2008

2008 Time Line

January 2: The price of petroleum reaches $100 a barrel in the United States
January 11: Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest, dies
January 17: Former chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer dies
January 21: Worldwide stock markets plummet
January 22: American actor Heath Ledger dies
January 24: Parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo agree to peacefully end the Kivu conflict
January 28: President George W. Bush's last State of the Union speech

February 3: The New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots to become the Super Bowl Champions
February 4: Iran launches its first rocket into outer space
February 5&6: Tornadoes kill over 50 people in the Southern United States
February 10: 50th Grammy Award ceremony in Los Angeles
February 17: Kosovo declares independence from Serbia
February 12: The Writers Guild Strike ends
February 19: Fidel Castro resigns as President of Cuba
February 20: Total lunar eclipse in the Western Hemisphere
February 24: Jon Stewart hosts the 80th Academy Awards

March 1: More than 50 are killed during an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip
March 4: John McCain becomes the Republican candidate for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
March 10-16: Protests in Tibet are met with violence from Chinese officials, killing up to 80 people
March 19: Science Fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke dies
March 24: Bhutan holds its first elections
March 28: Elections are held in Zimbabwe

April 5: American actor and former NRA president Charlton Heston dies
April 15-20: Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States
April 18: A 5.2 magnitude earthquake hits Illinois
April 22: London doctors perform the first bionic eye transplants
April 28: India launches ten satellites into orbit at once, setting a new record

June 1: Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent dies
June 7: Hillary Clinton endorses Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee
June 12: Irish voters reject the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum
June 13: American journalist Tim Russert dies
June 22: Comedian George Carlin dies
June 27: Robert Mugabe is re-elected President of Zimbabwe

July 2: FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt is released
July 4: Former North Carolina senator Jesse Helms dies
July 7-9: Japan hosts the 2008 G8 Summit
July 11: The iPhone 3G becomes available for purchase
July 15-28: The Catholic Church-sponsored World Youth Day 2008 is held in Sydney, Australia
July 19: Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama embarks on a congressional tour of the Middle East and Europe
July 22: Actress Estelle Getty dies at age 84
July 24: Ford Motor Company reports a loss of $8.7 billion in the second quarter of 2008, the largest single-quarter loss in company history
July 29: A magnitude 5.4 Chino Hills Earthquake strikes just outside the Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills
July 30: NASA scientists report the discovery of liquid lakes on the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan