The World in 1908 the year a cheap car arrived

The blast over Siberia knocked down trees across roughly 830 square miles. That is almost three times the area of New York City, in country so empty that no scientist went to look for nearly twenty years.

Life back then

Nine homes in ten had no electric light. Evenings ran on a kerosene lamp, and every morning somebody wiped its sooty glass chimney, trimmed the wick and filled the tank. Cooking and heat came from a stove that ate coal or wood, so fuel came in and ashes went out day after day. Families went to bed early, because reading by one weak flame was hard work. In town the lamplighter still walked his round at dusk with a pole.

The year in 8 events

• 🕯️Feb 1 Portugal's king and his eldest son are shot dead in their carriage in Lisbon. A younger son is left to take the throne.
• 🛢️May 26 Drillers strike oil at Masjid-i-Suleiman in Persia. It is the first big oil field found in the Middle East.
• ☄️Jun 30 Something explodes above the Tunguska river in Siberia and levels a vast stretch of forest. No deaths are recorded.
• 📜Jul 24 Young army officers force the Ottoman sultan to bring back parliament and the constitution. Crowds celebrate in Constantinople.
• ✈️Aug 8 Wilbur Wright flies before a French crowd at Le Mans. The doubters go quiet.
• 🔧Oct 1 Ford puts the Model T on sale. It is plain, tough and cheap enough for ordinary buyers.
• 👑Nov 15 The empress dowager Cixi dies in Beijing, a day after the emperor. A boy of two named Puyi is picked to rule China.
• 🕯️Dec 28 A powerful earthquake and a sea wave strike Messina and Reggio in southern Italy. Tens of thousands of people die.

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