1908

Events from the year **1908 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: B. B. Comer (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Xenophon Overton Pindall (Democratic)
* Governor of California: James Gillett (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Henry Augustus Buchtel (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: Rollin S. Woodruff (Republican)
* Governor of Delaware: Preston Lea (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: Napoleon B. Broward (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Hoke Smith (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: Frank R. Gooding (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: Charles S. Deneen (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: J. Frank Hanly (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: Albert B. Cummins (Republican) (until November 24), Warren Garst (Republican) (starting November 24)
* Governor of Kansas: Edward W. Hoch (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: Augustus E. Willson (Republican)
* Governor of Louisiana: Newton Crain Blanchard (Democratic) (until May 12), Jared Young Sanders Sr. (Democratic) (starting May 12)
* Governor of Maine: William T. Cobb (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Edwin Warfield (Democratic) (until January 8), Austin Lane Crothers (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Curtis Guild Jr. (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: Fred M. Warner (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: John Albert Johnson (Democratic)
* Governor of Mississippi: James K. Vardaman (Democratic) (until January 21), Edmond Noel (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Missouri: Joseph W. Folk (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: Joseph Toole (Democratic) (until April 1), Edwin L. Norris (Democratic) (starting April 1)
* Governor of Nebraska: George L. Sheldon (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: John Sparks (Silver) (until May 22), Denver S. Dickerson (Silver) (starting May 22)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Charles M. Floyd (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Edward C. Stokes (Republican) (until January 21), John Franklin Fort (Republican) (starting January 21)
* Governor of New York: Charles Evans Hughes (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Robert Broadnax Glenn (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: John Burke (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Andrew L. Harris (Republican)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Charles N. Haskell (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: George Earle Chamberlain (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Edwin Sydney Stuart (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: James H. Higgins (Democratic)
* Governor of South Carolina: Martin Frederick Ansel (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Coe I. Crawford (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Malcolm R. Patterson (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Thomas Mitchell Campbell (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: John Christopher Cutler (Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: Fletcher D. Proctor (Republican) (until October 8), George H. Prouty (Republican) (starting October 8)
* Governor of Virginia: Claude A. Swanson (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Albert E. Mead (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: William M. O. Dawson (Republican)
* Governor of Wisconsin: James O. Davidson (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Bryant B. Brooks (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Henry B. Gray (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Warren R. Porter (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Erastus Harper (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Everett J. Lake (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Isaac T. Parker (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Ezra A. Burrell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Lawrence Yates Sherman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Hugh Thomas Miller (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Warren Garst (Republican) (until November 24), vacant (starting November 24)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: William James Fitzgerald (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: William Hopkinson Cox (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Jared Y. Sanders Sr. (Democratic) (until May 12), Paul M. Lambremont (Democratic) (starting May 12)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Eben Sumner Draper (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Patrick H. Kelley (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Adolph Olson Eberhart (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: John Prentiss Carter (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Luther Manship (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: John C. McKinley (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Edwin L. Norris (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Benjamin F. White (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Melville R. Hopewell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Denver S. Dickerson (Silver) (until May 22), vacant (starting May 22)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Francis D. Winston (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Robert S. Lewis (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: George W. Bellamy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Robert S. Murphy (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Frederick Jackson (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Ralph Watrous (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Thomas Gordon McLeod (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Howard C. Shober (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: E. G. Tollett (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Asbury Bascom Davidson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: George H. Prouty (Republican) (until October 8), John A. Mead (Republican) (starting October 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James Taylor Ellyson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Charles E. Coon (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: William D. Connor (Republican)

## 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 U.S. 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 1 – 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[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 2 – The first upright vacuum cleaner is invented by James Murray Spangler and the rights sold later in the year to The Hoover Company.
* 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.

## Memoriam

* January 20 – Jacob W. Davis, Latvian-born tailor, inventor of jeans (aged 77; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* February 1 – Sara Iredell Fleetwood, African-American nurse and teacher (aged 58; Washington, DC, USA)
* February 21 – Harriet Hosmer, neoclassical sculptor, first female professional sculptor (aged 77; Watertown, MA, USA)
* March 25 – Durham Stevens, diplomat (aged 57; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* April 19 – Simon B. Conover, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1873 to 1879 (aged 67; Port Townsend, WA, USA)
* April 20 – Henry Chadwick, English-born baseball writer and historian (aged 83; Brooklyn, NY, USA)
* May 14 – John O'Connell, baseball player (aged 35; Derry, NH, USA)
* June 1 – James Kimbrough Jones, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1885 to 1903 (aged 68; Washington, DC, USA)
* June 13 – Henry Lomb, German-American optician, co-founder of Bausch & Lomb (aged 79; Pittsford, NY, USA)
* June 14 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, founder of the Stanley Cup (aged 67; Holwood, England, UK)
* June 24 – Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897 (aged 71; Princeton, NJ, USA)
* July 3 – Joel Chandler Harris, author (aged 59; Atlanta, GA, USA)
* July 10 – Phoebe Knapp, hymn composer (aged 69; Poland, ME, USA)
* July 29 – Estelle M. H. Merrill, journalist (aged 49; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* August 4 – William B. Allison, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1873 to 1908 (aged 79; Dubuque, IA, USA)
* August 26 – Tony Pastor, vaudeville and theater impresario (aged 71; Elmhurst, NY, USA)
* September 17 – Thomas Selfridge, army officer & first aviation casualty (aged 26; Fort Myer, VA, USA)
* October 30 – Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, socialite (aged 78; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 7 – Butch Cassidy, train and bank robber (aged 42; Bolivia)
* December 9 – William Harvey Carney, first African American to receive the Medal of Honor (aged 68; New Bedford, MA, USA)
* December 13 – Augustus Le Plongeon, photographer and antiquarian (aged 83; Brooklyn, NY, USA)