2008.html



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:

• International Year of Languages;^[1]
• International Year of Planet Earth;^[2]
• International Year of the Potato;^[3]
• International Year of Sanitation;^[4]
• European Year of Intercultural Dialogue;^[5]

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

Events

January

• January 1 - Smoking banned in all public places (including bars and restaurants) in Portugal, France and the U.S. states of Illinois and Arizona.
• January 1 - Cyprus, Malta, and Akrotiri and Dhekelia adopt the euro.^[6][7]
• January 1 - Slovenia takes over the presidency of European Union as the first of new member states.^[8]
• 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 3 - The first caucuses in the 2008 U.S. presidential primary season for both Democrats and Republicans were held in Iowa.
• January 4 - The 30th Dakar Rally is cancelled due to international political tension and the murder of four French tourists on December 24, 2007.
• 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 - The Kuomintang (KMT)-led Pan-Blue Coalition wins the legislative elections in Taiwan with over 70% of the votes.
• January 12 - A Macedonian Army Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes in thick fog southeast of Skopje, killing all 11 military personnel on board.^[9]
• January 13 - Katsuaki Watanabe, President and CEO of Toyota, announces that they will deliver a significant fleet of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), powered by lithium-ion batteries, by 2010.

MESSENGER assembly at Astrotech.

• January 14 - At 19:04:39 UTC, the MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.^[10]
• January 15 - Federal Court of Australia orders a Japanese whaling company to stop research whaling within their Exclusive Economic Zone.
• January 20 - Presidential election in Serbia.
• January 20 - Legislative elections in Cuba.
• 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, amid deteriorating relations with the West. 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 - Peter Hain resigns as British Wales Secretary and British Work and Pensions Secretary after the Electoral Commission refers the failure to report donations to the Metropolitan Police.

The new flag of Iraq.

• 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 24 - Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi resigns his post after losing the vote of confidence in the Senate.
• 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.^[11]
• January 29 - Iran's judiciary sentences to prison 54 Bahá'í religion followers for charity work.^[12][13]
• January 29 - King Bhumibol Adulyadej swears in Samak Sundaravej as the new Prime Minister of Thailand.^[14]
• January 30 - The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare warns that traces of pesticides in Chinese dumplings and other products manufactured in Hebei Province, China have caused mass food poisoning.^[15]

February

• February 2 - Rebels attack the capital of Chad, N'Djamena.
• February 2 - French president Nicolas Sarkozy marries Carla Bruni.^[16]
• February 3 - Boris Tadić is re-elected in the second round of the Serbian presidential elections.
• February 3 - Parliamentary elections in Monaco.
• February 4 - Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket to space.^[17]
• February 4 - A Palestinian suicide bomber kills one and wounds thirteen in a Dimona, Israel shopping center.^[18]

Primaries and caucuses in U.S. presidential election are held in 24 states.

• February 5 - Super Tuesday, massive multi-state primary in U.S. presidential election, with primaries and caucuses in 24 states, is held.
• 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-February 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 7 - General election called for Belize's 31 House seats; a referendum to be held simultaneously to determine whether the upper house should be elected.
• 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.^[19]
• February 12 - PDVSA, a state oil company in Venezuela, has suspended sales of crude oil to Exxon Mobil, in response to a legal challenge by them.^[20]
• February 12 - Steven Spielberg announces that he will no longer act as artistic director for opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing because the Chinese government hasn't done enough to help end ethnic conflict in Darfur.^[21]
• February 12 - Bridgestone, under investigation for an alleged price-fixing cartel, uncovers improper payments of at least 150 million yen to foreign governments and withdrew from the marine hose business.^[22]
• February 13 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.^[23]
• February 13 - Prime Minister of Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dissolves the Malaysian parliament.^[24]
• February 14 - Steven Kazmierczak shoots dead five students and injures another 18 at Northern Illinois University.
• February 16 - Václav Klaus is re-elected as the President of the Czech Republic.

Flag of Kosovo

• February 17 - Complete Smoking ban including nightclubs, pubs, and bars, takes in effect in Thailand.^[25]
• February 17 - A suicide bombing by a Taliban member kills up to 80 in Kandahar, Afghanistan^[26]
• February 17 - Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, despite opposition from Serbia, Russia, China, Spain, Romania, and other nations. However Albania, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, U.K., and U.S. express support after an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.^[27]
• February 17 - Presidential election in Cyprus.
• February 18 - The British government introduces emergency legislation temporarily to nationalize Northern Rock, the fifth largest mortgage bank in the UK, due to NR's financial crisis.^[28]
• 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.^[29]
• February 19 - Crude oil closes above $100 USD per barrel for the first time ever, settling at $100.01.
• February 19 - Fidel Castro announces his resignation as President of Cuba, to be effective on February 24.
• February 19 - Presidential election in Armenia.
• 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.^[30]
• February 20 - Total lunar eclipse - North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Western Asia.
• February 21 - Hundreds of thousands of Serbs take to the streets in Belgrade to protest against Kosovo's declaration of independence and the partial international recognition of it.

Raúl Castro

• 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 - Dimitris Christofias is elected President of Cyprus after the second round of voting in the country's presidential election.
• February 24 - Raúl Castro is unanimously elected as President of Cuba by the National Assembly.
• February 24 - The 80th Academy Awards, hosted by Jon Stewart, are held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California^[31], with No Country for Old Men winning Best Picture.^[32]
• February 25 - Lee Myung-bak starts his five-year term as the 17th President of South Korea.
• February 27 - Jemaah Islamiyah leader Mas Selamat bin Kastari escapes from a detention center in Singapore.^[33]
• February 28 - Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile.^[34]

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 Russian presidential election: Dmitry Medvedev is elected President of Russia with about 70% of the vote. He is scheduled to succeed Vladimir Putin in May.^[35]
• 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 3 - UN Security Council Resolution 1803 on Iran's Nuclear Program.^[36][37]
• March 6 - Eight Israeli civilians are killed and nine wounded when a Palestinian attacker opens fire at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
• March 8 - General election in Malaysia: First time since the 1969 elections that the Barisan Nasional coalition fails to win a two-thirds supermajority in the Dewan Rakyat.

Dmitry Medvedev

• March 8 - General election in Malta.
• March 9 - General election in Spain: The governing PSOE led by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is re-elected with the most seats in the Congress of Deputies.
• 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 14 - Legislative election in Iran.
• March 15 - In Albania a huge explosion of a gun factory in Gerdec kills more than 30 people. On the next 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.^[38]
• March 20 - A permanent coalition government agreement is reached in Belgium, ending a nine-month stalemate, as Yves Leterme is sworn in as Prime Minister.
• March 20 - The United States enacts economic sanctions against Iran.^{citation needed}
• March 22 - Republic of China presidential election is held in Taiwan. The Kuomintang (KMT) nominee Ma Ying-jeou won.
• March 24 - Bhutan holds its first-ever general elections.^[39]

Invasion of Anjouan

• March 25 - Yousaf Raza Gillani becomes the 27th Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 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.^[40]
• March 30 - A plane crashed into a row of houses in Farnborough, London, England, killing two pilots and three passengers.^[41]
• March-April - Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.

April

• April 3 - Albania and Croatia are invited to join NATO in 2009. The membership bid of the Republic of Macedonia is rejected due to opposition by Greece.^[42] Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro engage in an Intensified Dialogue with NATO.
• April 3 - Officers in the U.S. state of Texas raid the YFZ Ranch,^[43][44] ultimately removing more than 500 women and children,^[45] following allegations of abuse by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
• April 6 - Presidential election in Montenegro.
• April 8 - Sark dismantled its feudal system to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Privy Council approved the Sark law reforms,^[46] and the first elections under the new law will be held in December 2008 and the new chamber will first convene in January 2009.^[47][48][49]
• April 9 - Parliamentary elections in South Korea.

Pope Benedict XVI waves to a crowd upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, United States.

• April 10 - Assembly elections in Nepal: Maoists win a plurality of seats in the Assembly in the first election in Nepal in nine years.
• April 13 - Elections in Italy: The Silvio Berlusconi-led coalition, which consists of the People of Freedom, Lega Nord, and Movement for Autonomy parties, wins a majority of seats in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
• April 15 - A Hewa Bora Airways DC-9 commercial airplane crashes into a residential area of Goma, DR Congo.
• April 20 - Fernando Lugo is elected President of Paraguay. This is the first time in 61 years that the Colorado Party has lost a presidential election.
• 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.^[50]
• April 28 - India sets a world record by sending 10 satellites into orbit in a single launch.^[51]
• April 28 - 71 die in a train crash in Shandong, China.^[52]

May

The path of Cyclone Nargis

The epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake

• May 3 - Over 133,000 people in Myanmar are killed by Cyclone Nargis, the deadliest natural disaster since the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004.
• May 7 - Violence breaks out in Beirut, Lebanon and spreads to nearby areas over the next few days.
• May 7 - Brian Cowen is elected the 11th Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, succeeding Bertie Ahern, after a vote in the Dáil Éireann.
• May 7 - Dmitry Medvedev is sworn in as the President of Russia.
• May 8 - Vladimir Putin is confirmed as the 10th Prime Minister of Russia after a vote in the State Duma.
• May 8 - Silvio Berlusconi is sworn in as the 81st Prime Minister of Italy.
• May 10 - Myanmar holds a constitutional referendum.
• May 11 - Local and parliamentary elections in Serbia.
• May 12 - Over 69,000 are killed in central China by an earthquake measuring 7.9M_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 16 - Presidential election in the Dominican Republic.
• May 17 - Parliamentary elections are held in Kuwait.
• May 21 - Legislative elections are held in Georgia.
• 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 - Michel Sleiman is elected President of Lebanon by the Parliament. The election had been postponed 19 times due to a parliamentary stalemate.
• 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.

June

• June 1 - Parliamentary elections in the Republic of Macedonia.
• June 2 - A car bomb explodes outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad