1908

• 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 Guangxu Emperor of China (1875-1908) to Henry Puyi (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.
• The Child Labour Act of Ontario is passed.

• 1908 in aviation
• 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

• January 7 - Red Allen, jazz musician (d. 1967)
• 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 (d. 1997)
• January 27 - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, jazz trumpet (d. 1954)
• February 1 - George Pál, director, producer (d. 1980)
• February 5 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins, actresses (d. 1969)
• February 7 - Buster Crabbe, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist, actor
• February 8 - Emil Staiger, scientist of literature (d. 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 (d. 1981)
• February 17 - Red Barber, baseball announcer, sports journalist (d. 1992)
• February 22 - John Mills, actor
• February 23 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia, (d. 1988)
• February 26 - Tex Avery, cartoonist (d. 1980)
• February 26 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, race car driver (d. 1949)
• February 29 - Balthus, painter (d. 2001)
• February 29 - Dee Brown, writer, historian (d. 2002)
• March 2 - Walter Bruch, engineer (d. 1990)
• March 5 - Rex Harrison, actor (d. 1990)
• March 8 - Claire Trevor, actress
• March 7 - Anna Magnani, actress (d. 1973)
• March 13 - Walter Annenberg, publisher, philanthropist (d. 2002)
• March 17 - Brigitte Helm, actress (d. 1996)
• March 20 - Sir Michael Redgrave, actor (d. 1985)
• March 22 - Louis L'Amour, author (d. 1988)
• March 23 - Joan Crawford, actor (d. 1977)
• March 25 - Helmut Käutner, actor and film director (d. 1980)
• March 25 - David Lean, film director (d. 1991)
• March 29 - Arthur O'Connell, actor (d. 1981)
• April 1 - Abraham Maslow, psychologist
• April 2 - Buddy Ebsen, actor, dancer
• April 5 - Bette Davis, US-american actress (d. 1989)
• April 5 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
• April 7 - Percy Faith, composer, musician (d. 1976)
• April 15 - Eden Ahbez, hermit, musician
• April 20 - Lionel Hampton, jazz musician, bandleader (d. 2002)
• April 25 - Edward R. Murrow, journalist (d. 1965)
• May 7 - Max Grundig, industrialist (d. 1989)
• May 8 - Cristian Vasile, Romanian tango singer (d. 1974)
• May 19 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
• May 20 - Jimmy Stewart, American actor
• May 23 - John Bardeen, physicist (d. 1991)
• May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet
• May 28 - Ian Fleming, author of James Bond books (d. 1964)
• May 30 - Mel Blanc, voice actor
• May 31 - Don Ameche (actor)
• August 4 - Kurt Eichhorn, conductor
• August 5 - Harold Holt, seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
• 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
• September 6 - Louis Essen, physicist (d. 1997)
• October 14 - Allan Jones, actor, singer (d. 1992)
• October 16 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania
• November 20 - Alistair Cooke, television host (d. 2004)
• November 28 - Claude Levi-Strauss
• December 6 - Pierre Graber, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 2003)
• December 10 - Olivier Messiaen, composer
• December 31 - Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi hunter

• January 25 - Ouida, writer
• February 1 - King Charles of Portugal
• April 20 - Henry Chadwick, baseball writer and historian
• April 22 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• July 20 - Demetrius Vikelas, Greek IOC president
• May 26 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi sect
• August 25 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist
• September 20 - Pablo de Sarasate, violinist
• October 30 – Caroline Astor, American socialite
• November 14 5-7 pm - Guangxu Emperor of China
• November 15 1-3 pm - Empress Dowager Cixi

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

• China -
• Guāngxù Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (1875-1908)
• Xuantong Emperor of China, Qing Qynasty (1908-1912)
• Denmark - Frederick VIII, King of Denmark (1906-1912)
• France - Armand Fallières, President of France (1906-1913)
• Germany - Wilhelm II, German Kaiser (1888-1918)
• Holy See - Pope Pius X, Bishop of Rome (1903-1914)
• Japan - Mutsuhito, Meiji Emperor (1867-1912)
• Norway - Haakon VII, King of Norway (1905-1957)
• Ottoman Empire - Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909)
• Russia - Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia (1894-1917)
• Spain - Alfonso XIII of Spain, King of Spain (1886-1931)
• United States - Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States (1901-1909)