2008

• International Year of Languages
• International Year of Planet Earth
• International Year of Sanitation
• International Year of the Potato

  Events

January

• January 1 - Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro.
• January 14 - At 19:04:39 UTC, the unmanned MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.
• January 21 - Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.
• January 24 - A peace deal is signed in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, ending the Kivu conflict.

  February

• February 4 - Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket into space.
• February 13 - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian state.
• February 17 - Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, with a mixed response from the international community.

  March

• March-April - Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.
• March 2 - Venezuela and Ecuador move troops to the Colombian border, following a Colombian raid against FARC guerrillas inside Ecuadorian territory, in which senior commander Raúl Reyes is killed.
• March 14 - Demonstrations by Tibetans turn into unrest in Tibet and Sichuan.
• 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 19 - An Energy release of a Gamma-ray burst called the GRB 080319B was the brightest event ever in the Universe.
• March 24 - Bhutan holds its first-ever general elections following the adoption of a new Constitution which changed the country from an absolute monarchy to a multiparty democracy.
• March 25 - African Union and Comoros forces invade the rebel-held island of Anjouan, returning the island to Comorian control.

  April

• April 10 - Mario Kart Wii was released, making the first appearance of character Baby Daisy.
• April 22 - Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first successful operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into 2 blind patients.

  May

• May 2 - The Chaitén volcano in Chile enters a new eruptive phase for the first time since around 1640.
• May 3 - Cyclone Nargis passes through Myanmar, killing more than 138,000 people.
• May 12 - An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale strikes Sichuan, China, killing an estimated 87,000 people.
• May 20–24 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 takes place in Belgrade, Serbia, and is won by Russian entrant Dima Bilan with the song "Believe".
• May 23
• * The Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental organization between states in South America, is founded.
• * 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 unmanned Phoenix spacecraft becomes the first to land on the northern polar region of Mars.
• May 28 - The Legislature Parliament of Nepal votes overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing the country's 240-year-old monarchy, turning the country into a republic.
• May 30 - The Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted in Dublin.

  June

• June 7-29 - Austria and Switzerland jointly host the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, which is won by Spain.
• June 11
• * The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched.
• * Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologizes, on behalf of the Canadian government, to the country's First Nations for the Canadian Indian residential school system.
• June 14 - Expo 2008 opens in Zaragoza, Spain, lasting to September 14, with the topic "Water and sustainable development".

  July

• July 2 - Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC rebels by Colombian security forces.
• 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.

  August

• August 1 - Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions die on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.
• August 6 - President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania is deposed in a military coup d'état.
• August 7 - Georgia invades the breakaway state of South Ossetia, sparking a war with Russia as the latter intervenes in support of the separatists in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
• August 20 – Spanair Flight 5022 crashes at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 154 people on board.
• August 8-24 - The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.

  September

• September 5 - Quentin Bryce becomes the first female Governor-General of Australia.
• September 10 - The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.
• September 13 - Hurricane Ike makes landfall in Galveston, Texas.
• September 20 - A suicide truck bomb explosion destroys the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 54 and injuring 266.
• September 28 - SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.
• September 29 - Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, hitherto the largest single-day point loss in its history.

  October

• October 3 - Global financial crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush signs the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, creating a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets.
• October 7 - The Spotify music streaming service is launched in Sweden.
• October 21 - The Large Hadron Collider is officially inaugurated at Geneva.
• October 22 - The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission.

  November

• November 1 - Satoshi Nakamoto publishes "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".
• November 4 - Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to be elected President of the United States.
• November 19 - Claudia Castillo of Spain becomes the first person to have a successful trachea transplant using a tissue-engineered organ.
• November 26-29 - Members of Lashkar-e-Taiba carry out four days of coordinated bombing and shooting attacks across Mumbai, killing 164 people.

  December

• December 5 - Human remains found in 1991 are identified as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, using DNA analysis.
• December 10 - The Channel Island of Sark, a British Crown dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.
• December 18 - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Théoneste Bagosora and two other senior Rwandan army officers guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentences them to life imprisonment for their role in the Rwandan genocide.
• December 23 - A military coup d'état deposes the government of Guinea shortly after the death of longtime President Lansana Conté.
• December 27 - Israel invades the Gaza Strip in response to rockets being fired into Israeli territory by Hamas and due to weapons being smuggled into the area.
• December 31 - An extra leap second is added to end the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.

  Gallery

Births

• March 14 - Abby Ryder Fortson, American actress
• April 16 - Princess Eléonore of Belgium
• June 3 - Harshaali Malhotra, Indian actress
• July 15 - Iain Armitage, American actor
• August 18 - Gordey Kolesov, Russian-Chinese chess player

  Deaths

January

• January 2 – Galyani Vadhana, Princess of Naradhiwas, Princess of Thailand
• January 3
• * Aleksandr Abdulov, Russian actor
• * Choi Yo-sam, Korean boxer
• January 7 – Philip Agee, American spy and writer
• January 10
• * Christopher Bowman, American figure skater
• * Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress and television personality
• January 11 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist
• January 14 – Judah Folkman, American medical scientist
• January 15 – Brad Renfro, American actor
• January 16 – Nikola Kljusev, 1st Prime Minister of Macedonia
• January 17
• * Bobby Fischer, American chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion
• * Allan Melvin, American actor
• January 18 – Lois Nettleton, American actress
• January 19 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress
• January 21 – Marie Smith Jones, Native American speaker
• January 22
• * Heath Ledger, Australian actor and music video director
• * Claude Piron, Swiss linguist and psychologist
• * Cao Văn Viên, General of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
• January 25 – Aziz Sedky, 36th Prime Minister of Egypt
• January 26 – George Habash, Palestinian politician
• January 27
• * Gordon B. Hinckley, American Mormon leader
• * Suharto, 2nd President of Indonesia
• January 28 – Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens
• January 29 – Margaret Truman, American singer and writer
• January 30 – Marcial Maciel, Mexican Catholic priest
• January 31 – František Čapek, Czechoslovakian canoeist

  February

• February 2
• * Joshua Lederberg, American Nobel molecular biologist
• * Barry Morse, English-Canadian actor
• February 5 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritual leader
• February 6 - John Alvin, American cinematic artist and painter
• February 7 - Andrew Bertie, 78th Grand Master of the Order of Malta
• February 9 - Baba Amte, Indian social activist
• February 10 - Roy Scheider, American actor
• February 11
• * Tom Lantos, Hungarian-American politician
• * Alfredo Reinado, East Timorese rebel
• February 12
• * Imad Mughniyah, Lebanese militant
• * Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgian businessman and politician
• February 13
• * Kon Ichikawa, Japanese film director
• * Henri Salvador, French singer
• February 18 - Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and filmmaker
• February 19
• * Natalia Bessmertnova, Russian ballerina
• * Yegor Letov, Russian singer
• February 23
• * Janez Drnovšek, 2-Time Prime Minister and 2nd President of Slovenia
• * Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver
• February 25 - Static Major, American musician
• February 27
• * William F. Buckley Jr., American author and conservative commentator
• * Ivan Rebroff, German singer

  March

• March 1 - Raúl Reyes, Colombian guerrilla
• March 2
• * Sofiko Chiaureli, Georgian actress
• * Jeff Healey, Canadian musician
• March 3
• * Giuseppe Di Stefano, Italian operatic tenor
• * Norman Smith, English singer and record producer
• March 4 - Gary Gygax, American writer and game designer
• March 5 - Joseph Weizenbaum, German-American author and computer scientist
• March 6 - Peter Poreku Dery, Ghanaian cardinal
• March 12 - Howard Metzenbaum, American politician
• March 14 - Chiara Lubich, Italian Catholic activist
• March 16 - Ivan Dixon, American actor
• March 18 - Anthony Minghella, English film director and screenwriter
• March 19
• * Arthur C. Clarke, English author, inventor, and futurist
• * Hugo Claus, Flemish writer, painter and film director
• * Paul Scofield, English actor
• March 21 - Klaus Dinger, German musician
• March 22 - Adolfo Suárez Rivera, Mexican cardinal
• March 24
• * Neil Aspinall, British record producer and business executive
• * Richard Widmark, American actor
• March 26 - Manuel Marulanda, Colombian guerrilla
• March 27 - Jean-Marie Balestre, French sports executive
• March 30 - Dith Pran, Cambodian-American photojournalist
• March 31 - Jules Dassin, American film director

  April

• April 3 - Hrvoje Ćustić, Croatian footballer
• April 5 - Charlton Heston, American actor
• April 8 - Stanley Kamel, American actor
• April 10 - Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, Mexican cardinal
• April 12 - Patrick Hillery, 6th President of Ireland
• April 13 - John Archibald Wheeler, American theoretical physicist
• April 14 - Ollie Johnston, American animator
• April 15 - Benoît Lamy, Belgian motion picture writer-director
• April 16 - Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist
• April 17 - Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician
• April 29 - Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist and writer

  May

• May 1 - Anthony Mamo, 1st President of Malta
• May 2 - Philipp von Boeselager, German military officer
• May 3 - Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish Prime Minister
• May 8
• * Eddy Arnold, American country music singer
• * François Sterchele, Belgian footballer
• May 10
• * Leyla Gencer, Turkish soprano
• * Jessica Jacobs, Australian actress and singer
• May 11 - John Rutsey, Canadian musician
• May 12
• * Robert Rauschenberg, American pop artist
• * Irena Sendler, Polish humanitarian
• May 13
• * Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah, 4th Emir of Kuwait
• * Bernardin Gantin, Beninese cardinal
• * John Phillip Law, American actor
• May 15 - Willis Lamb, American Nobel physicist
• May 17 - Roberto García-Calvo Montiel, Spanish judge
• May 19 - Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright
• May 22 - Robert Asprin, American writer
• May 23 - Cornell Capa, Hungarian-American photographer
• May 24 - Rob Knox, English actor
• May 26
• * Sydney Pollack, American actor, director and producer
• * Koloa Talake, 7th Prime Minister of Tuvalu
• May 28 - Sven Davidson, Swedish tennis player
• May 29
• * Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey defenceman
• * Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian

  June

• June 1
• * Tommy Lapid, Israeli television presenter, journalist, and politician
• * Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer
• June 2
• * Bo Diddley, American musician
• * Mel Ferrer, American actor, director, and producer
• June 4 - Agata Mróz-Olszewska, Polish volleyball player
• June 5 - Jameson Mbilini Dlamini, 7th Prime Minister of Swaziland
• June 7
• * Mustafa Khalil, 40th Prime Minister of Egypt
• * Dino Risi, Italian director
• June 8 - Šaban Bajramović, Serbian musician
• June 9
• * Karen Asrian, Armenian chess grandmaster
• * Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American science fiction writer
• June 10 - Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstani writer
• June 11
• * Ove Andersson, Swedish rally driver
• * Võ Văn Kiệt, 5th Prime Minister of Vietnam
• June 13 - Tim Russert, American journalist
• June 15 - Stan Winston, American special effects and makeup artist
• June 17 - Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer
• June 18 - Jean Delannoy, French film director
• June 22 - George Carlin, American author, actor, and comedian
• June 23 - Arthur Chung, 1st President of Guyana
• June 24 - Leonid Hurwicz, American Nobel economist and mathematician
• June 26 - Lilyan Chauvin, French-American actress, television host, and director
• June 27 - Sam Manekshaw, Indian Field Marshal
• June 28 - Ruslana Korshunova, Kazakhstani model
• June 29 - Don S. Davis, American actor

  July

• July 4
• * Jesse Helms, American politician
• * Evelyn Keyes, American actress
• July 5 - René Harris, 4-Time President of Nauru
• July 11 - Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and inventor
• July 12 - Tony Snow, American political commentator
• July 13 - Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian and politician
• July 15 - György Kolonics, Hungarian canoeist
• July 16 - Jo Stafford, American singer
• July 20 - Dinko Šakić, Croatian concentration camp commander
• July 22 - Estelle Getty, American actress
• July 25
• * Johnny Griffin, American saxophonist
• * Tracy Hall, American physical chemist
• * Randy Pausch, American author and computer scientist
• July 27 - Youssef Chahine, Egyptian film director
• July 28 - Suzanne Tamim, Lebanese singer, actress, and murder victim
• July 29 - Mate Parlov, Croatian boxer

  August

• August 1
• * Pauline Baynes, English illustrator
• * Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Indian politician
• August 3 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian Nobel writer
• August 9
• * Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet
• * Bernie Mac, American actor and comedian
• August 10 - Isaac Hayes, American singer, songwriter, and actor
• August 11 - Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician
• August 13 - Henri Cartan, French mathematician
• August 15 - Jerry Wexler, American music producer
• August 16
• * Ronnie Drew, Irish singer
• * Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese microbiologist
• August 19
• * Levy Mwanawasa, 3rd President of Zambia
• * LeRoi Moore, American saxophonist
• August 20 - Hua Guofeng, Chairman of the Communist Party and Chinese premier
• August 23 - Thomas Huckle Weller, American Nobel virologist
• August 28 - Phil Hill, American race car driver

  September

• September 1
• * Don LaFontaine, American voice actor
• * Jerry Reed, American actor and country singer
• September 2 - Bill Melendez, Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer
• September 6 – Anita Page, American actress
• September 9
• * Nouhak Phoumsavanh, 3rd President of Laos
• * Warith Deen Mohammed, American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher and revivalist
• September 12 - David Foster Wallace, American writer
• September 15 - Richard Wright, English keyboardist
• September 18 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
• September 19 - Earl Palmer, American R&B Drummer
• September 21 - Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, 9th Prime Minister and 4th President of Sri Lanka
• September 26 - Paul Newman, American actor, film director, entrepreneur and philanthropist

  October

• October 1 - Boris Yefimov, Russian political cartoonist
• October 6 - Paavo Haavikko, Finnish poet
• October 8 - George Emil Palade, Romanian Nobel cell biologist
• October 10 - Alexey Prokurorov, Russian cross-country skier
• October 11 - Jörg Haider, Austrian politician
• October 13
• * Alexei Cherepanov, Russian ice hockey player
• * Guillaume Depardieu, French actor
• * Antonio José González Zumárraga, Ecuadorian cardinal
• October 15
• * Edie Adams, American actress, singer and businessman
• * Wang Yung-ching, Taiwanese entrepreneur
• October 20 - Sœur Emmanuelle, Belgian-born French nun
• October 25
• * Federico Luzzi, Italian tennis player
• * Muslim Magomayev, Azerbaijani singer
• October 26 - Tony Hillerman, American writer
• October 29 - William Wharton, American author
• October 31 - Studs Terkel, American author and liberal commentator

  November

• November 1
• * Jimmy Carl Black, American drummer
• * Jacques Piccard, Swiss explorer and engineer
• * Yma Sumac, Peruvian soprano
• November 4
• * Michael Crichton, American author and producer
• * Juan Camilo Mouriño, Mexican politician
• November 8 - Mieczysław Rakowski, Polish politician, historian and journalist
• November 9 - Miriam Makeba, South African singer and civil rights activist
• November 10 - Kiyosi Itô, Japanese mathematician
• November 12 - Mitch Mitchell, English drummer
• November 14 - Tsvetanka Khristova, Bulgarian athlete
• November 22 - Ibrahim Nasir, 2nd President of the Maldives
• November 26 - Edna Parker, American supercentenarian
• November 27 - V. P. Singh, 7th Prime Minister of India
• November 29 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect

  December

• December 1
• * Paul Benedict, American actor
• * Mikel Laboa, Basque singer and songwriter
• December 2
• * Frank Crean, Australian politician
• * Odetta, American singer
• December 4 - Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent
• December 5
• * Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church
• * Nina Foch, Dutch-born American actress
• * Beverly Garland, American actress
• December 8 – Robert Prosky, American actor
• December 9
• * Yury Glazkov, Russian cosmonaut
• * Dražan Jerković, Croatian football player and manager
• December 11
• * Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, American Nobel physician
• * Bettie Page, American pin-up model
• December 12
• * Avery Dulles, American cardinal
• * Van Johnson, American actor
• * Tassos Papadopoulos, 5th President of Cyprus
• December 13 - Horst Tappert, German actor
• December 15 - León Febres Cordero, 35th President of Ecuador
• December 18
• * Majel Barrett, American actress
• * Mark Felt, American FBI agent
• December 19 - James Bevel, American minister and civil rights leader
• December 20
• * Joseph Conombo, 3rd Prime Minister of Burkina Faso
• * Olga Lepeshinskaya, Russian ballerina
• * Robert Mulligan, American director
• December 22 - Lansana Conté, 2nd President of Guinea
• December 24
• * Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist
• * Harold Pinter, English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor
• December 25 - Eartha Kitt, American singer, actress, activist and author
• December 29 - Freddie Hubbard, American jazz trumpeter

  Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry - Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, and Roger Y. Tsien
• Economics - Paul Krugman
• Literature - Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
• Peace - Martti Ahtisaari
• Physics - Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa, and Yoichiro Nambu
• Physiology or Medicine - Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Harald zur Hausen, and Luc Montagnier

  New English words

• Bitcoin
• burner phone
• dumpster fire
• exome
• hate-watch
• mansplain
• photobomb