Polemonium Reptans

The following lists events that happened during 1908 in the Kingdom of Belgium.

Incumbents

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Frans Schollaert

Events

• 9 January – Frans Schollaert formally takes office as prime minister, after the sudden death of Jules de Trooz at the end of the previous year.^[1]
• 19 April – Confédération syndicale belge organization is founded.
• 24 May – Partial legislative elections
• 25 May – Parliament ratifies the 1907 copyright convention with Germany.^[2]
• 14 June – Provincial elections
• 10 July – Paul Van Asbroeck wins a gold medal at the 1908 Olympic Games
• 30 September – Premiere of Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird at the Moscow Art Theatre
• 18 October – Belgian Parliament passes the Colonial Charter on the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State.^[3]
• 30 October – Cabinet reshuffle with Jules Renkin becoming first Minister for Colonies
• 15 November – Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo

Publications

• Émile de Borchgrave, Souvenirs diplomatiques de quarante ans (Brussels)
• Fernand Crommelynck, Le sculpteur de masques (Brussels, Edmond Deman)
• Stijn Streuvels, Tieghem: Het Vlaamsche lustoord (Ghent, Vercauteren)
• Joseph Van den Gheyn, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, vol. 8.^[4]
• Emile Verhaeren, James Ensor (Brussels, G. Van Oest)

Art and architecture

Buildings

• Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk, Ostend (begun 1899)

Films

• Durch Brüssel in 10 Minuten (9-minute documentary).^[5]

Births

• 2 January – André Verbeke, architect (died 1978)
• 23 January – Stanislas-André Steeman, writer (died 1970)
• 14 March – Joseph André, priest (died 1973)
• 14 May – Jules Lismonde, artist (died 2001)
• 20 September – Simon Dewinter, boxer (died 1972)
• 4 October – Celeste van Exem, missionary (died 1993)
• 16 November – Emmanuelle Cinquin, religious sister (died 2008)
• 24 November – Hubert Ansiaux, banker (died 1987)
• 28 November – Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropologist (died 2009)

Deaths

• 4 February – Albert Lancaster (born 1849), meteorologist
• 6 February – Jan Portielje (born 1829), painter
• 22 February – Édouard van den Corput (born 1821), physician
• 10 May – Eugène Lafont (born 1837), missionary
• 5 June – Jef Lambeaux (born 1852), sculptor
• 21 June – Luís Cruls (born 1848), astronomer
• 19 June – Louis van Waefelghem (born 1840), viola d'amore player
• 4 August – Piet Verhaert (born 1852), painter
• 24 December – François-Auguste Gevaert (born 1828), musicologist

References