Major Events
- Jan 21 Fears of a possible US recession cause a Black Monday for global stock markets, European stocks suffer their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%
- Feb 24 Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba due to ill health after nearly fifty years
- May 2 Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless
- May 12 Wenchuan earthquake, measuring 7.8 in magnitude occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 87,000, injuring 374,643 and leaving homeless between 4.8 million and 11 million people
- 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 29 Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, its largest single-day point loss, following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual
- Oct 24 In a "Bloody Friday" many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst decline in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices
- Nov 4 Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate John McCain
- More 2008 Events
2008 in Film & TV
- Jan 20 "Breaking Bad", created by Vince Gilligan and starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul premieres on AMC
- Feb 19 Toshiba announces its formal recall of its HD DVD video format, ending the format war between it and Sony's Blu-Ray Disc
- May 2 First film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe released: "Iron Man" directed by Jon Favreau, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark
- 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
2008 in Music
- Aug 19 Interscope Records releases "The Fame", the debut album by Lady Gaga (Grammy Award Album of the Year, Best Electronic/Dance Album 2009)
2008 in Sport
- Apr 20 Danica Patrick driving for Andretti Green Racing wins the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi; first female driver in history to win an IndyCar Series race
- Aug 13 American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins 3 gold medals, all in world record time, in the one day at the Beijing Olympics; 200m I/M (1:54.23), 200m butterfly (1.52.03) and 4 x 200m freestyle relay (6:58.56)
- Aug 16 Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt sets new world record of 9.69 seconds to win the coveted 100m gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics
- Aug 18 Belarus weightlifter Andrei Aramnau breaks 3 world records, for the snatch, clean & jerk, and total, on the way to winning the men's 105kg gold medal at the Beijing Olympics
- Aug 24 Summer Olympics in Beijing becomes the most watched event on TV ever - nearly 5 billion, 70% of world's population
Did You Know?
Detroit Lions crash to a 31-21 loss to Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field; first team in NFL history to go winless in a 16-game season
Born in 2008
- Apr 16 Princess Eléonore of Belgium, Belgian princess, born in Anderlecht, Belgium
- Jun 19 Maddie Aldridge, daughter of Jamie Lynn Spears
- Jul 15 Iain Armitage, American actor (Young Sheldon), born in Georgia
- Sep 29 Emma Tallulah Behn, Norwegian royal family member, daughter of Princess Marta Luisa
- Oct 3 Karolina Protsenko, Ukrainian-American pop violinist ("Despacito"), and YouTube sensation, born in Ukraine
Fun Fact About 2008
Iran's attempt to create the world's largest sandwich (1,500 metres) fails when crowds eat it before it can be measured
Suharto
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Arthur C. Clarke
Albert Hofmann
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Hua Guofeng
Heath Ledger
Charlton Heston
Sydney Pollack
Estelle Getty
Paul Newman
Bettie Page
Bo Diddley
Isaac Hayes
Edmund Hillary
Bobby Fischer
Sammy BaughMore 2008 Deaths
Famous Weddings in 2008
- Feb 2 23rd French Republic President Nicolas Sarkozy (53) weds supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni (39) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France
- Feb 2 American singer-actress Katharine McPhee (23) weds producer Nick Cokas (42) at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church in Beverly Hills, California; divorce in 2016
- Feb 14 Oasis singer Liam Gallagher (35) weds All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (33) at Westminster Register Office in London
Famous Divorces in 2008
- Jan 4 Australian pop diva Natalie Imbruglia (32) and "Silverchair" frontman Daniel Johns (28) announce their divorce stating "we have simply grown apart through not being able to spend enough time together"
- Feb 22 "Baywatch" actress Pamela Anderson (40) divorces Rick Salomon (39) due to irreconcilable differences only 2 months after getting married
- Mar 3 Actor Michael Biehn (52) divorces film producer Gina Marsh after 20 years of marriage
More 2008 Weddings
Kate Winslet
Michael Phelps
Roger Federer
Sean Penn
Angela Merkel
George W. Bush
Gordon Brown
Hu Jintao
Manmohan Singh
Vladimir Putin