Also Within This Year in History:
1908
In a year that would revolutionize transportation, Henry Ford’s introduced his first Model T and the Wright Brothers’ made their first public flight to demonstrate the airplane they’d invented several years earlier. In Europe, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, now seen as a prelude to World War I. In America, Sears started selling "kit" homes through its mail-order catalog, starting for $650. And the charismatic outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reportedly met their end in Bolivia—although not everyone believed it.
On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument. Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the…
On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden‑Powell’s Scouting for Boys. The name Baden‑Powell was already well…
On July 26, 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is born when U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte orders a group of newly hired federal investigators to report to Chief…
On August 27, 1908, future President Lyndon Baines Johnson is born on a farm near Stonewall, Texas. The brash, outspoken Johnson grew up in an impoverished rural area and worked…
On September 16, 1908, Buick Motor Company head William Crapo Durant spends $2,000 to incorporate General Motors in New Jersey. Durant, a high‑school dropout, had made his fortune building horse‑drawn…
On October 1, 1908, the first production Model T Ford is completed at the company’s Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford would build some 15 million…
On October 6, 1908, the Dual Monarchy of Austria‑Hungary announces its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, dual provinces in the Balkan region of Europe formerly under the control of the…
Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, wife of businessman and racehorse breeder William Backhouse Astor, Jr., dies at the age of 78. Even before her union with William Astor—the grandson of the American…
Jack Johnson becomes the first African American to win the world heavyweight title when he knocks out Canadian Tommy Burns in the 14th round in a championship bout near Sydney,…
At dawn, the most destructive earthquake in recorded European history strikes the Straits of Messina in southern Italy, leveling the cities of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria on…
