1908

1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Tuesday in the Julian calendar.

• 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 15 – Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first Greek-letter organization by and for Black college women is established.
• January 21 – New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for aliens to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
• January 24 – Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.
• February 1 – King Carlos I of Portugal and Crown Prince Luis are shot in Lisbon.
• February 11 – Australia regain The Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
• February 18 – Japanese immigration to USA forbidden.
• Philippe's, a restaurant opens in Los Angeles.
• St. Albans City F.C. founded.
• Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian biologist, and Paul Ehrlich, Germany, won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• October 14 – the Chicago Cubs defeat the Detroit Tigers in five games to win the 1908 World Series. This was the team's second World Series title. It was also their last championship until 2016.

• January 9 – Simone de Beauvoir, French writer and intellectual (d. 1986)
• January 16 – Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (d. 1984)
• January 22 – Lev Landau, Soviet physicist (d. 1968)

• February 6 – Amintore Fanfani, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1999)
• February 22 – Rómulo Betancourt, 47th & 54th President of Venezuela (d. 1981)
• February 23 – William McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)

• May 5 – Rex Harrison, British actor (d. 1990)
• March 7 – Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d. 1973)
• March 20 – Michael Redgrave, English stage actor (d. 1985)
• March 25 – David Lean, British movie director (d. 1991)

• April 2 – Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese movie director and screenwriter (d. 2015)
• April 5 – Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
• April 5 – Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
• April 28 – Oskar Schindler, German businessman (d. 1974)

• May 20 – James Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
• May 23 – John Bardeen, American physicist (d. 1991)
• May 30 – Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist (d. 1995)
• May 31 – Don Ameche, American actor, (d. 1993)

• June 26 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)

• July 8 – Nelson Rockefeller, forty-first Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
• July 12 – Milton Berle, American actor, entertainer and comedian (d. 2002)
• July 31 - Fernando Huergo, Argentine fencer (d. 1995)

• August 27 – Lyndon B. Johnson, thirty-sixth President of the United States (d. 1973)
• August 30 – Fred MacMurray, American actor and singer (d. 1991)

• September 4 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American movie director (d. 1999)

• October 06 – Carole Lombard, American actress (d. 1942)
• October 15 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (d. 2006)
• October 16 – Enver Hoxha, Prime Minister of Albania (d. 1985)

Deaths

June 24 - Grover Cleveland, 71, twenty-second and twenty-fourth President of the United States, heart attack (b. 1837)