1908 in the United States
Events from the year 1908 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government">Federal government of the United States">Federal government
- President: Theodore Roosevelt
- Vice President: Charles W. Fairbanks
- Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon
- Congress: 60th
Events
January
- January 1
- *A ball signifying New Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time.
- *Gustav Mahler makes his US conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera.
- *Georgia introduces a law prohibiting alcohol.
- January 13 – A fire at the Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, kills 170 people. The tragedy is a catalyst for stricter fire safety laws nationwide.
- January 15 – The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority is established.
- January 21 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for people who control public places to allow women to smoke in them. It is vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
February
- February – The Converse Rubber Shoe Company is formed in Malden, Massachusetts.
- February 12
- *The first [1908 New York (state)|New York to Paris Race|around-the-world car race], begins in New York City.
- *Division of Militia Affairs with the War Department.
- February 18 – Japanese immigration to the United States is restricted under the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907.
- February 25 – The Bible Institute of Los Angeles is founded.
- February 27 – A forty-sixth star is added to the United States flag representing the state of Oklahoma.
- February 29 – The State Normal and Industrial School for Women, precursor to James Madison University, is founded in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
March
- March 4 – The Collinwood School Fire, near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.
- March 26 – The US Thomas Flyer car sails for Alaska at the head of a motor race from New York to Paris.
April
- April 8 – Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School.
- April 14 – The first Hauser Dam in Montana fails, causing severe flooding and damage downstream.
- April 16 – Natural Bridges National Monument is established
- April 19 – The Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, designed by Jens Jensen, opens to the public for the first time.
- April 24 – The seventh deadliest tornado in U.S. history strikes the towns of Amite, Louisiana, Pine, Louisiana and Purvis, Mississippi, killing 143 and injuring 770.
May
- May 10 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time, at Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.
June
- June 20 – The Georgia Tech Alumni Association is chartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
July
- July 1 – Carson National Forest is established.
- July 11 – The Western University of Pennsylvania is renamed the University of Pittsburgh.
- July 22 – The automobile manufacturing company Fisher Body is founded.
- July 25 – John Baxter Taylor, graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, becomes the first African American to win an Olympic Gold Medal at the London Summer Olympics
- July 26 – Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to staff the Office of the Chief Examiner immediately.
August
- August 8 – The Hoover Company of Canton, Ohio, acquires manufacturing rights to the upright portable vacuum cleaner patented on June 22 by James M. Spangler.
- August 14 – Springfield Race Riot of 1908 in Springfield, Illinois.
- August 31 – A charter is granted for Wayland Literary and Technical Institute in Plainview, Texas, later Wayland Baptist University.
September
- September 16 – William C. Durant founds the company which eventually becomes General Motors.
- September 17 – At Fort Myer, Virginia, U.S.A. Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in an airplane crash. The pilot, Orville Wright, is severely injured in the crash, but makes a recovery.
- September 28 – Classes commence at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, established under the terms of Franklin's will.
October
- October 1
- * Official launch of Henry Ford's Ford Model T automobile, the first having left the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan, on September 27. The initial price is set at $850.
- * Penny Post is established between the United Kingdom and United States.
- October 5 – The Melting Pot, a play by Israel Zangwill, opens in Washington, D.C. The title quickly becomes a widely used symbol for assimilation of immigrants to the United States.
- October 8 – The University of Omaha, precursor of the University of Nebraska Omaha, is founded as a private non-sectarian college.
- October 10 – First section of Long Island Motor Parkway opened.
- October 13 – The Church of the Nazarene is organized officially at Pilot Point, Texas as the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. This is the official "birthday" of the denomination.
- October 14 – The Chicago Cubs win the 1908 World Series defeating the Detroit Tigers in Game 5. They would not win again until November 2, 2016, which stands as the longest championship drought in sports history.
- October 15 – The Metz Fire in Metz Township, Michigan; 37 people are killed, 134 families—about 700 people— are made homeless.
November
- November 3 – 1908 United States presidential election: Republican William Howard Taft defeats Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
- November 24 – The first credit union in the United States begins operation in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Undated
- The American Temperance University closes.
Ongoing
Births
January – March
- January 1 – Bill Tapia, musician
- January 11 – Lionel Stander, actor
- January 14 – Russ Columbo, singer, bandleader, and composer
- January 17 – Cus D'Amato, boxing trainer
- January 20 – Fleur Cowles, painter and editor
- January 27 – Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Jazz musician
- February 2 – Justice M. Chambers, Medal of Honor recipient
- February 5 – Edith Ceccarelli, supercentenarian
- February 6
- * Russell Gleason, actor
- * Michael Maltese, screenwriter
- February 10 – Charles Henri Ford, novelist, poet, filmmaker, photographer and collage artist
- February 13 – Pauline Frederick, journalist
- February 17 – Red Barber, baseball announcer and sports journalist
- February 25 – George Duning, film composer
- February 26 – Tex Avery, Cartoonist
- February 29 – Dee Brown, writer and historian
- March 4 – T.R.M. Howard, African-American civil rights leader and surgeon
- March 5 – Irving Fiske, American playwright, WPA writer and speaker; co-created Quarry Hill Creative Center in Rochester, Vermont, early children's rights activist; died 1990)
- March 13 – Walter Annenberg, Publisher and philanthropist
- March 14 – Ed Heinemann, aircraft designer
- March 20
- * Kermit Murdock, actor
- * Frank Stanton, businessman
- March 22 – Louis L'Amour, author
- March 26 – Henry (Hank) Sylvern, Radio personality
- March 29 – Arthur O'Connell, Actor
April – June
- April 1 – Abraham Maslow, psychologist
- April 2 – Buddy Ebsen, actor and dancer
- April 4
- * Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, author
- * Frances Ford Seymour, socialite
- April 5 – Bette Davis, actress
- April 6 – John P. Davies, diplomat
- April 15 – eden ahbez, musician
- April 20 – Lionel Hampton, African-American musician and bandleader
- April 25 – Edward R. Murrow, journalist
- April 26 – Fred Phillips, make-up artist
- April 29 – Jack Williamson, science fiction author
- May 3 – Howard Cary, American engineer & founder of Cary Instruments
- May 10 – Helen Elsie Austin, American attorney
- May 20 – James Stewart, actor
- May 23
- * Max Abramovitz, architect
- * John Bardeen, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 25 – Theodore Roethke, poet
- May 30 – Mel Blanc, voice actor
- May 31 – Don Ameche, actor
- June 13 – Marjorie F. Lambert, archaeologist & anthropologist
- June 18 – Bud Collyer, voice actor and game show host
- June 20 – Billy Werber, baseball player
- June 21
- * William Frankena, moral philosopher
- * Marjorie Gladman, tennis player
- June 23 – Karl Warner, athlete
- June 25
- * Joe Becker, baseball player
- * Willard Van Orman Quine, philosopher
- June 26 – William F. Knowland, United States Senator from California from 1945 till 1959. Politician and newspaperman
- June 27
- * Bill Kennedy, actor
- * Charles Stevenson, philosopher
- June 29
- * Leroy Anderson, composer
- * Sally Haley, painter
- June 30 – Eunice Norton, pianist
July – September
- July 1 – Alvino Rey, swing era musician and bandleader
- July 3 – M. F. K. Fisher, food writer
- July 5
- * Lyman S. Ayres II, businessman
- * Don Dunphy, television and radio sports announcer
- July 8 – Nelson A. Rockefeller, 49th governor of New York from 1959 to 1973 and 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977
- July 12 – Milton Berle, comedian
- July 19 – Daniel Fry, contactee
- July 21
- * William E. Jenner, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1947 to 1959
- * Jug McSpaden, professional golfer
- * Magruder Tuttle, rear admiral, football player
- July 22 – Claire Falkenstein, sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewelry designer and teacher
- July 23
- *Karl Swenson, actor
- *James C. Tison Jr., admiral and civil engineer
- July 25 – Kathryn Eames, actress
- July 27 – Joseph Mitchell, writer
- July 31 – Bill Shadel, Radio and TV news anchor
- August 2 – Al Alquist, California politician
- August 9 – A. I. Bezzerides, screenwriter
- August 10 – Claude Thornhill, pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader
- August 16
- * Orlando Cole, classical cellist and educator
- * William Maxwell, novelist and editor ** Miriam Rosen Minsker, centenarian
- August 20 – Al López, baseball player and manager
- August 21 – Tom Tully, actor
- August 27 – Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969, 37th vice president of the United States from 1961 to 1963
- August 28 – Roger Tory Peterson, naturalist, artist and educator
- August 30 – Fred MacMurray, actor
- August 31 – William Saroyan, fiction writer
- September 2
- * Ruth Bancroft, landscape and garden designer
- * Dorothea Leighton, social psychiatrist
- September 4 – Richard Wright, African-American author
- September 6 – Korczak Ziolkowski, sculptor
- September 7
- * Paul Brown, football coach
- * Michael E. DeBakey, surgeon and medical researcher
- September 10 – Raymond Scott, composer, bandleader, electronic music pioneer
- September 13 – Mae Questel, actress
- September 15 – Penny Singleton, actress
- September 16 – Neil Reagan, radio station manager, and CBS senior producer
- September 29 – Eddie Tolan, athlete
October – December
- October 6 – Carole Lombard, film actress
- October 9 – Lee Wiley, jazz singer
- October 14 – Ruth Hale, playwright and actress
- October 15 – Herman Chittison, pianist
- October 20
- * Geraldine Branch, gynecologist
- * Carl Stuart Hamblen, musician and presidential candidate
- October 22 – John Gould, humorist, essayist and columnist
- October 25 – Polly Ann Young, actress
- October 27 – Lee Krasner, American painter
- November 1 – Felix Knight, actor, tenor, and vocal coach
- November 8 – Martha Gellhorn, war correspondent
- November 12 – Harry Blackmun, judge
- November 14 – Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
- November 18 – Imogene Coca, actress
- November 20 – Alistair Cooke, English-born journalist
- November 23 – Nelson S. Bond, science fiction writer
- November 28 – Mary Oppen, activist, artist, photographer and writer
- November 29 – Adam Clayton Powell Jr., politician
- December 3 – Edward Underdown, actor
- December 4 – Alfred Hershey, bacteriologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 6 – Baby Face Nelson, bank robber
- December 7 – Slim Bryant, country music singer, songwriter and guitarist
- December 11 – Elliott Carter, composer
- December 14 – Morey Amsterdam, actor and comedian
- December 16 – Frances Day, actress and singer
- December 17 – Willard Libby, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 21 – Herbert Hutner, banker and lawyer
- December 23 – Sol Carter, baseball player
Deaths
- February 1 – Sara Iredell Fleetwood, African-American nurse and teacher
- February 21 – Harriet Hosmer, neoclassical sculptor, first female professional sculptor
- March 25 – Durham Stevens, diplomat
- March 26 – Louis Chauvin, ragtime pianist
- March 27 – Charles N. Sims, Methodist preacher, third chancellor of Syracuse University
- April 19 – Simon B. Conover, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1873 to 1879
- April 20 – Henry Chadwick, English-born baseball writer and historian
- May 14 – John O'Connell, baseball player
- June 1 – James Kimbrough Jones, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1885 to 1903
- June 9 – Drusilla Wilson, American temperance leader and Quaker pastor
- June 13 – Henry Lomb, German-American optician, co-founder of Bausch & Lomb
- June 14 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, founder of the Stanley Cup
- June 24 – Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897
- July 3 – Joel Chandler Harris, author
- July 10 – Phoebe Knapp, hymn composer
- July 29 – Estelle M. H. Merrill, journalist
- August 4 – William B. Allison, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1873 to 1908
- August 26 – Tony Pastor, vaudeville and theater impresario
- September 17 – Thomas Selfridge, army officer & first aviation casualty
- October 30 – Caroline Astor, socialite
- November 7 – Butch Cassidy, train and bank robber
- December 9 – William Harvey Carney, first African American to receive the Medal of Honor
- December 13 – Augustus Le Plongeon, photographer and antiquarian
- Jacob W. Davis, Latvian-born tailor, inventor of jeans