Historical Events in 1908

Events 1 - 200 of 207

• Jan 2 Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa
• Jan 7 England beat Australia by one wicket at the MCG
• Jan 8 First subway tunnel connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn under the East River opens in New York City [1]
• Jan 9 Frans Schollaert succeeds Jules De Trooz as premier of Belgium
• Jan 9 Muir Woods National Monument, California, established
• Jan 12 A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

• Jan 13 Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, kills 171 people
• Jan 13 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers rout Ottawa Victorias, 13-1 for 2-0 sweep of challenge series
• Jan 14 Roger Hartigan scores century on Test debut v England in Adelaide (116)
• Jan 15 Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first for African-American women, established by Ethel Hedgeman and 15 other students at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
• Jan 15 C Hill & R J Hartigan make 8th wkt partnership 243 for Australia
• Jan 16 Pinnacles National Monument, California established
• Jan 18 Frederick Delius' "Brigg Fair" premieres in London
• Jan 21 "Sullivan Ordinance" is passed in NYC, making it illegal for a woman to smoke in public places. It was vetoed 2 weeks later by mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
• Jan 21 August Strindberg's "Spoksonaten" premieres in Stockholm
• Jan 22 Katie Mulcahey is arrested for lighting a cigarette, violating the 1-day old "Sullivan Ordinance" banning women from smoking in public, and is fined $5. Appearing before the judge she stated “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you have. I never heard of this new law, and I don’t want to hear about it. No man shall dictate to me.”
• Jan 23 US & Great Britain demand end of abuses in Congo

• Jan 25 John Blockx's opera "Baldie" premieres in Antwerp
• Jan 27 Pasiphaë, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Melotte
• Jan 29 Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, at Cornell University, incorporates

• Feb 3 Foundation of Panathinaikos in Athens, Greece.
• Feb 3 Supreme Court rules a union boycott violates Sherman Antitrust Act
• Feb 4 Star #46 was added to US flag for Oklahoma with the addition to the Union of Oklahoma on November 16, 1907

• Feb 8 Wilhelmina '08 soccer team forms in Weert, Netherlands

• Feb 11 Heemskerk's government begins in Holland
• Feb 12 Anna Jeanes bequeaths $1,000,000 to Swarthmore to become all female
• Feb 12 NY to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in NYC George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel
• Feb 18 1st US postage stamps in rolls issued
• Feb 18 The American ambassador to Japan is given a note by the Japanese in which they agree to restrict Japanese emigration to the US; this becomes known as the 'Gentlemen's Agreement'
• Feb 24 In 'Muller v Oregon', the US Supreme Court favors an Oregon law limiting maximum hours a woman may work and denies that it curtails 'liberty of contract'
• Feb 25 1st tunnel under Hudson River (railway tunnel) opens
• Feb 27 Sacrifice fly adopted (repealed in 1931, reinstated 1954)
• Feb 28 Failed assassination attempt on Shah Mohammed Ali in Tehran
• Feb 29 Dutch scientists produce solid helium
• Mar 4 Fire at Lakeview Elementary School in Collinwood, Ohio kills 172 students and 2 teachers: boiler room blaze trapped many victims in the building, prompting changes in school design and procedures nationwide [1]
• Mar 5 1st ascent of Mt Erebus, Antarctica
• Mar 7 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stands before city council and announces that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles"
• Mar 8 Dutch utopist Frederick of Eden speaks in Carnegie Hall, NY
• Mar 9 Italian football club Inter Milan founded as Foot-Ball Club Internazionale
• Mar 12 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers beat Winnipeg Maple Leafs, 9-3 for 2-0 sweep of challenge series
• Mar 12 The Pan-Macedonian group is formed in Athens to support the Greek Struggle for Macedonia
• Mar 14 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers beat Toronto Professionals, 6-4

• Mar 17 Canadian champion Tommy Burns KOs Irish challenger Jem Roche in 1:28s of the 1st round at the Theatre Royal, Dublin; then quickest world heavyweight boxing title fight
• Mar 23 American diplomat Durham Stevens is attacked by Korean assassins Jeon Myeong-un and Jang In-hwan, leading to his death in hospital two days later
• Mar 25 Clube Atletico Mineiro, Founded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
• Apr 3 Frank Gotch wins world heavyweight wrestling championship in 2 hrs

• Apr 12 Fire at the Boston Blacking Company (producer of leather dyes), spreads by high wind, kills 19 and makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea, Massachusetts
• Apr 13 Groundbreaking for Philadelphia's Shibe Park, home of MLB Athletics (AL), 1909-54, MLB Phillies (NL), 1938-70, and NFL Eagles, 1940-57
• Apr 16 Natural Bridges National Monument forms (Lake Powell, Utah)
• Apr 18 Canadian champion Tommy Burns KOs Jewey Smith of England in 5th round at Neuilly Bowling Palace, Paris to retain his world heavyweight boxing title
• Apr 20 Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.
• Apr 21 American polar explorer Frederick Cook claims to have been the 1st person reach North Pole on this date (disputed)
• Apr 22 Queensland beat NSW by 171 runs for their 1st cricket win at Gabba
• Apr 23 Denmark, Germany, Britain, France, Netherlands & Sweden sign North Sea accord
• Apr 24 Mr & Mrs Jacob Murdock and their children depart Los Angeles in a Packard Thirty, endeavoring to become 1st family to travel across United States by car; arrive in NYC 32 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes later
• Apr 27 IV Summer (Modern) Olympic Games open in London
• May 1 World's most intense shower (2.47" in 3 minutes) at Portobelo, Panama
• May 2 Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer register their popular song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for copyright

• May 7 Emperor Franz-Joseph celebrates his golden jubilee with festivities throughout the Austro-Hungarian empire
• May 9 Dirk Fock becomes governor of Suriname
• May 10 1st Mother's Day observed (Philadelphia)

• May 12 Wireless Radio Broadcasting is patented by Nathan B. Stubblefield
• May 14 1st passenger flight in an airplane
• May 15 Reich Association Law comes into force
• May 21 1st American horror movie silent film "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde" premieres in Chicago
• May 23 Dirigible explodes over San Francisco Bay, 16 passengers fall, none killed
• May 23 Part of Great White Fleet arrives in Puget Sound, Washington
• May 24 Belgium Catholic socialist/liberal parliamentary election
• May 24 John Masefields "Tragedy of Nan" premieres in London
• May 26 At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom
• May 26 Mr & Mrs Jacob Murdock and their children become 1st family to travel across United States by car: Los Angeles to NYC in a Packard Thirty (32 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes)
• May 27 Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Din iss elected the first Khalifa of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
• May 30 1st federal workmen's compensation law approved
• May 30 Aldrich Vineland Currency Act forerunner to Federal Reserve System
• May 30 Paris advocate E Archdeacon is 1st passenger in a airplane
• May 30 US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah authorized
• May 31 Miss Pottelsberghe de la Pottery is 1st airplane passenger (Belgium)
• Jun 1 John Krohn begins walk around perimeter of US, which took 357 days

• Jun 10 1st flying club, Aeronautical Society of NY, opens
• Jun 10 The Australian Parliament passes the Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act providing for pensions for British subjects (excluding aborigines) at age 65
• Jun 12 Lusitania crosses Atlantic in record 4 days 15 hours (NYC)
• Jun 13 Canadian champion Tommy Burns KOs Bill Squires of Australia in 8th round at Neuilly Bowling Palace, Paris to retain world heavyweight boxing title
• Jun 14 Fourth German Navy Bill is passed authorising the financing of the building of another four major warships
• Jun 15 World congress for Women's rights opens in Amsterdam

• Jun 18 Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the Kasato-Maru ship

• Jun 23 Shah Mohammed Ali leads a successful counter-revolution in Persia, aided by the Russian legation and a Cossack brigade
• Jun 23 The USA suspends diplomatic relationships with Venezuela after the refusal of Cipriano Castro's government to compensate Americans for injuries suffered in the uprising of 1899

• Jul 1 "SOS" (· · · – – – · · ·) distress signal becomes the worldwide standard for help
• Jul 3 Indian nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak arrested for sedition by the British in wake of Muzzafarpur bombing
• Jul 4 MLB New York Giants pitcher George "Hooks" Wiltse no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 in 10 inning; missed a perfect game by hitting one batter with a pitch (Polo Grounds, NYC)
• Jul 5 Niazi Bey, a chief organizer of the revolutionary movement in Turkey, raises the standard of revolt at Resna, Macedonia

• Jul 7 US Navy's Great White Fleet leaves San Francisco Bay
• Jul 8 Uprisings spread throughout Turkey
• Jul 9 CHU (Christian Historic Union) Dutch political party forms
• Jul 10 H Kamerlingh Onnes makes helium liquid (-269°C)
• Jul 19 Dutch football club Feyenoord is established in Rotterdam as Wilhelmina; reverts to SC Feijenoord 1912; updated to SC Feyenoord 1974 and to Feyenoord Rotterdam 1978
• Jul 24 After days of discussion with his ministers, Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey announces he is restoring the liberal constitution of 1876 and will become more responsive to demands of dissidents
• Jul 24 American Johnny Hayes wins London Olympic marathon in Games record 2:55:18.4 after Dorando Pietri of Italy disqualified for receiving assistance before the finish line
• Jul 25 Ajinomoto Co. is founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), patents a process for manufacturing it.
• Jul 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)
• Jul 29 St Louis Browns' future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell strikes out 16 Philadelphia A's in 5-4 win against his previous team at Sportsman's Park II, St. Louis
• Jul 30 Around the World Automobile Race ends in Paris
• Aug 3 French brothers Amadee and Jean Bouyssonie discover the fossil remains of a nearly complete 60,000 year-old Neanderthal man 'Old man of La Chappelle' at La Chappelle-aux-Saints, France
• Aug 6 St Louis Cardinals Johnny Lush pitches 2nd career no-hitter in 2-0 win over Brooklyn Superbas; change of MLB rules makes this unofficial, as game was shortened by rain
• Aug 7 1st train to travel the length of New Zealand's North Island 'main trunk line' - the ‘Parliament Special’ leaves Wellington for Auckland to greet US Navy's ‘Great White Fleet’; passengers include Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward and members of Parliament, trip takes 20.5 hours

• Aug 13 Future Baseball HOF pitcher Cy Young's career is celebrated with special day in his name in Boston; he pitches briefly for Red Sox against an All-Star team
• Aug 13 King Edward VII of Great Britain meets with Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria at Ischl; the King tries to persuade the Emperor to advise Germany against aggressive (anti-British) policies
• Aug 14 Race riot in Springfield Illinois
• Aug 14 The first beauty contest is held in Folkestone, England.

• Aug 17 Booth Tarkington & Harry Leon Wilson's play "Man from Home" premieres in New York
• Aug 17 Projection in Paris of the very first animated cartoon, "Fantasmagorie" realized by Émile Cohl
• Aug 20 America's Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to be greeted with a tremendous welcome; 221 American sailors desert to remain in Australia
• Aug 20 Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo
• Aug 24 Canadian champion Tommy Burns KOs Bill Squires in 13th round at the Sydney Stadium, Australia to retain world heavyweight boxing title; Burns' 3rd KO of Squires
• Aug 24 NY Giants scores shown on electric diamonds known as "Compton's Baseball Bulletin" at Madison Square Garden
• Aug 25 Allen Winter wins US 1st $50,000 trotting race
• Aug 25 National Association of Colored Nurses forms
• Aug 27 Calgary City Rugby Football Club re-organizes as the Tigers
• Aug 29 NY gives a ticker tape parade to returning US Olympians from London
• Sep 3 Canadian world heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Burns KOs Australian Bill Lang in 6 rounds in Melbourne in a warmup fight for his famous title bout with Jack Johnson
• Sep 3 James Barries "What Every Woman Knows" premieres in London
• Sep 5 Brooklyn Superbas pitcher Nap Rucker no-hits Boston Braves, 6-0 at Washington Park, Brooklyn

• Sep 9 Russia annexes part of Poland
• Sep 12 Canada appoints a Civil Service Commission, initiating a more equitable system for selecting civil servants
• Sep 16 Carriage-maker, William C. Durant, founds General Motors in Flint, Michigan
• Sep 17 Thomas Selfridge becomes first fatality of powered flight
• Sep 18 Cleveland Indian Bob "Dusty" Rhoades no-hits Boston, 2-1

• Sep 20 Chicago White Sox Frank Smith 2nd no-hitter, beats Philadelphia 1-0
• Sep 22 Bulgaria declares independence from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey)
• Sep 23 Giant Fred (Bonehead) Merkle fails to touch 2nd, causes 3rd out in 9th & disallows winning run (game ends tied, Cubs win replay & pennant)
• Sep 23 University of Alberta opens
• Sep 24 Robert B Rhoads becomes 1st Cleveland pitcher (Cleveland Naps) to toss a no-hit game, Cleveland 2, Boston 1
• Sep 26 MLB Chicago Cubs' Ed Reulbach becomes only pitcher to throw doubleheader shutout, winning 3-0 and 5-0 over the Superbas at Washington Park in Brooklyn, New York

• Sep 29 Calgary Rugby Football Union forms

• Oct 1 1st Dutch electric railway in use (Rotterdam-The Hague)

• Oct 5 Bulgaria declares independence from Turkey, Ferdinand I becomes Tsar
• Oct 5 Chicago White Sox pitcher Ed Walsh beats Detroit Tigers, 6-1, his 40th victory of the MLB season; forces AL pennant race to the final day
• Oct 6 Austria annexes Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Oct 6 Tigers beat White Sox, 7-0 to win AL pennant
• Oct 6 Yanks lose 100th game of year go 51-103 for season
• Oct 7 Crete revolts against Turkey & aligns with Greece
• Oct 7 Serbia & Montenegro sign anti-Austria-Hungarian pact
• Oct 8 Chicago Cubs beat NY Giants 4-2 in a playoff to win NL pennant
• Oct 8 NY Giants set season attendance record at 910,000 (broken in 1920)
• Oct 16 Edmonton Rugby Foot-ball Club re-organizes as Esquimoux
• Oct 18 Belgium annexes Congo Free State

• Oct 24 Billy Murray hits the charts with "Take Me Outto the Ball Game"

• Oct 31 IV Summer (Modern) Olympic Games close in London
• Nov 3 William Howard Taft (R) elected 27th U.S. President over William Jennings Bryan (D)
• Nov 4 Brooklyn Academy of Music opens in NYC
• Nov 6 Leonid Andreyev's "Dui Nashey Zhizni" premieres in St Petersburg
• Nov 7 Dutch capture Venezuelan navy
• Nov 10 1st Gideon Bible put in a hotel room

• Nov 14 Liberal candidate Jose Miguel Gomez wins national elections for president in Cuba
• Nov 14 Oscar Strauss' musical "Der tapfere Soldat" premieres in Vienna

• Nov 22 1st US-Japanese baseball game Reach All-Americans defeat Waseda U, 5-0
• Nov 25 Dorando Pietri (It) beats Johnny Hayes (US) in Madison Square Garden marathon by 60 yds
• Nov 28 154 men die in coal mine explosion at Marianna, Pennsylvania
• Nov 30 The US Secretary of State and Japan's ambassador to the US exchange notes in what becomes known as the Root-Takahira Agreement: they affirm support for an independent China with an 'open door' policy and for the status quo in the Pacific
• Dec 2 Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two

• Dec 4 Haiti's president General Alexis Nord flees from military coup
• Dec 4 The world's ten leading maritime nations attend a Naval Conference in London; they agree on rules for blockade, convoys, and seizure of contraband
• Dec 5 1st US football uniform numerals used (University of Pittsburgh)
• Dec 9 The German Reichstag adopts a progressive social law restricting hours of factory work by young people and women

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