra cotta artifact with an unknown script. It was dated to about 1700 BC and became known as the Phaistos Disc (Phaestos Disc). [see 1600 BCE]
(SSFC, 2/22/04, p.M6)
1908 The great Piltdown skull and mandible hoax began in England when a worker discovered a large skull fragment in a shallow gravel pit along a drive to Barkham Manor near the town of Piltdown. He gave the fragment to Charles Dawson, a lawyer and amateur paleontologist who was managing the property. [see 1912]
(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.30)(PacDisc, Spring '96, p.15)
1908 Edward H. Thompson explored the sacred well at Chichen Itza in the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula using deep-sea diving equipment.
(NH, 11/96, p.47)
1908 John T. Wilson, the founder of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Ways Employees, was shot and killed in a family dispute. The union workers maintained railroad tracks.
(WSJ, 10/27/97, p.B1)
1908 Helena Rubinstein, following her success in Australia, moved to London and opened a beauty salon.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.29)
1908 Assiniboine Park was built in Winnipeg, Canada.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C6)
1908 King Leopold II (d.1909) turned the Congo over to Belgium for a large sum of money. It was later estimated that the population of Congo dropped by 10 million people during the period of Leopold's rule and its immediate aftermath. In 1998 Adam Hochschild published "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1908 Japanese immigration to Brazil began when 781 Japanese arrived on the ship Kasato Maru.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A8)
1908 Oil was discovered in Persia.
(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.R4)
1908 In Turkey The Committee of Union and Progress led a rebellion against the authoritarian regime of the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II. The revolutionary organization was popularly known as the Young Turks. Since then, the term has been applied to other insurgent groups within organizations or political parties.
(HNQ, 11/4/98)
1908 Jan 1, The 1st time-ball signifying new year was dropped at Times Square, NYC.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1908 Jan 4, Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal, Austrian nude model, Hitler's cousin and lover, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 4, Antony Winkler Prins (70), writer (Grolier Encyclopedia), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 8, A subway linking New York's Brooklyn and Manhattan opened.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1908 Jan 9, Simone de Beauvoir, author (Mandarins, 2nd Sex), was born in France.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1908 Jan 9, Count Zeppelin announced plans for his airship to carry 100 passengers.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1908 Jan 9, Italians reported that Somaliland was under siege by the Abyssinians.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1908 Jan 12, A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1908 Jan 15, Edward Teller (d.2003), US physicist known as the "Father of the H-bomb," was born in Budapest. In 2001 he authored his "Memoirs."
(HN, 1/15/99)(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A21)(SFC, 9/10/03, p.A1)
1908 Jan 18, Jacob Bronowsky, British mathematician, cultural historian, was born.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1908 Jan 20, The Sullivan Ordinance barred women from smoking in public facilities in the United States.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1908 Jan 21, New York City's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance that effectively prohibited women from smoking in public. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1908 Jan 23, Edward Alexander MacDowell (47), US composer (Indian Suite), died.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1908 Jan 24, The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell. Lieutenant General Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, had achieved fame as a hero in the Boer War and applied his methods of training British soldiers in South Africa in woodcraft and survival methods to young English boys in the early 1900s. The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in 1910 and united with two previously existing organizations, the Sons of Daniel Boone, founded by Daniel Beard in 1905 and Ideals of the Woodcraft Indians, founded by Ernest Seton in 1902.
(AP, 1/24/98)(HNQ, 11/12/01)
1908 Jan, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt created Pinnacles National Monument in California. The area was expanded in 2000 for the 7th time and covered 24,000 acres in San Benito and Monterey counties.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.C1)
1908 Feb 1, Carlos I (44), King of Portugal (1889-1908), assassinated by mob.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1908 Feb 3, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that union-sponsored boycotts were illegal, and applied the Sherman Antitrust Act to labor as well as capital.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1908 Feb 11, Phillipe Dunne, screenwriter and director, was born. His films included "How Green Was My Valley."
(HN, 2/11/01)
1908 Feb 14, Russia and Britain threatened action in Macedonia if peace was not reached soon.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1908 Feb 17, Walter Lanier "Red" Barber, baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees, was born.
(HN, 2/17/01)
1908 Feb 18, The 1st US postage stamps in rolls were issued.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1908 Feb 24, Japan officially agreed to restrict immigration to the U.S.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1908 Feb 25, The 1st tunnel under Hudson River (railway tunnel) opened. The McAdoo Tunnel was completed March 8, 1904, but only officially opened on this date.
(PCh, 1992, p.655)(MC, 2/25/02)
1908 Feb 27, Baseball's sacrifice fly was adopted. It was repealed in 1931 and reinstated in 1954.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1908 Feb 27, The forty-sixth star was added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma's admission to statehood.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1908 Mar 2, An international conference on arms reduction opened in London.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1908 Mar 2, Gabriel Lippman introduced the new three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1908 Mar 4, The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1908 Mar 4, A Collingwood, OH, primary school caught fire and 180 died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1908 Mar 5, Rex Harrison, actor (My Fair Lady, Dr Doolittle), was born in England.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1908 Mar 7, Anna Magnani, Italian actress, was born.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1908 Mar 7, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before city council and announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."
(MC, 3/7/02)
1908 Mar 8, The House of Commons, London, turned down the women's suffrage bill.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1908 Mar 8, Collingwood Elementary in Cleveland burned. 173 kids and 2 teachers were killed.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1908 Mar 11, Lawrence Welk, orchestra leader, was born in Strasburg, ND.
(HN, 3/11/98)(MC, 3/12/02)
1908 Mar 13, Walter Annenberg (d.2002), publisher (Triangle-TV Guide), Ambassador to GB, was born in Milwaukee, the 6th of 9 children.
(MC, 3/13/02)(SFC, 10/2/02, p.A2)
1908 Mar 13, Jerusalem's inhabitants saw their first automobile owned by Charles Glidden of Boston.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1908 Mar 15, 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's "Rhapsodie Espagnole."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1908 Mar 16 The Chinese released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1908 Mar 19, Maryland banned Christian Scientists from practicing medicine unless they had a medical diploma.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1908 Mar 20, Frank Stanton, broadcasting executive (CBS), was born in Muskegon, Mich.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1908 Mar 20, Michael Redgrave, actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes), was born in Bristol, England.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1908 Mar 21, Frenchman Henri Farman carried a passenger in a bi-plane for the first time.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1908 Mar 22, Louis L'Amour (d.1998), American author, was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. He wrote 116 western novels.
(HN, 3/22/97)(USAT, 6/10/98, p.1D)(MC, 3/22/02)
1908 Mar 23, Joan Crawford, American actress, was born. She is best known for her role in Mildred Pierce.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1908 Mar 25, Bridget D'Oyly Carte, British theater and hotel director, was born.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1908 Mar 25, David Lean (d.1991), British film director (Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia), was born.
(HN, 3/25/01)
1908 Mar 28, Automobile owners lobbied Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing and federal registration.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1908 Apr 5, Bette Davis (d.1989), film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve), was born. "Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone -- but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding."
(AP, 7/15/99)(HN, 4/5/01)
1908 Apr 5, Herbert von Karajan, Nazi, conductor (Berlin Philharmonic), was born in Austria.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1908 Apr 5, George Schick, conductor (Chicago Symphony), was born in Prague, Czech.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1908 Apr 5, Japanese Army reached the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1908 Apr 7, Percy Faith, conductor (Summer Place), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1908 Apr 11, Karel Ancerl, Czech conductor (Prague, Toronto), was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1908 Apr 11, Leo Rosten, writer, humorist, was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1908 Apr 12, Fire left 17,000 homeless in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1908 Apr 18, Joseph Keilberth, German conductor (Bayreuther Festspiele), was born.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1908 Apr 21, Arctic explorer Frederick A. Cook claimed to have discovered the North Pole a year ahead of Peary. Many historians suspect that neither explorer succeeded. The term "Dr. Cook weather" refers to an incident where Dr. Cook once left a chilly New York baseball game after which the city papers trumpeted; "Game called, even too cold for Dr. Cook." Cook's assertion was later proved false. [see Apr 6, 1909]
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B8)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)(MC, 4/21/02)
1908 Apr 25, Edward R. Murrow, war correspondent and newscaster, was born. He hosted See It Now and Person to Person. During World War II broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow became known for opening his radio reports from London with the ominous-sounding "This is London." He later turned to television, becoming the host of a celebrity interview show called Person to Person, and was named head of the U.S. Information Agency in 1961.
(HNQ, 3/29/99)(HN, 4/25/99)
1908 Apr, Hootch Simpson, a saloon keeper in Skidoo, Ca. (Death Valley), shot and killed Joe Arnold, the town banker. Simpson was hung and buried the next morning, but was dug up and re-hung for a newspaper reporter.
(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.C5)
1908 May 5, Rex Harrison, actor, was born. He starred in My Fair Lady.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1908 May 5, Jacques Massu, French general (Algeria), was born.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1908 May 5, Great White Fleet arrived in SF.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1908 May 9, Dirk Fock became governor of Suriname.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1908 May 10, Carl Albert, speaker of the House of Representatives, was born.
(HN, 5/10/98)
1908 May 10, The first Mother's Day observance took place during church services in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia. In 1997 Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia first proposed the idea that all mothers wear a carnation on the 2nd Sunday of May.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1908 May 12, George Bernard Shaw's "Getting Married," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1908 May 12, Wireless Radio Broadcasting was patented by Nathan B. Stubblefield.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1908 May 14, 1st passenger flight in an airplane.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1908 May 20, Jimmy Stewart, actor, was born in Pennsylvania. He is best remembered for his roles in "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
(WSJ, 5/20/97, p.A18)(HN, 5/20/99)(MC, 5/20/02)
1908 May 22, The Wright brothers registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1908 May 23, John Bardeen, physicist, co-inventor of the transistor, was born.
(HN, 5/23/01)
1908 May 23, Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, Washington.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1908 May 23, A dirigible exploded over the SF Bay. 16 passengers fell but none died.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1908 May 25, Theodore Rothke, poet, was born.
(HN, 5/25/01)
1908 May 26, Robert Morley, actor (High Road to China, African Queen), was born in England.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1908 May 28, Ian Fleming, author, was born in London, England. He wrote the James Bond novels, about a British spy during the Cold War.
(HN, 5/28/99)(MC, 5/28/02)
1908 May 30, Hannes Alfven, Swedish, Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist, was born.
(HN, 5/30/01)
1908 May 30, Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig in Warner Brothers cartoons, was born. When he died he had "That's All Folks" inscribed on his tombstone.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, Z1 p.8)(HN, 5/30/99)
1908 May 30, 1st federal workmen's compensation law was approved.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1908 May, Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for president in the US, began his national campaign in the courthouse square of Girard, Kansas. The town was the home of the national socialist newspaper "Appeal to Reason" edited by J.A. Wayland.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-16)
1908 Jun 4, Rosalind Russell, actress (Mame, Take a Letter Darling), was born in Waterbury, CT.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1908 Jun 8, King Edward VII of England visited Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve relations between the two countries.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1908 Jun 10, Ernst B. Chain, German chemist, bacteriologist (penicillin, Nobel 1945), was born.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1908 Jun 12, Otto Skorzeny, German-Austrian SS colonel who led glider rescue of Mussolini, was born.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1908 Jun 12, Lusitania crossed the Atlantic in record 4 days 15 hours (NYC).
(MC, 6/12/02)
1908 Jun 21, Nikolai A. Rimsky-Korsakov (64), prolific Russian composer, orchestrator (Scheherazade, The Tsar's Bride, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh), died.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1908 Jun 21, Mulai Hafid again proclaimed himself the true sultan of Morocco.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1908 Jun 24, The 22nd and 24th president (1893-1897) of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died in Princeton, N.J., at age 71. In 1988 Richard E. Welch authored "The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland."
(SFEC, 1/12/97, Z 3 p.4)(AP, 6/24/97)(ON, 10/99, p.12)
1908 Jun 26, Shah Muhammad Ali's forces squelched the reform elements of Parliament in Persia.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1908 Jun 30, An explosion near the Tunguska River in Siberia incinerated some 300 sq. km. that encircled the impact of an estimated 60 meter diameter stony meteorite. It flattened some 40,000 trees over 900 sq. miles and caused damage equivalent to a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb. An explosion in Siberia, which knocked down trees in a 30-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away, is believed by some scientists to be caused by a falling fragment from a meteorite.
(NH, 9/97, p.85)(SFC, 3/12/98, p.A15)(HN, 6/30/98)(MC, 6/30/02)
1908 Jul 1, Estee Lauder, CEO of Estee Lauder's cosmetics, was born.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1908 Jul 2, Thurgood Marshall (d.1993), first African-American US Supreme Court Justice, was born. He served on the US Supreme Court from 1967-1991. As a civil rights lawyer in the 1950s he maintained a confidential relationship with the FBI.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A3)(HN, 7/2/98)
1908 Jul 3, M.F.K. Fisher, food writer, was born.
(HN, 7/3/01)
1908 Jul 3, Joel Chandler Harris (59), creator of Uncle Remus, died.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1908 Jul 6, Robert Peary's expedition sailed from NYC for north pole.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1908 Jul 7, Great White Fleet left SF Bay.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1908 Jul 8, Nelson Rockefeller, 41st U.S. vice president, was born. He served under Pres. Gerald Ford from 1974-77.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1908 Jul 9, Minor White, abstract photographer, was born.
(HN, 7/9/01)
1908 Jul 12, Milton Berle (d.2002), comedian, movies and on television star, was born.
(HN, 7/12/98)(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A15)
1908 Jul 12, The Missouri Gazette began publishing under Joseph Charless.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M5)
1908 Jul 22, Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997), sculptor and painter, was born to a pioneer family in Coos Bay, Or. Her father, Louis Frederick Falkenstein, was a timber executive.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A22)
1908 Jul 22, Amy Vanderbilt (d.1974), American journalist, etiquette expert: "One face to the world, another at home makes for misery."
(AP, 5/12/97)(HN, 7/22/02)
1908 Jul 26, U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order creating an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1908 Jul 26, Salvador Allende Gossens, Chile's last elected president (1970-73), was born.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1908 Jul 27, Joseph Mitchell (d.1996), writer for The New Yorker, was born. He pursued the "general of nuisance: flops, drunks, con-artists, panhandlers, gin-mill owners and their bellicose bartenders..."
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A19)(HN, 7/27/01)
1908 Jul 30, An around the world automobile race ended in Paris.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1908 Jul, African-American Matthew Alexander Henson, born on August 8, 1866, and four Inuits accompanied U.S. Naval Commander Robert E. Peary on the third attempt to reach the North Pole. Henson became an Arctic expert during Peary's first two failed expeditions. Henson's strength, knowledge of the Eskimo language and dog driving skills made him an essential member of the team. Whether Peary's party actually reached the North Pole or missed it by as much as 60 miles due to a navigational miscalculation remains controversial to this day.
(HNPD, 8/8/98)
1908 Aug 3, Allan Allensworth filed the site plan for the first African-American town, Allensworth, California.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1908 Aug 5, Miriam Rothschild, English scientist and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/5/00)
1908 Aug 8, Arthur J. Goldburg, labor lawyer, UN ambassador, Supreme Court justice (1962-65), was born in Illinois. He was instrumental in the merger of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
(HN, 8/8/98)(MC, 8/8/02)
1908 Aug 11, Britain's King Edward VII met with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1908 Aug 12, Henry Ford's first Model T rolled off the assembly line. It's later advertising slogan was "Gets Ya There, and Gets Ya Back." From when it was first put on the market in 1908 to when it was discontinued in 1927, some 15 million of the Ford Model T were built. The model T featured steering on the left side of the car for a better line of sight when passing other cars.
(HN, 8/12/98)(SFEC, 11/8/98, Z1 p.8)(HNQ, 4/5/99)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)
1908 Aug 14, There was a race riot in Springfield, Illinois.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1908 Aug 17, The San Francisco Bank of Italy opened new HQ at Clay and Montgomery.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1908 Aug 18, Edgar Faure (d.1988), thriller writer, PM of France (1952, 52-56), was born.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1908 Aug 20, The American Great White Fleet arrived in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1908 Aug 22, Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer, was born in Chanteloup, France.
(HN, 8/22/00)(MC, 8/22/02)
1909 Aug 24, Workers started pouring concrete for Panama Canal.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1908 Aug 25, The National Association of Colored Nurses was formed.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1908 Aug 27, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States (1963-1969), was born near Stonewall, Texas.
(AP, 8/27/97)(HN, 8/27/98)
1908 Aug 28, Roger Tory Peterson, author, was born. His work included the innovative bird book "A Field Guide to Birds."
(HN, 8/28/00)
1908 Aug 31, William Saroyan (d.1981), American writer, was born outside Fresno, Ca., to Armenian parents. "He was a prolific and bombastic writer who never threw anything away." He was a native of Fresno, Ca. and his unpublished materials, held by the Saroyan Foundation, were turned over to Stanford Univ. in 1996. His work included "The Human Comedy."
(HFA, '96, p.36)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A1)(WUD, 1994, p.1269)(HN, 8/31/00)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M1)
1908 Sep 3, James Barries "What Every Woman Knows," premiered in London.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1908 Sep 3, Orville Wright began two weeks of flight trials that impressed onlookers with his complete control of his new Type A Military Flyer. In addition to setting an altitude record of 310 feet and an endurance record of more than one hour, he had carried aloft the first military observer, Lieutenant Frank Lahm.
(HNPD, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 4, Richard Wright (d.1960), novelist who wrote about the abuses of blacks in white society, best known for "Native Son" (1940), was born.
(HN, 9/4/98)(SSFC, 8/12/01, DB p.61)
1908 Sep 6, Paul Lavalle, bandleader, was born in Beacon, NY.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1908 Sep 7, Michael E. DeBakey, heart surgery pioneer, was born in Lake Charles, La.
(www.fact-index.com)
1908 Sep 9, Orville Wright made the 1st 1-hr airplane flight at Fort Myer, Va.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1908 Sep 9, Russia grabbed part of Poland.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1908 Sep 12, Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1908 Sep 16, General Motors filed papers of incorporation.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 17, Orville Wright's passenger on a test flight was Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. They were circling the landing field at Fort Myer, Va., when a crack developed in the blade of the aircraft's propeller. Wright lost control of the Flyer and the biplane plunged to the ground. Selfridge became powered flight's first fatality, and Wright was seriously injured in the crash. But despite the tragic mishap, the War Department awarded the contract for the first military aircraft to Wright.
(HNPD, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 19, Gustav Mahler's 7th Symphony, premiered in Prague.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1908 Sep 20, Alexander Mitscherlich, German psychotherapist, was born.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1908 Sep 20, Pablo Martin Melitou de Sarasate y Navascuez, composer, died at 64.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1908 Sep 22, Bulgaria declared independence from Ottoman Empire (Turkey).
(MC, 9/22/01)
1908 Sep 26, An ad for the Edison Phonograph appeared in "The Saturday Evening Post". The phonograph offered buyers free records by both the Democratic and Republican US presidential candidates.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1908 Sep 30, David Oistrakh, violinist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, was born in Odessa, Russia (Ukraine).
(HN, 9/30/00)(MC, 9/30/01)
1908 Sep, Bones of the 10,000 year-old Bison bison antiquus were initially discovered by cowboy George McJunkin (1851-1922) in eastern New Mexico.
(NH, 2/97, p.17)
1908 Oct 1, The Ford Model T, the first car for millions of Americans, hit the market. Each car cost $825. Over 15 million Model Ts were eventually sold, all of them black. The Model T automobile cost $850 when it was first introduced to the public. Ford lowered the price of automobiles—previously regarded as a toy of the rich—by maintaining control of raw materials and using new mass production techniques. The price of this two-seater, affectionately known as the "tin Lizzy," fluctuated over the years, dipping below $300 in 1924. Electric lights and an optional electric starter were among the few improvements over the years. The model was discontinued in 1927 after more 15,000,000 had been produced.
(CFA, '96, p.56)(AP, 10/1/97)(HN, 10/1/98)(HNQ, 7/11/00)
1908 Oct 6, Carol Lombard, American comedienne and actress who was nominated for an Oscar for My Man Godfrey, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Lombard started during the silent movie era revealed herself to be a wonderful amusing and witty actress after the advent of the talkies and quickly became one of the top box office draws of the 1930's in such films as 'My Man Godfrey'. Clark Gable was married to Lombard. (My Man Godfrey, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Made for Each Other).
(HN, 10/6/98)(MC, 10/5/01)
1908 Oct 6, Sammy Price, jazz pianist, was born.
(HN, 10/6/00)
1908 Oct 6, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1908 Oct 15, John Kenneth Galbraith, economist, writer and diplomat, was born. His work included "A History of Economics" and "Affluent Society." He won the Hillman Award in 1958.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)(HN, 10/15/00)(MC, 10/15/01)
1908 Oct 16, The first airplane flight in England was made at Farnsborough, by Samuel Cody, a U.S. citizen.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1908 Nov 3, Republican William Howard Taft was elected the 27th president, outpolling William Jennings Bryan. James Sherman was the VP.
(AP, 11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)
1908 Nov 4, The Brooklyn Academy of Music opened in NYC.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1908 Nov 6, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed. [see 1907 Bolivia]
(MesWP)
1908 Nov 8, Victorien Sardou (77), French opera author (Madame Sans-Gene), died.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1908 Nov 12, Harry Blackmun (d.1999), later Supreme Court Justice, was born in Nashville, Ill., and grew up in St. Paul, Minn.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A15)
1908 Nov 14, Joseph McCarthy was born. He became an anti-Communist Senator from Wisconsin who gave the name "McCarthyism" to his communist witch-hunts. In 1999 William F. Buckley Jr. published "The Redhunter," a historical novel about Joe McCarthy.
(HN, 11/14/98)(WSJ, 7/22/99, p.A24)
1908 Nov 14, Harrison Sallisbury, journalist for The New York Times, was born.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1908 Nov 14, Oscar Strauss' musical "The Chocolate Soldier," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1908 Nov 14, Albert Einstein presented his quantum theory of light.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1908 Nov 16, Arturo Toscanini debuted conducting NY's Metropolitan Opera.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1908 Nov 18, Imogene Coca d.2001), later co-star with Sid Caesar of the 1950s "Your Show of Shows" TV program, was born in Philadelphia.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A29)
1908 Nov 20, Alistair Cooke (d.2004), English journalist, who hosted "Masterpiece Theater," was born in Salford, England.
(HN, 11/20/98)(SFC, 3/31/04, p.A2)
1908 Nov 21, Elizabeth G. Speare, writer of historical novels for children, was born.
(HN, 11/21/00)
1908 Nov 22, Michael Balfour, historian, was born.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1908 Nov 24, Harry Kemelman, US detective author (rabbi omnibus), was born.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1908 Nov 28, Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist, was born.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1908 Nov 28, 154 men died in a coal mine explosion at Marianna, Pa.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1908 Nov 29, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and Civil Rights leader, was born.
(HN, 11/29/98)
1908 Dec 1, The Italian Parliament debated the future of the Triple Alliance and asked for compensation for Austria's action in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1908 Dec 2, Emp. Zxuan Tong (Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, 2 1/2 years old) ascended the dragon throne and became China's Last Emperor.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.A24)(MC, 12/2/01)
1908 Dec 3, Edward Elgar's 1st Symphony in A premiered.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1908 Dec 6, First flight of the Silverdart with Canadian JAD McCurdy at the controls.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1908 Dec 9, A child labor bill passed German Reichstag forbidding work for children under age 13.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1908 Dec 10, Oliver Messian, French composer, was born. His work included "Quartet for the End of Time."
(HN, 12/10/00)
1908 Dec 13, The Dutch took two Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1908 Dec 14, The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opened.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1908 Dec 17, Willard Frank Libby, American chemist who won a Nobel Prize (1960) for his part in creating the carbon-14 method in dating ancient findings, was born.
(HN, 12/17/98)(MC, 12/17/01)
1908 Dec 23, Yousuf Karsh, portrait photographer (Life Magazine), was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1908 Dec 25, Jack Johnson (1878-1946) of Texas knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become the 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion. He was not officially given the title until 1910 when he beat Jim Jeffries in Las Vegas. In 1913 Johnson fled the US because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution. Johnson held the title until 1915. In 1920 he returned to the US, was arrested and sentenced to Leavenworth in Kansas, where he was appointed athletic director of the prison.
(SSFC, 9/11/04, Par p.2)(www.famoustexans.com/jackjohnson.htm)
1908 Dec 28, Some 70,000-100,000 people died in the Messina earthquake in Sicily. The government hired a number of steamships, including the Florida, to ship survivors to America.
(WUD, 1994, p.899)(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A21)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1908 Dec 29, A patent was granted for a 4-wheel automobile brake in Clintonville, Wisc.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1908 Dec 31, Simon Wiesenthal, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust who dedicated his life to tracking down former Nazis, was born.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1908 Balthazar Klossowski was born in Paris. He later became known as the artist Balthus. In 1919 his mother, Baladine, moved with her 2 sons to Switzerland and became the lover of the German poet Rainier Maria Rilke, who became a mentor to the boy. In 1999 Nicholas Fox Weber published: "Balthus: A Biography."
(WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A24)
1908 James Stewart, actor, was born.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)
1908 Victor Vasarely, the father of op art, was born in Pecs, Hungary.
(Hem., 6/98, p.128)
1908 Braque and Picasso began vying with one another in their artwork and ended up by teaching everyone to see the world in an entirely new way. Picasso created his oil painting "Three Women" this year.
(V.D.-H.K.p.361)(SFC, 10/30/01, p.B1)
1908 Kees Van Dongen painted his seated nude "The Maid's Bed."
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)
1908 Natalia Goncharova, Russian artist, painted "Bleaching Linen."
(WSJ, 5/2/03, p.W6)
1908 Claude Monet made his last trip abroad to Venice with his wife Alice and made a number of paintings.
(WSJ, 8/26/97, p.A14)
1908 Rene Lalique was making glass perfume bottles for Francois Coty.
(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)
1908 Elsa Bernstein (d.1949), Austrian-Jewish playwright (Ernst Rosmer), authored "Maria Arndt." The 1st English production was made in 2002.
(WSJ, 3/11/02, p.A16)
1908 Kenneth Grahame wrote the classic British children's book "Wind in the Willows." It was made into a movie in 1997.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.D3)
1908 Walter H. Gaskell (1847-1914), English physiologist, published "The Origin of Vertebrates."
(NH, 2/97, p.24)
1908 Percival Lowell published the results of his observations of Mars titled: "Mars as the Abode of Life." He recorded no fewer than 180 canals.
(Smith., 8/95, p.72)(NH, 10/96, p.74)
1908 The novel "Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1908 Free atonality commenced with the finale of the Second Quartet by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951).
(WSJ, 1/31/02, p.A16)
1908 The song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" sealed the popularity of Cracker Jacks, a popcorn candy.
(AH, 10/01, p.34)
1908 The Goldfield Hotel was completed in Goldfield, Nevada, to accommodate a gold-mining frenzy. In 2004 the hamlet had shrunk to 356 people from 25,000 at its peak.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)
1908 In Fort Worth, Texas, the Cowtown Coliseum was built.
(HT, 4/97, p.49)
1908 Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science Monitor in Boston.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.A17)
1908 Olive Dame Campbell came to the Appalachian Mountains with her minister husband and began researching the local music. Her music collection was published in 1915 by English musicologist Cecil Sharp. Their work laid the basis for the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown N.C.
(WSJ, 6/7/01, p.A20)
1908 Pierre Cartier, a French jeweler, acquired the blue Hope Diamond.
(THC, 12/3/97)
1908 The French dip sandwich got its start at Phillipe's Original Sandwich Shop in Los Angeles.
(SFEC,12/797, p.T3)
1908 Willis & Geiger outfitted Teddy Roosevelt for journeys to Alaska and Africa.
(NH, 9/96, p.17)
1908 The first organized dog-sled race in Alaska was a 408 mile roundtrip from Nome to Candle
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.37)
1908 The Chicago Cubs won the Baseball World Series.
(Hem., 4/97, p.103)
1908 The Univ. of Pittsburgh introduced the 1st football jerseys with numbers on the back. Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg of the Univ. of Chicago instituted numbered jerseys for football players in 1913.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)
1908 The Vanderbilt Cup was won by the Old 16, the first American car to win an int'l. racing competition.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A8)
1908 The marathon of the Olympic Games was changed from 24 to 26 miles so that the finish line would fall in front of the Royal Box in England. The length was set at 26 miles 385 yards.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, Z1 p.2)(Econ, 5/29/04, p.81)
1908 The US won a gold medal in the men's metric mile.
(WSJ, 9/12/00, p.A24)
1908 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt declared parts of the Klamath Basin the first federal wildlife refuge.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.B4)
1908 American battleships of the Great White Fleet visited San Francisco on their "round-the-world cruise to show Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick." Fort Baker under Gen. Frederick Funston was opened to the public to view the fleet's entry.
(The Park, Summer "95)
1908 The National Child Labor Committee estimated that one of every four miners was a child between the ages of 7 and 16. Lewis W. Hine photographed young Pennsylvania coal miners, who worked from dawn to dusk. Early-20th-century reformers crusaded against many social problems caused by America's rapid industrialization and urbanization, including child labor. Teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine documented industrial child labor for the National Child Labor Committee. Disguised to evade suspicious employers, Hine captured some of the most powerful images in the history of documentary photography.
(HNPD, 2/19/99)
1908 The US Supreme Court ruled that player-piano rolls based on copyrighted music are not a copyright violation but a piece of machinery. [see 1909]
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.E1)
1908 A Chicago Auto Show was held. Walter P. Chrysler saw his first "Locomobile" at the show.
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)
1908 Marquis Mills Converse founded the Converse shoe company. In 1917 the All-Stars basketball shoe was introduced. In 1923 it was renamed the Chuck Taylor All-Star. In 2003 the company was sold to Nike.
(WSJ, 7/10/03, p.A6)
1908 William Crapo Durant (1861-1947) a salesman who founded GM with 25 companies incorporated General Motors and acquired Buick, Oldsmobile and Oakland, which would later be renamed Pontiac. He was not a good manager and was kicked out from GM in 1920. He then started Durant Motors, but with no success.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1908 Frederic J. Fisher (1878-1941) and his brother Charles (1880-1963) established the Fisher Body Co. They sold their operations to GM in 1926.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1908 Industry experts in 1996 picked the 1908 Ford Model T as the number 8 favorite car. The Model T was the first car to feature interchangeable parts.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 3/15/97, p.E3)
1908 Gideon Sundback, Swedish-born engineer working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey, designed a new fastener, the "Plako," for use in the placket of a woman's skirt.
(ON, 7/04, p.5)
1908 William Henry Hoover, an inventive janitor and founder of the Hoover Vacuum Co., produced the Model O, the first commercially successful portable electric vacuum cleaner. The Hoover Historical Center in North Canton, Ohio, was devoted to carpet-cleaning history.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T3)
1908 Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, proposed the idea of "panspermia," the idea that our solar system was inoculated with living organisms from outside the galaxy.
(PacDis, Winter '97, p.34)
1908 George Ellery Hale, American astronomer, studied the Zeeman effect from sunspots, which were splits in the Fraunhofer lines, and always observed when a line spectrum was placed between the poles of a strong electromagnet.
(SCTS, p.92)
1908 F.B. Taylor, American geologist, proposed that the rifting and displacement of the continents had caused the circum-Pacific ring to form and the Tethyan ranges to be pushed up. He attributed the action to the supposed capture of the moon from outer space in the Cretaceous period.
(DD-EVTT, p.188)
1908 Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes, Dutch physicist, was the first to liquefy helium.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A15)
1908 Jacques Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist, came up with cellophane when he tried to invent a stain-proof tablecloth. [2nd source says 1912]
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)
1908 Monosodium glutamate (MSG) was isolated from seaweed.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.E3)
1908 Argentine ants were 1st noticed in California. They had reached New Orleans by 1891 and became successful because their colonies did not fight each other and their nests contained multiple queens and males.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A1)
1908 The Dry Tortugas, west of Key West, was declared protected bird preserve and feeding ground.
(NH, 4/97, p.37)
1908 The Wichita National Bison Range opened in Oklahoma and received 15 bison from New York.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1908 Pres. Roosevelt formally established the National Bison Range in Montana.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1908 An Italian expedition on Crete discovered a terra cotta artifact with an unknown script. It was dated to about 1700 BC and became known as the Phaistos Disc (Phaestos Disc). [see 1600 BCE]
(SSFC, 2/22/04, p.M6)
1908 The great Piltdown skull and mandible hoax began in England when a worker discovered a large skull fragment in a shallow gravel pit along a drive to Barkham Manor near the town of Piltdown. He gave the fragment to Charles Dawson, a lawyer and amateur paleontologist who was managing the property. [see 1912]
(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.30)(PacDisc, Spring '96, p.15)
1908 Edward H. Thompson explored the sacred well at Chichen Itza in the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula using deep-sea diving equipment.
(NH, 11/96, p.47)
1908 John T. Wilson, the founder of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Ways Employees, was shot and killed in a family dispute. The union workers maintained railroad tracks.
(WSJ, 10/27/97, p.B1)
1908 Helena Rubinstein, following her success in Australia, moved to London and opened a beauty salon.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.29)
1908 Assiniboine Park was built in Winnipeg, Canada.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C6)
1908 King Leopold II (d.1909) turned the Congo over to Belgium for a large sum of money. It was later estimated that the population of Congo dropped by 10 million people during the period of Leopold's rule and its immediate aftermath. In 1998 Adam Hochschild published "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1908 Japanese immigration to Brazil began when 781 Japanese arrived on the ship Kasato Maru.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A8)
1908 Oil was discovered in Persia.
(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.R4)
1908 In Turkey The Committee of Union and Progress led a rebellion against the authoritarian regime of the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II. The revolutionary organization was popularly known as the Young Turks. Since then, the term has been applied to other insurgent groups within organizations or political parties.
(HNQ, 11/4/98)
