← 1907 1906 1905 1908 in the United States → 1909 1910 1911
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	History of the United States (1865–1918) Timeline of United States history (1900–1929) List of years 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.
• 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^[vague] 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 (in the men's 400-metre relay) at the London Summer Olympics^[1]
• July 26 – Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation) 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 28 – American Messenger Company, predecessor of United Parcel Service, is founded in Washington (state).^[2]
• 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.^[3] The initial price is set at $850.^[4]
  • Penny Post is established between the United Kingdom and United States.^[5]
• 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

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• Black Patch Tobacco Wars (1904–1909)^[6]
• Great White Fleet voyage (1907–1909)

Births

Deaths

• February 1 – Sara Iredell Fleetwood, African-American nurse and teacher (born 1849)
• February 21 – Harriet Hosmer, neoclassical sculptor, first female professional sculptor (born 1830)
• March 25 – Durham Stevens, diplomat (born 1851)
• March 26 – Louis Chauvin, ragtime pianist (born 1881)
• March 27 – Charles N. Sims, Methodist preacher, third chancellor of Syracuse University (born 1835)
• April 19 – Simon B. Conover, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1873 to 1879 (born 1840)
• April 20 – Henry Chadwick, English-born baseball writer and historian (born 1824)
• May 14 – John O'Connell, baseball player (born 1872)
• June 1 – James Kimbrough Jones, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1885 to 1903 (born 1839)
• June 9 – Drusilla Wilson, American temperance leader and Quaker pastor (born 1815)
• June 13 – Henry Lomb, German-American optician, co-founder of Bausch & Lomb (born 1848)
• June 14 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, founder of the Stanley Cup (born 1841)
• June 24 – Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897 (born 1837)
• July 3 – Joel Chandler Harris, author (born 1848)
• July 10 – Phoebe Knapp, hymn composer (born 1839)
• July 29 – Estelle M. H. Merrill, journalist (born 1858)
• August 4 – William B. Allison, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1873 to 1908 (born 1829)
• August 26 – Tony Pastor, vaudeville and theater impresario (born 1837)
• September 17 – Thomas Selfridge, army officer & first aviation casualty (born 1882)
• October 30 – Caroline Astor, socialite (born 1830)
• November 7 – Butch Cassidy, train and bank robber (born 1866)
• December 9 – William Harvey Carney, first African American to receive the Medal of Honor (born 1840)
• December 13 – Augustus Le Plongeon, photographer and antiquarian (born 1826)
• Jacob W. Davis, Latvian-born tailor, inventor of jeans (born 1831)