In the year 1908, Robert Baden-Powell starts off the Boy Scout Movement with the publication of Scouting for Boys, in London (Jan 24), Japanese immigration to the U.S.A. is forbidden (Feb 18), the Tunguska event occurs in Siberia (Jun 30), Melitta Bentz creates the first coffee filter (Jul 8), Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile (Sep 27), Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire (Oct 5), Western bandits Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid are supposedly killed in Bolivia (Nov 6) - and all these fine people were born:
1908-0109 Simone de Beauvoir* author/philosopher - Paris, France (1986/78)
1908-0115 Edward Teller* physicist - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (95)
1908-0122 Lev Landau* physicist/N - Baku, Russian Empire (1968/60)
1908-0131 Simonne Mathieu* tennis player - Neuilly-sur-Seine, France (1980/71)
1908-0201
1908-0204 Gwili Andre* model/actress - Copenhagen, Denmark (1959/51)
1908-0205 Peg Entwistle* actress - Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales (1932/24)
1908-0207 Buster Crabbe* swimmer/OG/ actor - Oakland, CA USA (1983/75)
1908-0213 Sulo Nurmela* cross-country skier/OG - Onkamaa, Miehikkälä, GD of Finland (1999/91)
1908-0216 Leevi Linko* actor - Turku, GD of Finland (1995/87)
1908-0217 Bo Yibo* Chinese political and military leader - Dingxiang County, Qing Empire (2007/98)
1908-0220
1908-0223 William McMahon* politician/PM/father of Julian McMahon - Redfern, NSW Australia (1988/80)
1908-0225 Mary Locke Petermann* cellular biochemist - Laurium, MI USA (1975/67)
1908-0227 George Zaharias* (b Vetoyanis) wrestler/sports promoter - Pueblo, CO USA (1984/76)
1908-0302 Olivia Manning* novelist/poet/reviewer - Portsmouth, Hampshire, England (1980/72)
1908-0305 Rex Harrison* actor - Huyton, Lancashire, England (1990/82)
1908-0307 Anna Magnani* actress - Rome, Italy (1973/65)
1908-0311 Matti Sippala* athlete (javelin) - GD of Finland (1997/89)
1908-0325 David Lean* film director - Croydon, Surrey, England (1991/83)
1908-0326 Alfred Lif* cross-country skier (Vasaloppet) - Sweden (1980/72)
1908-0329 José Maria del Campo Llarena* Deputy Secretary of Justice - Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (19xx)
1908-0330
1908-0401 Abraham Maslow* psychologist/best known for creating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - Brooklyn, NY USA (1970/62)
1908-0402 Buddy Ebsen* actor/ comedian/dancer - Belleville, IL USA (2003/95)
1908-0405 Bette Davis* actress - Lowell, MA USA (1989/81)
1908-0405 Herbert von Karajan* conductor - Salzburg, Austria-Hungary (1989/81)
1908-0405 Jagjivan Ram* social reformer - Chandwa, Nihar, India (1986/78)
1908-0410
1908-0415 eden ahbez* (b George Aberle) songwriter/composer (Nature Boy)/mystic - Brooklyn, NY USA (1995/86)
1908-0415 Lita Grey* actress/the second wife of Charlie Chaplin - Hollywood, CA USA (1995/87)
1908-0425 Edward R. Murrow* broadcast journalist/war correspondent - Guilford County, NC USA (1965/57)
1908-0427 Mary Docherty* communist activist - Cowdenbeath, Scotland (2000/91)
1908-0428 Oskar Schindler* industrialist/credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust - Svitavy, Austria-Hungary (1974/66)
1908-0429 Jack Williamson* science fiction writer - Bisbee, Arizona Territory, USA (2006/98)
1908-0430 Eve Arden* (b Eunice Mary Quedens) actress/comedian - Mill Valley, CA USA (1990/82)
1908-0430 Bjarni Benediktsson* politician/PM - Reykjavik, Iceland (1970/62)
1908-0520 James Stewart* actor - Indiana, PA USA (1997/89)
1908-0523 Max Abramovitz* architect - Chicago, IL USA (2004/96)
1908-0523 John Bardeen* physicist/N - Madison, WI USA (1991/82)
1908-0523 Tomiko Itooka* clothing store owner/supercentenarian - Osaka, Empire of Japan (2024/116)
1908-0525
1908-0528 Ian Fleming* author - Mayfair, London, England (56)
1908-0530 Hannes Alfvén* engineer/plasma physicist/N - Norrköping, Sweden (1995/86)
1908-0531 Don Ameche* actor - Kenosha, WI USA (1993/85)
1908-0608 Inah Canabarro Lucas* nun/ supercentenarian - São Francisco de Assis, Brazil (2025/116)
1908-0610
1908-0612 Michel Marcel Navratil* philosophy professor/a Titanic survivor - Nice, France (2001/92)
1908-0614 Kathleen Raine* poet/ scholar/critic - Ilford, Essex, England (2003/95)
1908-0615 Sam Giancana* Sicilian American mobster - Chicago, IL USA (1975/67)
1908-0624 Alfons Rebane* Estonian military commander - Valga, Livonia, Russian Empire (1976/67)
1908-0626 Salvador Allende* politician - Valparaiso, Chile (1973/65)
1908-0629 Erik Lundqvist* athlete/javelin/OG - Grängesberg, Sweden (1963/54)
1908-0708 Nelson Rockefeller* businessman - Bar Harbor, ME USA (1979/70)
1908-0709 Minor White* photographer/critic/eductor - Minneapolis, MN USA (1976/67)
1908-0710 Jack Heinz* businessman/grandson of Henry J. Heinz - Pittsburgh, PA USA (1987/78)
1908-0712 Milton Berle* stand-up comedian/ actor - Manhattan, NY USA (2002/93)
1908-0718 Lupe Vélez* actress/singer/dancer - San Luis Potosi City, Mexico (1944/36)
1908-0804 Osbert Lancaster* cartoonist/architectural historian/ stage designer - London, England (1986/77)
1908-0810 Lauri Lehtinen* long-distance runner/OG - Porvoo, Finland (1973/65)
1908-0814 Arthur Häggblad* cross-country skier/OB (Vasaloppet) - Nordmaling, Sweden
1908-0818 Sam English* Northern Irish football player - Crevolea, Ireland (1967/58)
1908-0820
1908-0827 Lyndon B. Johnson* politician/36usp - Stonewall, TX USA (1973/64)
1908-0901
1908-0904 Richard Wright* author on racial issues - Roxie, MS USA (1960/52)
1908-0907 Michael DeBakey* cardiovascular surgeonmedical educator/w Lebanese parents - Lake Charles, LA USA (2008/99)
1908-0910
1908-0919 Mika Waltari* author - Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland (1979/70)
1908-0919 Victor Weisskopf* Austrian-American theoretical physicist - Vienna, Austria-Hungary (2002/93)
1908-0928 Artturi Tiura* bus traffic entrepreneur - Kiuru, GD of Finland (1991/83)
1908-0930 David Oistrakh* violinist/ conductor - Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire (1974/67)
1908-1002 Ville Salminen* actor/director/producer - Maarianhamina, GD of Finland (1992/84)
1908-1006 Carole Lombard* actress - Fort Wayne, IN USA (1942/33)
1908-1016 Enver Hoxha* Albanian politician/P - Ergiri, Ottoman Empire (1985/76)
1908-1017 Hjördis Petterson* actress - Visby, Gotland, Sweden (1988/79)
1908-1023 Ilya Frank* physicist/N - Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire (1990/81)
1908-1023 Sylva Rossi* (b Saastamoinen) actress - Lappeenranta, GD of Finland (1992/84)
1908-1025 Tauno Palo* (b Brännäs) actor - Hämeenlinna, GD of Finland (1982/73)
1908-1027 Lee Krasner* abstract expressionist - Brooklyn, NY USA (1984/75)
1908-1031
1908-1103 Virginia Rogers* private secretary - Lima, OH USA (1992/83) Find a Grave
1908-1110
1908-1114 Joseph McCarthy* politician/persecutor - Grand Chute, WI USA (1957/48)
1908-1120 Dave Dryburgh* Scottish-Canadian sports journalist/to Canada at age 3 - Kirkcaldy, Scotland (1948/39)
1908-1121 Franz Pfnür* alpine skier/OG - Au, German Empire (1996/87)
1908-1128 Claude Lévi-Strauss* French anthropologist/ethnologist - Brussels, Belgium (2009/100)
1908-1128 Richard P. Powell* novelist - Philadelphia, PA USA (1999/91)
1908-1130
1908-1204 Alfred Hershey* bacteriologist/ geneticist/N - Owosso, MI USA (1997/88)
1908-1210 Olivier Messiaen* organist/ composer/ornithologist - Avignon, France (1992/83)
1908-1211 Manoel de Oliveira* screenwriter/film director - Porto, Kingdom of Portugal (2015/106)
1908-1213 Van Heflin* actor - Walters, OK USA (1971/62)
1908-1217 Willard Libby* physical chemist/N - Parachute, CO USA (1980/71)
1908-1226 Ralph Hill* long-distance runner/OS/farmer - Klamath Falls, OR USA (1994/85)
1908-1228 Lew Ayres* actor - Minneapolis, MN USA (1996/88)
1908-1231 Simon Wiesenthal* Holocaust survivor/Nazi hunter/writer - Buszazs, Austria-Hungary (2005/96)
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Updated 2025-0506 Helsinki
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