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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (December 2008)

2008 (MMVIII) was a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini).

2008 was designated as:

• International Year of Planet Earth.^[1]
• International Year of Languages.^[2]
• International Year of the Potato.^[3]
• International Year of Sanitation.^[4]
• International Year of the Frog.^[5]
• European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.^[6]

Events

January

MESSENGER assembly at Astrotech.

• January 1 - Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro.^[7][8]
• January 1 - A suicide bombing occurs in Zayouna, Baghdad, killing over 25 people during a funeral over the deaths from the preceding attack. ^[9]
• January 2 - The price of petroleum hits $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. ^[10]
• January 8 - An attempted assassination of Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is thwarted after a Boy Scout grabs the attacker's knife. The Boy Scout is injured, but after a scuffle police arrest the attacker. ^[11]
• January 12 - A Macedonian Army Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes in thick fog southeast of Skopje, killing all 11 military personnel on board.^[12]
• January 14 - At 19:04:39 UTC, the MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.^[13]
• January 15 - The Federal Court of Australia orders a Japanese whaling company to stop research whaling within their Exclusive Economic Zone. ^[14]
• January 21 - Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis. ^[15]
• 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, practises strike tactics off the coast of France and Spain, and test-launches nuclear-capable missiles in foreign waters. ^[16]
• January 23 - Polish Air Force EADS CASA C-295 crashes on approach to the 12th Air Base near Mirosławiec. All 20 personnel on board die. ^[17]
• January 23 - Thousands of Palestinians cross into Egypt, as the border wall with Gaza in Rafah is blown up by militants. ^[18]
• January 24 - A peace deal ends the Kivu war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ^[19]
• 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.^[20]
• January 29 - Iran's judiciary sentences to prison 54 Bahá'í Faith followers for 'anti-regime propaganda'.^[21][22]

February

Raúl Castro

• February 2 - Rebels attack the capital of Chad, N'Djamena.^[23]
• February 4 - Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket into space.^[24]
• February 4 - A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 1 and wounds 13 in a Dimona, Israel shopping center.^[25]
• February 5 - U.S. stock market indices plunge more than 3% after a report shows signs of economic recession in the service sector. The S&P 500 fall 3.2%, The Dow Jones Industrial Average 370 points. ^[26]
• February 5–6 - A tornado outbreak, the deadliest in 23 years, kills 58 in the Southern United States. ^[27]
• February 7 - STS-122: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches to deliver the European-built Columbus science laboratory to the International Space Station. ^[28]
• February 10 - The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damages Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea. ^[29]
• 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.^[30]
• February 12 - PDVSA, a state oil company in Venezuela, suspends sales of crude oil to ExxonMobil, in response to a legal challenge by them.^[31]
• 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.^[32]
• February 13 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.^[33]
• February 17 - Driver Ryan Newman wins the 50th Daytona 500 NASCAR race.
• February 17 - A suicide bombing by a Taliban member kills up to 80 in Kandahar, Afghanistan^[34]
• February 17 - Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, with support from some countries but opposition from others.^[35]
• February 18 - The British government introduces emergency legislation to temporarily nationalize Northern Rock, the 5th largest mortgage bank in the UK, due to the bank's financial crisis.^[36]
• February 18 - A 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.^[37]
• February 19 - Fidel Castro announces his resignation as President of Cuba, effective February 24. ^[38]
• February 20 - The United States Navy destroys a spy satellite containing toxic fuel, by shooting it down with a missile launched from the USS Lake Erie in the Pacific Ocean.^[39]
• February 20 - A total lunar eclipse crosses North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia. ^[40]
• February 22 - Former building society Northern Rock is the first bank in Europe to be taken into state control, due to the U.S. subprime mortgage financial crisis. ^[41]
• February 22 - No survivors are found after a rescue helicopter discovers the wreckage of Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518 just northeast of Mérida, Venezuela. The commercial plane had 46 people on board, including crew. ^[42]
• February 24 - Raúl Castro is unanimously elected as President of Cuba by the National Assembly. ^[43]

March

European Jules Verne ATV docked the to International Space Station.

• March–April - Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.
• March 1 - In Gaza Strip, at least 52 Palestinians and 2 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 is killed.
• March 6 - Eight Israeli civilians are killed and 9 wounded when a Palestinian attacker opens fire at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
• March 9 - The 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 - A huge gun factory explosion in Gërdec, Albaniakills more than 30 people. Over the following week, Albania, Kosovo, and some surrounding countries supply and support Gërdec'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.^[44]
• March 24 - Bhutan holds its first-ever general elections.^[45]
• March 25 - A 414 square kilometer (160 sq. mi.²) 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 are held in Zimbabwe.^[46]

April

• April 8 - Privy Council of Sark dismantles its feudal system to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.^[47] and the first elections under the new law will be held in December 2008 and the new chamber will first convene in January 2009.^[48][49][50]
• April 15 - A Hewa Bora Airways DC-9 crashes into a residential area of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• April 17 - Raila Odinga becomes the new Prime Minister of Kenya after the formation of a coalition government, ending the political crisis in Kenya.
• April 22 - Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into 2 blind patients.
• April 27 - The Taliban attempts to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a military parade in Kabul.^[51]
• April 28 - India sets a world record by sending 10 satellites into orbit in a single launch.^[52]
• April 28 - 71 die in a train crash in Shandong, China.^[53]

May

An earthquake in Sichuan, China caused nearly 80,000 deaths.

• 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 11 - Burma/Myanmar holds a constitutional referendum.
• May 12 - Over 69,000 are killed in central south-west China by the Chengdu quake, an earthquake measuring 8.0 Moment magnitude scale. The epicenter is 90 kilometers (55 miles) west-northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, Sichuan province.
• May 13 - A series of bomb blasts kills at least 63 and injures 216 in Jaipur, India.
• May 14 - NASA announces the discovery of Supernova remnant G1.9+0.3.
• May 15 - An oil pipeline explosion in Ijegun, Nigeria kills 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 2 countries.
• May 25 - NASA's Phoenix spacecraft becomes the first to land on the northern polar region of Mars.^[54]
• May 28 - The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is established after the Assembly votes overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing the country's 240-year-old monarchy. Girija Prasad Koirala becomes temporary head of state.

June

• June 2 - A car bomb explodes outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 5.
• 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 it lands in Khartoum, 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 14 – September 14 - Expo 2008 is held in Zaragoza, Spain, with the topic of "Water and sustainable development".
• 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 reelected with 85.5% of the vote in the second round of the controversial Zimbabwean presidential election.
• June 27 - After 3 decades as the Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates steps down from daily duties to concentrate on philanthropy.^[55][56]

July

34th G8 summit heads of delegations in