February 1, 1908. Anarchists assassinate King Carlos I and his heir Prince Luis Filipe as the royl family are traveling in an open carriage in Lisbon, Portugal. This event is usually called The Lisbon Regicide. A shocked King Edward VII of England, a friend of King Carlos, said of the assassination, “They murdered two gentlemen of the Order of the Garter in the street like dogs and in their own country no one cares!”
May 16, 1908. Oil discovery at Masjid Sulaiman in southwest Iran (Persia). A British army officer sends a coded message to the British government telling them the news: “See Psalm 104 Verse 15 Third Sentence and Psalm 114 verse 8 second sentence.” Un-coded, the telegram read: “That he may bring out of the earth oil to make him a cheerful countenance … the flint stone into a springing well.”
April-July, 1908. The Young Turks, a group of reform-minded nationalists, force Sultan Abdul Hamid of the Ottoman Empire to restore the parliament and the constitution which had been suspended by the Sultan in 1878. This revolution is the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire. Map of the expansion and decline of the Ottoman Empire. I would like to read A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin, which gives the history of the continuing decline of the Ottoman Empire and tells how the changing borders and power adjustments made during and after World War II continue to affect the situation in the MIddle East today.
August 12, 1908. The first Model T Ford goes on sale for $850. Automaker Henry Ford has promised to “build a car for the multitude,” and he hopes by using the assembly line technique to produce 18,000 cars a year. Take a brief look at Henry Ford, the businessman and the man, in this post by blogger Aarti Nagaraju.
August 19, 1908. King Leopold of Belgium hands over government of the Congo Free State (Zaire, Democratic Republic of the Congo) to the Belgian government after thirty years of brutal dictatorial rule of the African colony by Leopold alone.
September, 1908. German mathematician Hermann Minkowski is the first person to define time as the fourth dimension. (LOST connection, anyone?)
October, 1908. Austria-Hungary takes over the Balkan states of Bosnia and Herzegovina by decree and with the help and approval of Russia.
October 5, 1908. Ferdinand I of Austria declares Bulgaria a fully independent kingdom, with himself as Tsar.
December 2, 1908. The two year old Prince Pu Yi ascends to the imperial throne of China, according to the wishes of Tsu-Hsi (Cixi), the Empress Dowager of China who recently died under suspicious circumstances. Emperor Pu Yi’s father, Prince Chun, will rule as regent in his son’s place for the time being. The movie The Last Emperor tells the story of Pu Yi’s life in a somewhat fictionalized, but fairly accurate, version.
December 28, 1908. The city of Messina, Italy is struck early in the morning by the most violent earthquake ever recorded in Europe. Estimates put the death toll at at least 75,000 people.