• January 1 - A ball signifying New Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time
• January 8 - A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killing 17, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.
• January 11 - Grand Canyon National Monument is created
• January 12 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
• January 21 - New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
• January 24 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement
• February 11 - Australia regain the Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
• First Ideal Home Exhibition held.
• April 27 - The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.
• May 10 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virgina).
• May 26 - At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
• June 30 - The Tunguska impact event occurs in Siberia.
• July 6 - Robert Peary sets sail for the Arctic North Pole.
• July 22 - Albert Fisher establishes the Fisher Body Company to manufacture carriage and automobile bodies.
• July 26 - United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
• December 28 - An earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000.
• De Meester's Dutch government resigns.
• November - George Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
• Change of Emperor of Qing Dynasty from Emperor Guangshui (1875-1908) to Pu-yi (1909-1911)
• Henry Ford produces its first Model T automobile.
• A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France.
• It was an interesting year in every aspect. The Child Labour Act of Onario is also passed.

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1908 in film
• 1908 in literature
• 1908 in music
• 1908 in science
• 1908 in sports
  • The third Summer Olympic Games are held in London, England.
  • September 23 - Baseball/History: the "Merkle incident"
  • December 26 - Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia

Births

• January 9 - Simone de Beauvoir, feminist philosopher
• January 12 - Jean Delannoy, film director
• January 14 - Rus Columbo, singer, bandleader, composer
• January 15 - Edward Teller
• January 26 - Stéphane Grappelli, musician, composer (+ 1997)
• January 27 - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, jazz trumpet (+ 1954)
• February 1 - George Pal, director, producer (+ 1980)
• February 5 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses (+ 1969)
• February 7 - Buster Crabbe, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist, actor
• February 8 - Emil Staiger, scientist of literature (+ 1987)
• February 11 - Sutan Takdir Alishahbana, Indonesian linguistic/author/novelist.
• February 11 - Vivian Ernest Fuchs, geologist/explorer.
• February 11 - Josh White, musician
• February 15 - HAP Grieshaber, painter and graphic artist (+ 1981)
• February 17 - Red Barber, baseball announcer, sports journalist (+ 1992)
• February 22 - John Mills, actor
• February 26 - Tex Avery, cartoonist (+ 1980)
• February 26 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, race car driver (+ 1949)
• February 29 - Balthus, painter (+ 2001)
• February 29 - Dee Brown, writer, historian (+ 2002)
• March 2 - Walter Bruch, engineer (+ 1990)
• March 5 - Rex Harrison, actor (+ 1990)
• March 8 - Claire Trevor, actress
• March 7 - Anna Magnani, actress (+ 1973)
• March 13 - Walter Annenberg, publisher, philanthropist (+ 2002)
• March 17 - Brigitte Helm, actress (+ 1996)
• March 20 - Sir Michael Redgrave, actor (+ 1985)
• March 22 - Louis L'Amour, author (+ 1988)
• March 23 - Joan Crawford, actor (+ 1977)
• March 25 - Helmut Käutner, actor and film director (+ 1980)
• March 25 - David Lean, film director (+ 1991)
• March 29 - Arthur O'Connell, actor (+ 1981)
• April 1 - Abraham Maslow, psychologist
• April 2 - Buddy Ebsen, actor, dancer
• April 5 - Bette Davis, US-american actress (+ 1989)
• April 5 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (+ 1989)
• April 7 - Percy Faith, composer, musician (+ 1976)
• April 15 - Eden Ahbez, hermit, musician
• April 25 - Edward R. Murrow, journalist (+ 1965)
• May 7 - Max Grundig, industrialist (+ 1989)
• May 19 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (+ 1982)
• May 20 - Jimmy Stewart, American actor
• May 23 - John Bardeen, physicist (+ 1991)
• May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet
• May 28 - Ian Fleming, author of James Bond books (+ 1964)
• May 30 - Mel Blanc, voice actor
• May 31 - Don Ameche (actor)
• August 4 - Kurt Eichhorn, conductor
• August 27 - Don Bradman, cricket player
• August 27 - Lyndon Johnson, 36th president of the United States
• August 28 - Roger Tory Peterson, naturalist, artist, and educator
• November 28 - Claude Levi-Strauss
• October 16 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania
• December 6 - Pierre Graber, member of the Swiss Federal Council (+ 2003)
• December 10 - Olivier Messiaen, composer
• December 31 - Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi hunter

Deaths

• January 25 - Ouida, writer
• February 1 - King Charles of Portugal
• April 20 - Henry Chadwick, baseball writer and historian
• August 25 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist
• September 20 - Pablo de Sarasate, violinist
• November 15 1-3 pm - Empress Dowager Cixi
• November 14 5-7 pm - Emperor Guangshui

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Gabriel Lippmann
• Chemistry - Ernest Rutherford
• Medicine - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Paul Ehrlich
• Literature - Rudolf Christoph Eucken
• Peace - Klas Pontus Arnoldson Fredrik Bajer\n