1908 in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Frans Schollaert

Events

• 9 January – Frans Schollaert formally takes office as prime minister, after the sudden death of Jules de Trooz at the end of the previous year.
• 19 April – Confédération syndicale belge organization is founded.
• 24 May – Partial legislative elections
• 25 May – Parliament ratifies the 1907 copyright convention with Germany.
• 14 June – Provincial elections
• 10 July – Paul Van Asbroeck wins a gold medal at the 1908 Olympic Games
• 30 September – Premiere of Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird at the Moscow Art Theatre
• 18 October – Belgian Parliament passes the Colonial Charter on the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State.
• 30 October – Cabinet reshuffle with Jules Renkin becoming first Minister for Colonies
• 15 November – Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo

Publications

• Émile de Borchgrave, Souvenirs diplomatiques de quarante ans
• Fernand Crommelynck, Le sculpteur de masques
• Stijn Streuvels, Tieghem: Het Vlaamsche lustoord
• Joseph Van den Gheyn, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, vol. 8.
• Emile Verhaeren, James Ensor

Art and architecture

• Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk, Ostend

Births

• 2 January – André Verbeke, architect
• 23 January – Stanislas-André Steeman, writer
• 14 March – Joseph André, priest
• 14 May – Jules Lismonde, artist
• 20 September – Simon Dewinter, boxer
• 4 October – Celeste van Exem, missionary
• 16 November – Emmanuelle Cinquin, religious sister
• 24 November – Hubert Ansiaux, banker
• 28 November – Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropologist

Deaths

• 4 February – Albert Lancaster, meteorologist
• 6 February – Jan Portielje, painter
• 22 February – Édouard van den Corput, physician
• 10 May – Eugène Lafont, missionary
• 5 June – Jef Lambeaux, sculptor
• 21 June – Luís Cruls, astronomer
• 19 June – Louis van Waefelghem, viola d'amore player
• 4 August – Piet Verhaert, painter
• 24 December – François-Auguste Gevaert, musicologist