1908 births

Elio Vittorini (Italian: [ˈɛːljo vittoˈriːni] ; 23 July 1908 – 12 February 1966) was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of Cesare Pavese and an influential voice in the modernist school of novel writing. His best-known work, in English speaking countries, is the anti-fascist novel Conversations in Sicily, for which he was jailed when it was published in 1941. The first U.S. edition of the novel, published in 1949, included an introduction from Ernest Hemingway, whose style influenced Vittorini and that novel in particular.

Leonardo Sinisgalli (1908–1981) was an Italian poet and art critic active from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Sinisgalli was born in Montemurro, Basilicata. His early education and career led to him being called the "engineer poet".
In 1925, Sinisgalli moved to Rome where he studied engineering and mathematics. After completing his engineering degree in 1932, he moved to Milan where he worked as an architect and graphic artist. He was a close friend of the poet Giuseppe Ungaretti and painter Scipione. He worked at Milan for architecture and graphic design projects.
Sinisgalli's early collections such as Cuore (1927), 18 poesie (1936), Campi Elisi (1939) focused on themes from ancestral southern Italian myths. Later he explored a more relaxed style in I nuovi Campi Elisi (1947), La vigna vecchia (1952), L'età della luna (1962), Il passero e il lebbroso (1970), Mosche in bottiglia (1975) and Dimenticatoio (1978). He authored prose that analyzed the conflicts of existentialism and realism such as Fiori pari, fiori dispari (1945) and Belliboschi (1948). He also explored the scientific culture of the day in Furor mathematicus (1944) and Horror vacui (1945).
Sinisgalli founded and managed the magazine Civiltà delle Macchine (1953–1959), and was a member of the Scuola Romana. He also created two documentaries which consecutively won the Biennale di Venezia awards and edited radio broadcasting programmes.
He died in Rome in 1981.

Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908 – 5 December 1989) was an Italian physicist. He coined the term "neutrino" in conversations with Enrico Fermi distinguishing it from the heavier "neutron". He has been described as "one of the leading nuclear physicists of the twentieth century." He was involved in the anti-nuclear peace movement.

George Langelaan (19 January 1908 – 9 February 1972) was a French-British writer and journalist born in Paris, France.
He is best known for his 1957 short story "The Fly", which was the basis for the 1958 and 1986 sci-fi/horror films and a 2008 opera of the same name.

Yvonne Godard (3 March 1908 – 22 September 1975) was a French swimmer who won a gold and a bronze medal at the 1931 European Championships in the 100 m and 400 m freestyle. She competed in these events at the 1932 Summer Olympics and finished fifth in the 400 m.

Fritz Witt (27 May 1908 – 14 June 1944) was a Waffen-SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served with the SS Division Leibstandarte before taking command of the SS Division Hitlerjugend. He was killed in action in June 1944.

Robley Cook Williams (October 13, 1908 – January 3, 1995) was an early biophysicist and virologist. He served as the first president of the Biophysical Society.

Jan Verdoodt (1908–1980) came from Sint-Pieters-Jette in Belgium. He attended the Academie van Sint-Jans-Molenbeek from 1926, under Frans Persoons, where he was attracted equally by Realism (in the work of Eugène Laermans) and Surrealism (in Magritte's paintings). He developed his own style by combining these two schools, creating 'a kind of magic realism in which dream and reality, woman and nature, were intimately bound together'.

Adrien Anneet (15 November 1908 – ?) was a Belgian boxer who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics. He was born in Brussels.In 1928 he was eliminated in the second round of the welterweight class after losing his fight to Cor Blommers.

Mark Schorer (May 17, 1908 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin.