1908: Leap year starting on Wednesday

• 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

January

 

 

 

• 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

 

 

 

• 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)

March

 

 

 

 

• 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

 

 

 

 

• 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

 

 

 

• 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

 

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

July

 

 

• July 8 – Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
• July 12 – Milton Berle, American actor, entertainer and comedian (d. 2002)

August

 

 

• August 27 – Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States (d. 1973)
• August 30 – Fred MacMurray, American actor and singer (d. 1991)

September

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

October

 

 

 

• 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)

November

December