1908

The timelines on this site are an attempt to highlight the major political and cultural events of the years 1895-1914. They are by no means definitive or canonical; aiming instead at a representative selection, gleaned from various texts.  Additions to the timeline are especially welcome: please leave suggestions in the comments box below.

Key Events

Asquith becomes Prime Minister.
Old Age Pensions Act Passed, coming into effect in 1909.
Ford Motor Company sell first ‘Model T’ in Britain, imported from the US.
Fifth Olympic Games held in London.
Imprisonment of Emmeline Pankhurst for suffrage agitation.
Young Turk rebellion.

Deaths

Edward Caird.
Walter Headlam.
Ouida.
Butch Cassidy.

Literature

Buried Alive – Arnold Bennett
The Old Wive’s Tale – Arnold Bennett
The Man Who Was Thursday – G. K. Chesterton
A Room With a View – E. M. Forster
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
The Magician – Somerset Maugham
Anne of Green Gables – Lucy Montgomery
Maurice Guest – Henry Handel Richardson
The Blue Lagoon – H. de Vere Stacpoole
The Individualist – Philip Gibbs
The Great Amulet – Maud Diver

Nobel prize for literature: Rudolf Eucken
Scouting for Boys – Robert Baden-Powell
Foundation of Women Writer’s Suffrage League

Art & Architecture

First Ideal Home Exhibition held at Olympia.
Franco-British exhibition held at White City.
Epstein’s Strand sculptures.
Royal Liver Building in Liverpool.
Selfridges, London.

Theatre

Riots in Dublin after performance of J.M.Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World
Maurice Maeterlinck, The Blue Bird.

Music

Claude Debussy, Children’s Corner.
Elgar’s First Symphony.
Egor Stravinsky, Fireworks