In a year that would revolutionize transportation, Henry Ford’s introduced his first Model T and the Wright Brothers’ made their first public flight to demonstrate the airplane they’d invented several years earlier. In Europe, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, now seen as a prelude to World War I. In America, Sears started selling "kit" homes through its mail-order catalog, starting for $650. And the charismatic outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reportedly met their end in Bolivia—although not everyone believed it.
Jan
11
On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument.
A colorful sunset overlooks the Colorado River deep in the Grand Canyon.
Getty Images / Dean Fikar
Aug
27
Oct
01
On October 1, 1908, the first production Model T Ford is completed at the company’s Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford would build some 15 million Model T cars. It was the longest production run of any automobile model in history until the Volkswagen Beetle surpassed it in 1972.
The Ford Model T was introduced by Henry Ford in 1908, and made by the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. By means of true mass production, this car was affordable for far more people than ever before. By 1913 motorised production lines were in use, enabling the Model T to be made in such quantities that, in 1915, a tourer cost half the price it was when first introduced. The new production methods were so speedy that only one paint, japan black enamel, would dry fast enough to prevent problems, hence the remark attributed to Ford that “customers can have any color they want so long as it’s black.” The Model T was hugely popular, and by the time it was phased out in 1927 over sixteen million vehicles had been made.
Getty Images / Science & Society Picture Library / Contributor
Oct
06
Oct
30
Dec
26
Jack Johnson becomes the first African American to win the world heavyweight title when he knocks out Canadian Tommy Burns in the 14th round in a championship bout near Sydney, Australia. Johnson, who held the heavyweight title until 1915, was reviled by whites for his defiance of the “Jim Crow” racial conventions of early 20th-century America.
American boxer Jack Johnson
Anthony Barboza/Getty Images
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