Notable Historical Events - 2008
2008 Historical Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
Jan 1 |
A New Hampshire law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples comes into effect. |
Jan 1 |
Malta and Cyprus officially adopt the Euro currency and become the fourteenth and fifteenth Eurozone countries. |
Jan 8 |
New Jersey officially apologizes for slavery, becoming the first Northern state to do so. |
Jan 8 |
34th People's Choice Awards: Johnny Depp & Reese Witherspoon win (Movie Star) and Patrick Dempsey & Katherine Heigl win (TV) |
Jan 8 |
Joe Gibbs retires, for the second time, as head coach of the Washington Redskins |
Jan 18 |
The United Nations announce George Clooney as a UN messenger of peace |
Jan 21 |
Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%. |
Jan 21 |
The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies. |
Feb 3 |
Super Bowl XLII: New York Giants beat New England Patriots, 17-14 at the University of Phoenix Stadium MVP: Eli Manning, New York, QB |
Feb 5 |
A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States leaves at least 58 dead, the most since the May 31, 1985 outbreak that killed 88. |
Feb 8 |
Nebraska bans electric chair as sole execution method. |
Feb 10 |
The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damages Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea. |
Feb 10 |
50th Grammy Awards: Rehab, Amy Winehouse wins |
Feb 10 |
NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 42-30 |
Feb 11 |
In East Timor, assassination attempts were made on Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta. Both failed. |
Feb 13 |
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes an historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. |
Feb 14 |
Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 24 casualties; 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injured. |
Feb 17 |
Kosovo declares independence from Serbia. |
Feb 19 |
Toshiba announces its formal recall of its HD DVD video formatting, ending the format war between it and Sony's Blu-Ray Disc |
Feb 23 |
a B-2 Spirit of the USAF crashes at Guam. The crew survived but the aircraft was written off, making it the most expensive air crash in human history (the aircraft alone cost $1.2Bn). The B-2 had a perfect safety record before the crash; not one B-2 ever crashed. |
Feb 23 |
28th Golden Raspberry Awards: I Know Who Killed Me wins |
Feb 24 |
Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years. |
Feb 24 |
80th Academy Awards - "No Country for Old Men," Daniel Day-Lewis & Marion Cotillard win |
Feb 28 |
Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile. |
Mar 2 |
Riots in Yerevan, Armenia concerning the Armenian presidential election, 2008 come to a fatal end, with police forces clashing with civilians in their peaceful protest, resulting in 8 deaths. |
Mar 13 |
Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000.00 an ounce for the first time. |
Mar 17 |
New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer resigns after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute. David Paterson becomes acting New York State governor. |
Mar 19 |
GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye was briefly observed on this day. |
Mar 22 |
The French Swimmer Alain Bernard sets the world record of 47.50 for the 100 m freestyle long course after winning the European LC Championships 2008. |
Mar 24 |
Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election. |
Mar 31 |
Aloha Airlines, a bankrupt airline, permanently ends passenger service |
Apr 4 |
The raid on the FLDS owned ranch called the YFZ Ranch in Texas, 401 children were taken into custody. 133 woman were taken into state custody also, the total number of woman and children is 534. |
Apr 8 |
The construction of the world's first building to integrate wind turbines completes, in Bahrain. |
Apr 13 |
72nd Golf Masters Championship: Trevor Immelman wins, shooting a 280 |
Apr 14 |
42nd CMT Music Awards: Taylor Swift & Trace Adkins wins |
Apr 16 |
Start of Papal Journey of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States |
Apr 20 |
Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race. |
Apr 21 |
The United States Air Force retires the F-117 Nighthawk. |
Apr 30 |
Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia, were confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters. |
Apr 30 |
Heidi Klum launches her clothing line for Jordache |
May 1 |
The London Agreement on translation of European patents, concluded in 2000, enters into force in 14 of the 34 Contracting States to the European Patent Convention. |
May 2 |
Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless. |
May 2 |
The critically acclaimed "Iron Man", starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, is released |
May 3 |
134th Kentucky Derby: Kent Desormeaux aboard Big Brown wins in 2:01.82 |
May 4 |
Seth MacFarlane reaches an agreement worth $100 million with Fox to keep "Family Guy" and "American Dad" on television until 2012, making MacFarlane the world's highest paid television writer |
May 6 |
Chaiten Volcano erupts in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people. |
May 10 |
Philippine court acquits Imelda Marcos in a 17-year-old case of 32 counts of illegal transfer of wealth totaling $863 million in Swiss bank accounts. |
May 12 |
2008 Wenchuan earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people |
May 15 |
California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional. |
May 17 |
134th Preakness: Kent Desormeaux aboard Big Brown wins in 1:54.80 |
May 23 |
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries. |
May 25 |
Indianapolis 500: Scott Dixon wins in 3:28:57.6792 (231.049 km/h) |
May 28 |
The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty. |
May 31 |
Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint, with a wind-legal (+1.7m/s) 9.72 seconds. |
Jun 1 |
A fire at the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood destroys several icons from movies, such as Courthouse Square, the clock tower from Back to the Future, and the King Kong exhibit on the studio tour. |
Jun 7 |
140th Belmont: Alan Garcia aboard Da Tara wins in 2:29.65 |
Jun 8 |
The Akihabara massacre took place on the Sunday-pedestrian-zoned Chūōdōri street. A man killed seven in an attack on a crowd using a truck and a dagger. |
Jun 8 |
54th LPGA Championship won by Yani Tseng |
Jun 10 |
The Gora Prai airstrike by the United States reportedly kills 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops. |
Jun 11 |
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an official historic apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to a residential school abuse in which children were isolated from their homes, families and cultures for a century. |
Jun 12 |
Ireland rejects the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum, thus putting into question the reform programme of the European Union. |
Jun 15 |
62nd Tony Awards: In the Heights & August: Osage County win |
Jun 16 |
108th US Golf Open: Tiger Woods shoots a 283 at Torrey Pines GC CA |
Jun 17 |
First day of legal same-sex marriage in California |
Jun 17 |
62nd NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat Los Angeles Lakers, 4 games to 2 |
Jun 25 |
Atlantis Plastics shooting, An employee shot and killed five people after an argument, which ended in the gunman's suicide in Henderson, Kentucky. |
Jun 26 |
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v. Heller that the ban on handguns in the District of Columbia is unconstitutional. |
Jun 27 |
Bill Gates steps down as Chairman of Microsoft Corporation to work full time for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. |
Jun 29 |
Thomas Beatie, the world's first pregnant man, gives birth to a daughter. |
Jul 1 |
Denmark is the first European economy to confirm it is in recession since the global credit crunch began; its GDP shrinks 0.6% in the first quarter after a 0.2% contraction in the fourth quarter of 2007 |
Jul 2 |
Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other FARC hostages are rescued by the Colombian armed forces. |
Jul 6 |
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Jul 6 |
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Jul 10 |
Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all charges by a UN Tribunal accusing him of war crimes. |
Jul 16 |
79th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 4-3 at Yankee Stadium, New York |
Jul 20 |
137th British Golf Open: Pádraig Harrington shoots a 283 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club |
Jul 20 |
16th ESPY Awards: Tiger Woods, Candace Parker win |
Jul 21 |
Bosnian-Serb war criminal Radovan Karadžić is arrested in Serbia and is indicted by the UN's ICTY tribunal. |
Jul 23 |
Cape Verde joins the World Trade Organization, becoming its 153rd member. |
Jul 28 |
The historic Weston-super-Mare Grand Pier burns down for a second time in 80 years. |
Aug 3 |
Morgan Freeman is injured in an automobile accident near Ruleville, Mississippi, when his car flipped over several times on the highway |
Aug 6 |
Access 31 TV stops broadcasting in Perth, Western Australia. |
Aug 6 |
A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'etat in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi |
Aug 7 |
Georgia launches a military offensive to surround and capture the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, from Russian control, starting the South Ossetia War. |
Aug 8 |
Georgian invasion into South Ossetia. Begin of five-day war between Georgia and Russia. |
Aug 10 |
90th PGA Championship: Pádraig Harrington shoots a 277 at Oakland Hills Country Club |
Aug 13 |
The Baltic state slides into recession with a 0.9% fall in second-quarter GDP after a drop of 0.5% in the first quarter; it falls deeper into recession in the third quarter when the economy contracted 3.3% |
Aug 15 |
Lee Berger and his nine-year-old son, Matthew, discover the two-million-year-old fossils of a new species of human ancestor (Australopithecus sediba) at Malapa Cave, South Africa |
Aug 16 |
Usain Bolt sets a new 100 metres dash world record of 9.69 seconds at the Beijing 2008 summer olympics. |
Aug 18 |
President Of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf resigned due to pressure from opposition. |
Aug 20 |
Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. 146 people are killed in the crash, 8 more die afterwards. Only 18 people survive. |
Aug 26 |
Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia. |
Aug 27 |
Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States |
Sep 7 |
The US Government takes control of the two largest largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. |
Sep 7 |
25th MTV Awards: Britney Spears & Chris Brown wins |
Sep 8 |
Latvia joins its northern neighbor Estonia in recession as GDP falls 0.2% in the second quarter from the first quarter, when it fell 0.3%; property markets and construction have suffered in both Baltic states |
Sep 10 |
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in the history of mankind is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland. |
Sep 13 |
Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston and surrounding areas. |
Sep 16 |
Rentrer en soi announces that they would be breaking up. |
Sep 17 |
The IAU named another dwarf planet, Haumea |
Sep 19 |
Greg Maddux pitches his 5,000th career inning against the San Francisco Giants |
Sep 21 |
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the two last remaining independent investment banks on Wall Street, become bank holding companies as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis. |
Sep 21 |
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa resigns from office, effective September 25. |
Sep 21 |
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel formally resigns from office, effective as soon as his successor Tzipi Livni has successfully assembled a new government. |
Sep 21 |
The final home game is played at Yankee Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles. |
Sep 21 |
60th Emmy Awards: Mad Men, 30 Rock, Bryan Cranston & Glenn Close win |
Sep 25 |
China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7. |
Sep 25 |
The "Celtic Tiger" slides into recession for the first time in over two decades, recording a 0.5% fall in second quarter GDP, following a 0.3% decline in the first quarter; its last recession in 1983 saw thousands of people leave Ireland to seek work overseas |
Sep 26 |
Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel. |
Sep 27 |
CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7. |
Sep 27 |
Greg Maddux wins his final start of his career (#355) |
Sep 28 |
SpaceX launches the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit. |
Sep 29 |
Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history. |
Oct 3 |
The $700 billion bailout bill for the US financial system is signed by President George W. Bush |
Oct 3 |
OJ Simpson found guilty of charges of kidnapping and armed robbery |
Oct 10 |
Singapore becomes the first Asian country to slip into a recession since the credit crisis began: growth has faltered as a result of less demand for exports, a reduction in tourism, and the end of the real-estate boom |
Oct 12 |
Anna Kournikova and Andy Roddick defeat Martina Navratilova and Jesse Levine in a match for charity, raising over $400,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund |
Oct 13 |
HM Treasury infused £37 billion ($64 billion, 47 billion euros) of new capital-bailout into Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Lloyds TSB and HBOS Plc, to avert a financial sector collapse. |
Oct 22 |
India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1. |
Oct 23 |
Joe Sakic scores his final career goal (#625) against the Edmonton Oilers |
Oct 24 |
"Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices. |
Oct 24 |
Iceland receives a £1.3 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the first European country to require an emergency loan with the aim of stabilising the collapsed currency and strengthening the tax system as well as the nationalised banks |
Oct 27 |
The banking group BNP Paribas states that Australia is in a risky position with regards to the global financial crisis as foreign liabilities accounted for 60% of the nation's GDP |
Oct 28 |
In the UK, 500,000 mortgage holders are left in negative equity after house prices drop 15% since the previous summer |
Oct 29 |
Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to 5. |
Oct 29 |
The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series to become champions of Major League Baseball. |
Nov 4 |
Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States |
Nov 11 |
The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) set sail on her final voyage to Dubai. |
Nov 12 |
42nd Country Music Association Award: Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood & Brad Paisley wins |
Nov 13 |
Germany's economy, Europe's largest , contracted by 0.5% in the third quarter after GDP fell 0.4% in the second quarter, putting it in recession for the first time in five years |
Nov 13 |
Equity research by Deutsche Bank states that Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines should not experience a recession, despite potential harm to economic growth from falling commodity prices and possible weaker exports |
Nov 14 |
Italy plunges into recession, its first since the start of 2005, after GDP contracts a steeper-than-expected 0.5% in the third quarter |
Nov 14 |
Hong Kong becomes the second Asian economy to tip into recession, its exports hit by weakening global demand |
Nov 14 |
Eurozone officially slips into recession for the first time since its creation in 1999, pushed down by recessions in Germany and Italy |
Nov 17 |
Japan, the world's second-biggest economy, slides into its first recession in seven years |
Nov 20 |
After critical failures in the US financial system began to build up after mid-September, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level since 1997. |
Nov 22 |
YouTube hosts the largest ever live broadcast, YouTube Live. |
Nov 22 |
Patrick Roy's #33 jersey is retired by the Montreal Canadiens |
Nov 23 |
35th American Music Award: Rihanna & Chris Brown win |
Nov 23 |
97th Davis Cup: Spain beats Argentina in Mar del Plata (3-1) |
Nov 23 |
96th CFL Grey Cup: Calgary Stampeders defeats Montreal Alouettes, 22-14 |
Nov 23 |
Economists at the University of Hawaii report that the state entered the recession in the previous quarter based on the drop in tourist figures and growing unemployment, with 8,800 jobs expected to be cut in 2009 |
Nov 25 |
A car bomb in St. Petersburg, Russia, kills three people and injures one |
Nov 26 |
Terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India: Ten coordinated attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists kill 164 and injure more than 250 people in Mumbai, India. |
Nov 28 |
Canada remains the only OECD country out of the recession at this time |
Nov 28 |
Sweden technically enters the recession after experiencing contraction of 0.1% in the second and third quarter |
Dec 1 |
The US economy has been in recession since December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research announces today |
Dec 2 |
Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat resigns after the 2008 Thailand political crisis |
Dec 5 |
Human remains previously found in 1991 are finally identified by Russian and American scientists as those of Tsar Nicholas II. |
Dec 5 |
OJ Simpson is sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery |
Dec 6 |
American pin-up model Bettie Page (85) is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a heart attack |
Dec 8 |
Kirsty Williams elected as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. The first female leader of a political party in Wales. |
Dec 9 |
The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged crimes including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency |
Dec 11 |
Bernard Madoff arrested and charged with securities fraud in $50 billion Ponzi scheme |
Dec 12 |
Andrei Klepach, a deputy economics minister of Russia, states that Russia has entered the recession, with two quarters of contraction expected, meaning Russia will fall short of reaching the 6.8% growth forecast for 2008 |
Dec 14 |
President George W. Bush made his fourth and final (planned) trip to Iraq as president and almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during a farewell conference in Baghdad. |
Dec 25 |
Phil Jackson becomes the sixth coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games |
Dec 28 |
The Detroit Lions finished the season 0-16 with a 31-21 lost to the Green Bay Packers The first time in National Football League history that a team went winless in a 16-game season. |
Dec 30 |
NFL head coach Mike Shanahan is fired by the Denver Broncos |
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