He was made captain of the battleship HMS Queen on 15 December 1908 until replaced 4 January 1910.

It was first shown in Melbourne, Australia on 26 December 1906 and in the UK in January 1908.

The Motion Picture Patents Company ( MPPC, also known as the Edison Trust ), founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies ( Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Selig, Lubin, Kalem, American Star, American Pathé ), the leading film distributor ( George Kleine ) and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak.

* December 23 – John P. Davies, American diplomat ( b. 1908 )

* December 6 – Don Ameche, American actor ( b. 1908 )

* December 28, 1908 — An earthquake and tsunami destroys Messina, Sicily and Calabria, killing over 70, 000 people.

* December 30 – Lew Ayres, American actor ( b. 1908 )

* December 7 – Will Lee, American actor who played Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street ( b. 1908 )

* December 19 – Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea ( executed ) ( b. 1908 )

* December 15 – Edward Underdown, stage and film veteran ( b. 1908 )

* December 20 – Kurt Böhme, German bass ( b. 1908 )

* December 7 – Redvers Buller, British general and Victoria Cross recipient ( d. 1908 )

* December 15 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1908 )

* December 9 – Joel Chandler Harris, American writer ( d. 1908 )

Oldest city in the region, despite its ancient foundation-Ρηγιον was an important and flourishing colony of Magna Graecia-it boasts a modern urban system, set up after the catastrophic earthquake on December 28, 1908, which destroyed most of the city.

On December 28, 1908, at exactly 5: 21 AM, the town was hit by a heavy earthquake and shook violently for 31 seconds.

Antoine Henri Becquerel ( 15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908 ) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and the discoverer of radioactivity along with Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie, for which all three won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The city was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake and associated tsunami on the morning of December 28, 1908, killing about 60, 000 people and destroying most of the ancient architecture.

Great Britain passed a law in 1908 prohibiting its use in matches after 31 December 1910.

After Johnson became the first African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World on December 26, 1908, his World Colored Heavyweight Championship was vacated.

Johnson finally won the world heavyweight title on December 26, 1908, a full six years after lightweight champion Joe Gans became the first African American boxing champion.

William Harvey Carney ( February 29, 1840 – December 8, 1908 ) was an African American soldier during the American Civil War who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Fort Wagner.

* 1908, Armoured cruiser Gneisenau, sunk December 1914 in the Battle of the Falkland Islands by Royal Navy

In December 1908, Burns became the first fighter to agree to a heavyweight championship bout with an African American boxer, Jack Johnson, to whom he lost his title in a match held in Sydney.

On December 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell ( 1855 – 1884 ), whom he had met two months earlier ; she was an employee at one of his shops.

William Joseph Hammer, a consulting electrical engineer, began his duties as a laboratory assistant to Edison in December

Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park.

On December 17, 1880, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company.

Decommissioned on December 1, 1983, Thomas A. Edison was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on April 30, 1986.

Thomas Edison of Milan, Ohio established Edison Illuminating Company on December 17, 1880.

* December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

In December 1960, Lee completed his high school education and received his diploma from Edison Technical School ( now Seattle Central Community College, located on Capitol Hill, Seattle ).

Between December 2, 2009 and December 6, 2009, Moreno Valley, along with Edison lit up the " M " in celebration of the city's 25th anniversary.

However, on 27 December 1906, she was hired by the Edison Manufacturing Company to play Daniel Boone's daughter in Daniel Boone ; or, Pioneer days in America.

" Edison applied for a U. S. patent on December 1877 and shortly thereafter demonstrated the machine to publishers, the U. S. congress and President Hayes, recording and playing " Mary had a little lamb ... " and " there was a little girl who had a little curl ... " and other ditties popular at the time.

After the Edison factory fire of December 1914, the Amberola line was simplified in mechanical and cabinet design resulting in the Amberola 30, 50, and 75 ( each serial number indicating the initial retail price of each player ).

Thomas Edison State College was approved by the New Jersey Board of Education in December 1971, and established on July 1, 1972.

On December 17, 2006, the father of contemporary bungee jumping, A J Hackett, and popular artist Edison Chen broke two Guinness World Records at the Macau Tower.

* December 22-A. Edison Stairs, businessman and politician, New Brunswick MLA ( 1960 – 1978 ) and Minister of Finance ( 1974 – 1976 ), natural causes ( d. 2010 )

In December 2000, Citron and Carlos Bhola, an investment banker, unveiled a new name for entity ; " Vonage .” The name borrows Pulver's " VON " acronym for " Voice on the Net " and the temporal meaning of the word " age ," combining to form " Vonage .” In January 2001, the newly incorporated Vonage moved to Edison, NJ.

It transferred to the Edison Theatre on December 3, 1975 and remained there until December 5, 1976, running for a total of 453 performances.

Earle Lewis Ovington ( December 20, 1879-July 21, 1936 ) was an American aeronautical engineer, aviator and inventor, and served as a lab assistant to Thomas Edison.