Dashed left edge = started before July 1908 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond July 1908
Events in July 1908 7
1848 – 1908Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)Died 3 July 1908, aged 59Harris was an American journalist and author best known for the "Uncle Remus" collection of Southern folktales featuring Br'er Rabbit. His writing drew heavily on African American oral storytelling traditions from the Reconstruction-era South. He worked for decades at the Atlanta Constitution newspaper.
1908Wimbledon 1908Men: Arthur Gore · Women: Charlotte Cooper Sterry
1908 – 1993Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)Died 24 January 1993, aged 84Thurgood Marshall was the first African American justice of the US Supreme Court, serving from 1967 to 1991. As a lawyer, he had argued and won Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that outlawed racial segregation in public schools. He died in Bethesda, Maryland, of heart failure.
1908Young Turk RevolutionOttoman constitution restored after military uprisingOfficers of the Committee of Union and Progress forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the 1876 constitution and reconvene parliament. The revolt began among army units in Macedonia and spread rapidly across the empire. It ended decades of autocratic rule and ushered in a period of parliamentary government.
1908 – 1979Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979)Died 26 January 1979, aged 70Nelson Rockefeller, businessman and four-term Governor of New York who served as US Vice President under Gerald Ford, died of a heart attack in New York City. A grandson of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, he was a major figure in liberal Republican politics for decades. He died on 26 January 1979.
1908 – 2002Milton Berle (1908-2002)Died 27 March 2002, aged 93Milton Berle was a vaudeville and radio comedian who became American television's first major star as host of the Texaco Star Theater from 1948. His broad, costume-heavy slapstick drew such large audiences that he was nicknamed Mr. Television and credited with helping sell sets. His career on stage and screen spanned some eight decades.
1908Young Turk Revolution -- the constitution restoredThe Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) begins when CUP officers in Macedonia threaten to march on Istanbul if Abdülhamid II does not restore the 1876 constitution. Faced with a military revolt and popular demonstrations, Abdülhamid restores the constitution on 24 July 1908. The news is greeted with extraordinary popular jubilation across the empire -- Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Arabs embrace in the streets of Istanbul, believing that constitutional government has solved the empire's problems. The euphoria is short-lived: within months the CUP is manipulating elections, Abdülhamid attempts a counter-coup (suppressed April 1909), and the fundamental conflicts of the empire reassert themselves.