2008

**2008 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	2008; MMVIII
Ab urbe condita	2761
Armenian calendar	1457; ԹՎ ՌՆԾԷ
Bahá'í calendar	164 – 165
Berber calendar	2958
Buddhist calendar	2552
Burmese calendar	1370
Byzantine calendar	7516 – 7517
Chinese calendar	丁亥年十一月廿三日; (4644/4704-11-23) — to — 戊子年十二月初五日; (4645/4705-12-5)
Coptic calendar	1724 – 1725
Ethiopian calendar	2000 – 2001
Hebrew calendar	5768 – 5769
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2063 – 2064
- Shaka Samvat	1930 – 1931
- Kali Yuga	5109 – 5110
Holocene calendar	12008
Iranian calendar	1386 – 1387
Islamic calendar	1428 – 1430
Japanese calendar	Heisei 20; (平成20年)
Korean calendar	4341
Thai solar calendar	2551
Unix time	1199145600 – 1230767999
	v • d • e

	2008 by topic:
	News by month
	Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun; Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec
	Arts
	Architecture - Art - Literature (Poetry) - Music (Country, Metal, UK) - Film - Television - Home video
	Politics
	Countries - Elections - Int'l leaders - Politics - State leaders - Sovereign states
	Science and technology
	Archaeology - Aviation - Birding/Ornithology - Meteorology - Rail transport - Science - Spaceflight
	Sports
	Sport - Athletics (Track and Field) - Australian Football League - Baseball - Football (soccer) - Ice Hockey - Motorsport - Tennis - National Rugby League
	By place
	Argentina - Australia - Canada - China -France - India - Iran - Iraq - Ireland - Japan - Kenya - Luxembourg - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand - Norway - Pakistan - Singapore - South Africa - United Kingdom - United States - Zimbabwe
	Other topics
	Deaths - Awards - Games - Law - Religious leaders - Video gaming
	Birth and death categories
	Births - Deaths
	Establishments and disestablishments categories
	Establishments - Disestablishments
	Works and introductions categories
	Works - Introductions v • d • e

Centuries:	20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
Decades:	1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years:	2005 2006 2007 - 2008 - 2009 2010 2011

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar.

2008 has been designated as:

In Chinese astrology, the Year of the Rat began on February 7, succeeding the Year of the Pig.

[edit] Events

[edit] January

MESSENGER assembly at Astrotech.

January 1 - Cyprus, Malta, and Akrotiri and Dhekelia adopt the euro.^[6]^[7]
January 1 - The Venezuelan bolívar, as a result of a government decree issued on March 7, 2007, is revalued at a ratio of 1 to 1000 and renamed the Bolívar fuerte (ISO 4217 code: VEF).
January 2 - The price of petroleum hits US$100 per barrel for the first time.
January 3 - A car bomb detonates, killing at least 4 and injuring 68, in Diyarbakır, Turkey. Police blame Kurdish rebels.
January 8 - An attempted assassination of Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is thwarted after a Boy Scout grabbed the attacker's knife. The Boy Scout was injured, but after a scuffle ensued police arrested the attacker.
January 12 - A Macedonian Army Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes in thick fog southeast of Skopje, killing all 11 military personnel on board.^[8]
January 14 - At 19:04:39 UTC, the MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.^[9]
January 15 - Federal Court of Australia orders a Japanese whaling company to stop research whaling within their Exclusive Economic Zone.
January 21 - Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.
January 22 - Russia stages the largest naval exercise since the fall of the Soviet Union in the Bay of Biscay. The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, along with 11 support vessels and 47 long-range bomber aircraft, practised strike tactics off the coast of France and Spain, and test-launched nuclear-capable missiles on foreign waters.
January 23 - Polish Air Force CASA C-295 crashes during approach to the 12th Air Base near Mirosławiec. All 20 personnel on board die.
January 23 - Thousands of Palestinians cross into Egypt, as the border wall with Gaza in Rafah is blown up by militants.
January 24 - A peace deal ends the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
January 24 - Iraqi Parliament adopts a new national flag, removing three stars associated with the Baath Party; a permanent design is expected within the next year.
January 25 - China's worst snowstorm since 1954 kills 133, delays traffic, and causes massive power outages in central and southern parts of the country.^[10]
January 29 - Iran's judiciary sentences to prison 54 Bahá'í religion followers for charity work.^[11]^[12]

[edit] February

Raúl Castro

February 2 - Rebels attack the capital of Chad, N'Djamena.
February 4 - Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket to space.^[13]
February 4 - A Palestinian suicide bomber kills one and wounds thirteen in a Dimona, Israel shopping center.^[14]
February 5 - U.S. stock market indices plunge more than 3% after a report showed signs of economic recession in the service-sector. The S&P 500 fell 3.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 370 points.
February 5–6 - A tornado outbreak, the deadliest in 23 years, kills 58 in the Southern United States.
February 7 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-122 to deliver the European-built Columbus science laboratory to the International Space Station.
February 10 - The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damages Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea.
February 11 - President of East Timor José Ramos-Horta is seriously wounded in an attack on his home by rebel soldiers. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado is killed by Ramos-Horta's security guards during the attack.^[15]
February 12 - PDVSA, a state oil company in Venezuela, suspends sales of crude oil to Exxon Mobil, in response to a legal challenge by them.^[16]
February 12 - Bridgestone, under investigation for an alleged price-fixing cartel, uncovers improper payments of at least 150 million Japanese Yen to foreign governments and withdraws from the marine hose business.^[17]
February 13 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.^[18]
February 14 - Steven Kazmierczak shoots dead five students and injures another 18 at Northern Illinois University before killing himself.
February 17 - A suicide bombing by a Taliban member kills up to 80 in Kandahar, Afghanistan^[19]
February 17 - Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, with support from some countries but opposition from others.^[20]
February 18 - The British government introduces emergency legislation temporarily to nationalize Northern Rock, the fifth largest mortgage bank in the UK, due to the bank's financial crisis.^[21]
February 18 - General election is held in Pakistan, delayed from January 8 due to riots in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Opposition parties, including Bhutto's, take more than half of the seats, while President Pervez Musharraf's party suffers a huge defeat.^[22]
February 19 - Fidel Castro announces his resignation as President of Cuba, effective on February 24.
February 20 - United States Navy destroys a spy satellite containing toxic fuel by shooting it down with a missile launched from USS Lake Erie in the Pacific ocean.^[23]
February 20 - Total lunar eclipse - North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Western Asia.
February 22 - No survivors are found after a rescue helicopter discovers the wreckage of Santa Barbara Flight 518 just northeast of Mérida, Venezuela. The commercial plane had 46 people on board, including crew.
February 24 - Raúl Castro is unanimously elected as President of Cuba by the National Assembly.

[edit] March

March 1 - In Gaza Strip at least 52 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers are killed in the most intense Israeli air strikes since 2005.
March 2 - 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis: Venezuela and Ecuador move troops to the Colombian border following a Colombian raid against FARC guerrillas inside Ecuador's national territory in which senior commander Raúl Reyes was killed.
March 6 - Eight Israeli civilians are killed and nine wounded when a Palestinian attacker opens fire at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
March 9 - First European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo spacecraft for the International Space Station, launches from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
March 14 - Demonstrations by Tibetan separatists turn violent as rioters target government and Han Chinese-owned buildings.
March 15 - In Albania a huge explosion of a gun factory in Gerdec kills more than 30 people. Over the following week, Albania, Kosovo and some surrounding countries supply and support Gerdec's population with food, blood etc.
March 19 - An exploding star halfway across the visible universe becomes the farthest known object ever visible to the naked eye.^[24]
March 24 - Bhutan holds its first-ever general elections.^[25]
March 25 - A 160-square-mile (414 km²) chunk of Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf disintegrates, leaving the entire shelf at risk.
March 25 - African Union and Comoros forces invade the rebel-held island of Anjouan.
March 29 - Presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe.^[26]
March 30 - A plane crashed into a row of houses in Farnborough, London, England, killing two pilots and three passengers.^[27]
March–April - Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.

[edit] April

April 8 - Sark dismantled its feudal system to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Privy Council approved the Sark law reforms,^[28] and the first elections under the new law will be held in December 2008 and the new chamber will first convene in January 2009.^[29]^[30]^[31]
April 15 - A Hewa Bora Airways DC-9 commercial airplane crashes into a residential area of Goma, DR Congo.
April 22 - Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into two blind patients.
April 27 - The Taliban attempts to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a military parade in Kabul.^[32]
April 28 - India sets a world record by sending 10 satellites into orbit in a single launch.^[33]
April 28 - 71 die in a train crash in Shandong, China.^[34]

[edit] May

May 3 - Over 133,000 in Burma/Myanmar are killed by Cyclone Nargis, the deadliest natural disaster since the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004.
May 10 - Burma/Myanmar holds a constitutional referendum.
May 12 - Over 69,000 are killed in central China by an earthquake measuring 8.0M_w. The epicenter is 90 kilometers (55 miles) west-northwest of Chengdu.
May 13 - A series of bomb blasts kills at least 63 and injures 216 in Jaipur, India.
May 15 - An oil pipeline explodes in Ijegun, Nigeria, killing 100.
May 23 - The Union of South American Nations, a supranational union, is created by a union between the Andean Community and Mercosur.
May 23 - The International Court of Justice awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
May 25 - NASA's Phoenix spacecraft lands on Mars.
May 28 - The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is established after the Assembly votes overwhemingly in favor of abolishing the country's 240-year-old monarchy. Girija Prasad Koirala becomes temporary Head of State.

[edit] June

June 2 - A car bomb explodes outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least five.
June 8 - In the Akihabara area of Tokyo, Japan, a 25-year-old man stabs 7 to death, and wounds 10, before being arrested.
June 10 - Fire engulfs Sudan Airways Flight 109 after landing in Khartoum, Sudan, killing 44.
June 11 - The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope is launched.
June 11 - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologizes to Canada's First Nations for the Canadian residential school system.
June 12 - Ireland votes to reject the Treaty of Lisbon, in the only referendum to be held by a European Union member state on the treaty.
June 14 - A 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, kills 12 and injures more than 400.
June 21 - The first veneration ever held outside Vatican City is held in Beirut, Lebanon.
June 22 - Typhoon Fengshen hits the Philippines and capsizes the ferry MV Princess of the Stars, leaving hundreds dead or missing.
June 27 - President Robert Mugabe is re-elected with 85.5% of the vote in the second round of the controversial Zimbabwean presidential election.

[edit] July

July 2 - Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC by Colombian security forces.
July 7 - A suicide-bomber drives an explosives-laden automobile into the front gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 58 and injuring over 150.
July 7 – July 9 - 34th G8 summit held in Tōyako, Hokkaidō in Japan.
July 10 - Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all charges by a UN Tribunal accusing him of war crimes.
July 15–20 - World Youth Day takes place in Sydney, Australia. Pope Benedict XVI appears at the event.^[35]
July 21 - Radovan Karadžić, the first president of the Republika Srpska, is arrested in Belgrade, Serbia on allegations of war crimes, following a 12-year long manhunt.^[36]
July 22 - The United Progressive Alliance led government in India survives a crucial no-confidence vote based on disagreements between Indian National Congress and Left Front over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
July 23 - Ram Baran Yadav is sworn in as Nepal's first President.^[37]
July 25 - A series of seven bomb blasts rock Bangalore, India killing 2 and injuring 20 and on the next day, a series of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, kills 45 and injures over 160 people.
July 27 - At least 17 are killed and over 154 wounded in two blasts in Istanbul.
July 28 - At least 48 are dead and over 287 injured after bombs explode in Baghdad and Kirkuk, Iraq.^[38]^[39]
July 30 – August 5 - The XXII World Congress of Philosophy takes place in Seoul, South Korea.^{[citation needed]}
July 31 - After three decades as the Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates steps down from daily duties.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] August

August 1 - King George Tupou V of Tonga is crowned as the new king of Tonga, an event that had been delayed for over two years following the 2006 Nuku'alofa riots.^[40]
August 4 - Two members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics, kill 16 and injure another 16 officers at a police station in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, in what is likely Xinjiang's deadliest terrorist attack.^[41]^[42]
August 6 - President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania is deposed in a military coup d'état.
August 7 - The 2008 South Ossetian War begins as Georgia launches a major offensive inside the separatist region of South Ossetia after days of border skirmishes between the two sides.
August 8–24 - The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.
August 15 - Pushpa Kamal Dahal (known as Prachanda) is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal after the Nepalese monarchy was abolished in May.^[43]
August 17 - Michael Phelps passes Mark Spitz in Olympic Gold Medals for one Olympic Games, with 8 gold medals.
August 18 - Pervez Musharraf resigned from the post of President of Pakistan under impeachment pressure from the coalition government.

[edit] Predicted and scheduled events

[edit] September

September 3 - Cyprus peace talks will take place in Nicosia, between the Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and the leader of the TRNC Mehmet Ali Talat.
September 10 - The proton beam will be for the first time circulated in the 27 km ring of the Large Hadron Collider (located at CERN, on the Franco-Swiss border). It is the largest particle physics laboratory on Earth.^[44]^[45]^[46]^[47]^[48]^[49]^[50]
September 19 - ISRO's Chandrayaan (Lunar Craft) will be launched.
September 21 - Slovenian parliamentary election.
September 28 - Austrian legislative election

[edit] October

October 6 - NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second flyby of Mercury (will be captured into Mercury's orbit on March 18, 2011).
October 8 - Space Shuttle Atlantis will begin mission STS-125, the final maintenance mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.^[51]
October 30 – November 16 - The inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup will be held in New Zealand.^[52]

[edit] November

November 4 - Election of the 44th President of the United States and the 47th Vice President. There will also be elections for many other US public offices, including the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and several state Governorships.
November 10 - STS 126, Space Shuttle Endeavour will be launched and it will deliver equipment and supplies to the International Space Station.
November 11 - RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her last voyage from Southampton to Dubai.
November 15 - New Zealand will hold a general election on or before this date.
November 20 - December 7 - 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup to be held in Chile.^[53]
November 22 - APEC Peru 2008 Summit in Lima.
November 23 - 96th Grey Cup to be held at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
November 25 - Greenland holds election for increased autonomy from Denmark.
November 28 - Legislative election in Romania.

[edit] December

December - Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Ghana.
December 4 - STS-119, Space Shuttle Discovery will bring the Integrated Truss Structure to the International Space Station.
December 6–14 - The 2008 Men's World Floorball Championships will take place in the Czech Republic.
December 15 - The Electoral College meets in 51 locations officially to elect the 44th President of the United States.
December 24 - The new I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis is scheduled to be completed after the bridge collapsed in August of 2007.

[edit] Unknown dates

The United Nations is to review drug policies around the world.^[54]^[55]
The "Simón Bolívar" Satellite, a result of an agreement between Venezuela and China, will be launched this year.^[56]

[edit] Ongoing events