1908 in the United States

Events from the year 1908 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

* President: Theodore Roosevelt ( R- New York)
* Vice President: Charles W. Fairbanks ( R-Indiana)
* Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon ( R-Illinois)
* 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 (the first Greek-letter organization for black college women) 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 (also known as the Boston Rubber Shoe Company) is formed in Malden, Massachusetts.
* February 12
**The first 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 (now Biola University) is founded.
* February 27 – A forty-sixth star is added to the United States flag representing the state of Oklahoma.

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 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 (in the men's 400-metre relay) at the London Summer Olympics
* July 26 – Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

August

* 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 (now Wayland Baptist University).

September

* September 16 – William C. Durant founds the company which eventually becomes General Motors.
* September 17 – At Ft. 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.

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 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 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 Western University of Pennsylvania is renamed the University of Pittsburgh.
* The State Normal and Industrial School for Women, precursor to James Madison University, is founded in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
* The University of Omaha, precursor of the University of Nebraska Omaha is founded as a private non-sectarian college.
* Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, is established under the terms of Franklin's will.
* The American Temperance University closes.
* The first upright vacuum cleaner is invented by James Murray Spangler and the rights sold later in the year to The Hoover Company.

Ongoing

* Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
* Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
* Black Patch Tobacco Wars (1904–1909)
* Great White Fleet voyage (1907–1909)

Births

January – March

* January 1 – Bill Tapia, musician (died 2011)
* January 11 – Lionel Stander, actor (died 1994)
* January 14 – Russ Columbo, singer, bandleader, and composer (died 1934)
* January 17 – Cus D'Amato, boxing trainer (died 1985)
* January 27 – Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Jazz musician (died 1954)
* February 2 – Justice M. Chambers, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1982)
* February 10 – Charles Henri Ford, novelist, poet, filmmaker, photographer and collage artist (died 2002)
* February 17 – Red Barber, Baseball announcer and sports journalist (died 1992)
* February 25 – George Duning, film composer (died 2000)
* February 26 – Tex Avery, Cartoonist (died 1980)
* February 29 – Dee Brown, writer and historian (died 2002)
* March 4 – T.R.M. Howard, African-American civil rights leader and surgeon (died 1976)
* 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 (died 2002)
* March 20
** Kermit Murdock, actor (died 1981)
** Frank Stanton, businessman (died 2006)
* March 22 – Louis L'Amour, author (died 1988)
* March 26 – Henry (Hank) Sylvern, Radio personality (died 1964)
* March 29 – Arthur O'Connell, Actor (died 1981)

April – June

* April 1 – Abraham Maslow, psychologist (died 1970)
* April 2 – Buddy Ebsen, actor and dancer (died 2003)
* April 4
** Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, author (died 2006)
** Frances Ford Seymour, socialite (died 1950)
* April 5 – Bette Davis, actress (died 1989)
* April 6 – John P. Davies, diplomat (died 1999)
* April 15 – eden ahbez, musician (died 1995)
* April 20 – Lionel Hampton, African-American musician and bandleader (died 2002)
* April 25 – Edward R. Murrow, Journalist (died 1965)
* April 29 – Jack Williamson, science fiction author (died 2006)
* May 3 – Howard Cary, American engineer & founder of Cary Instruments (died 1991)
* May 10 – Helen Elsie Austin, American attorney (died 2004)
* May 20 – James Stewart, actor (died 1997)
* May 23
** Max Abramovitz, architect (died 2004)
** John Bardeen, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1991)
* May 25 – Theodore Roethke, poet (died 1963)
* May 30 – Mel Blanc, voice actor (died 1989)
* May 31 – Don Ameche, actor (died 1993)
* June 13 – Marjorie F. Lambert, archaeologist & anthropologist (died 2006)
* June 18 – Bud Collyer, voice actor and game show host (died 1969)
* June 20 – Billy Werber, baseball player (died 2009)
* June 21
** William Frankena, moral philosopher (died 1994)
** Marjorie Gladman, tennis player (died 1999)
* June 23 – Karl Warner, athlete (died 1995)
* June 25
** Joe Becker, baseball player (died 1998)
** Willard Van Orman Quine, philosopher (died 2000)
* June 26 – William F. Knowland, United States Senator from California from 1945 till 1959. Politician and newspaperman (died 1974)
* June 27
** Bill Kennedy, actor (died 1997)
** Charles Stevenson, philosopher (died 1979)
* June 29
** Leroy Anderson, composer (died 1975)
** Sally Haley, painter (died 2007)
* June 30 – Eunice Norton, pianist (died 2005)

July – September

* July 1 – Alvino Rey, swing era musician and bandleader (died 2004)
* July 3 – M. F. K. Fisher, food writer (died 1992)
* July 5
** Lyman S. Ayres II, businessman (died 1996)
** Don Dunphy, television and radio sports announcer (died 1998)
* 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 (died 1979)
* July 12 – Milton Berle, comedian (died 2002)
* July 19 – Daniel Fry, contactee (died 1992)
* July 21
** William E. Jenner, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1947 to 1959 (died 1985)
** Jug McSpaden, professional golfer (died 1996)
** Magruder Tuttle, rear admiral, football player (died 1998)
* July 22 – Claire Falkenstein, sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewelry designer and teacher (died 1997)
* July 23
**Karl Swenson, actor (died 1978)
** James C. Tison, Jr., admiral and civil engineer (died 1991)
* July 25 – Kathryn Eames, actress (died 2004)
* July 27 – Joseph Mitchell, writer (died 1996)
* August 2 – Al Alquist, California politician (died 2006)
* August 9 – A. I. Bezzerides, screenwriter (died 2007)
* August 16
** Orlando Cole, classical cellist and educator (died 2010)
** William Maxwell, novelist and editor (died 2000)** Miriam Rosen Minsker, centenarian (died 2017)
* August 20 – Al López, baseball player and manager (died 2005)
* August 21 – Tom Tully, actor (died 1982)
* 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 (died 1973)
* August 28 – Roger Tory Peterson, naturalist, artist and educator (died 1996)
* August 30 – Fred MacMurray, actor (died 1991)
* August 31 – William Saroyan, fiction writer (died 1981)
* September 2 – Ruth Bancroft, landscape and garden designer (died 2017)
* September 4 – Richard Wright, African-American author (died 1960)
* September 6 – Korczak Ziolkowski, sculptor (died 1982)
* September 7
** Paul Brown, football coach (died 1991)
** Michael E. DeBakey, surgeon and medical researcher (died 2008)
* September 10 – Raymond Scott, composer, bandleader, electronic music pioneer (died 1994)
* September 13 – Mae Questel, actress (died 1998)
* September 15 – Penny Singleton, actress (died 2003)
* September 16 – Neil Reagan, radio station manager, and CBS senior producer (died 1996)
* September 29 – Eddie Tolan, athlete (died 1967)

October – December

* October 6 – Carole Lombard, film actress (died 1942)
* October 9 – Lee Wiley, jazz singer (died 1975)
* October 14 – Ruth Hale, playwright and actress (died 2003)
* October 20
** Geraldine Branch, gynecologist (died 2016)
** Carl Stuart Hamblen, musician and presidential candidate (died 1989)
* October 22 – John Gould, humorist, essayist and columnist (died 2003)
* October 25 – Polly Ann Young, actress (died 1997)
* October 27 – Lee Krasner, American painter (died 1984)
* November 1 – Felix Knight, actor, tenor, and vocal coach ( Babes in Toyland (1934)) (died 1998)
* November 12 – Harry Blackmun, judge (died 1999)
* November 14 – Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (died 1957)
* November 18 – Imogene Coca, actress (died 2001)
* November 20 – Alistair Cooke

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