What Happened in 1908

Ford Model T is First Produced

The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and Flivver) is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from 1908... Read more

Wrights Sign Contract with a French Company and the U.S. Army

The Wright brothers made no flights at all in 1906 and 1907 while they pursued fitful negotiations with the U.S. and European governments. While... Read more

Mondrian's Interest in Theosophy Begins

Mondrian's art was always intimately related to his spiritual and philosophical studies. In 1908 he became interested in the theosophical movement... Read more

Mark Twain Forms a Club of Young Girls Called the Angelfish Club

1908 Angelfish Club Twain moves into a house in Connecticut that he names Stormfield. Lonely and missing his wife and daughters, he forms a club... Read more

Klas Pontus Arnoldson and Fredrik Bajer Win the Nobel Peace Prize

Klas Pontus Arnoldson (27 October 1844 – 20 February 1916) was a Swedish author, journalist, politician, and committed pacifist who received the... Read more

Houdini Publishes 'The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin'

"Memory," wrote Dr. Morris N. Young in 1961, "is the sum of what one can remember; the diary of the mind." In the great collections that they built... Read more

Gandhi is Arrested for the First Time, for Refusing to Carry an Obligatory ID Card in South Africa

In January 1908, he was arrested for breach of the registration law and clapped into prison. The following month he was released after an... Read more

Rhoads Opera House Fire

On January 13, 1908 the Boyertown Opera House in the Rhoads Building on Philadelphia Ave. was the scene of a tragic fire. A kerosene lantern was... Read more

Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship is Published

The 1908 edition of Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell is an extraordinary book that kicked off a movement that has changed the... Read more

Harry Houdini Begins Performing His Milk Can Escape

In 1908, Houdini introduced his own original invention, the Milk Can escape. In this effect, Houdini would be handcuffed and sealed inside an... Read more

Julia Ward Howe Becomes The First Woman Elected To The American Academy Of Arts And Letters

On January 28, 1908, author and activist Julia Ward Howe, famous for her composition, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," became the first woman... Read more

Collinwood School Fire

The COLLINWOOD SCHOOL FIRE occurred on 4 Mar. 1908, killing 172 children and 2 teachers at Lakeview Elementary School in the village of COLLINWOOD.... Read more

Montreal Wanderers win Stanley Cup

The 1907–08 Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) season lasted from December 29, 1907 until March 7, 1908. Teams played a ten game... Read more

Louis Chauvin Dies

Louis Chauvin (March 13, 1881 — March 26, 1908, aged 27) was an African American ragtime musician. Born in St. Louis, Missouri of a Mexican... Read more

Winston Churchill Is Promoted To President Of The Board Of Trade

He [Churchill] was also, like Lloyd George before him, very willing to adopt a high profile in trying to resolve industrial disputes. Soon after... Read more

Sunshine Rail Disaster

The most terrible accident that the state has yet encountered occurred at Sunshine Station (formally known as Braybrook), on Monday night, when the... Read more

Edward R. Murrow Is Born

Murrow was born Egbert Roscoe Murrow near Greensboro, in Guilford County, North Carolina, the son of Roscoe C. Murrow and Ethel F. (née Lamb)... Read more

Games of the IV Olympiad held in London, England

The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London,... Read more

Theodore Roosevelt Delivers The Opening Speech At The Conference Of Governors

On May 13, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered the opening address, "Conservation as a National Duty," at the outset of a three-day... Read more

Blind Tom Wiggins dies

Tom died at age fifty-nine on June 13, 1908 at Eliza's home in Hoboken. A few days later The New York Times headline read "BLIND TOM, PIANIST, DIES... Read more

Tunguska Event

It is generally accepted that the Tunguska event resulted from the catastrophic disruption of a large meteor high above the ground. Previous... Read more

The Phaistos Disc is Discovered in Phaistos on the South Coast of Crete

The Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos, possibly dating to the... Read more

Milton Berle is Born

Milton Berle (July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an Emmy-winning American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater... Read more

Lyndon B Johnson is Born

Johnson was born near Stonewall, Texas, on August 27, 1908, in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. and... Read more

Winston Churchill Marries Clementine Hozier

Various contemporary memoirs contain references to Clementine's outstanding beauty, to which photographs (either then or later) rarely did justice.... Read more