2008 in Norway

Incumbents

• Monarch: Harald V
• Prime Minister: Jens Stoltenberg

  Events

January

• January 1 – The Agency for Public Management and eGovernment is established.
• January 1 – Nordic Battlegroup consisting of military forces from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, and Estonia under the control of the European Union, is established.
• January 1 – Mercury becomes banned from use in Norway.
• January 11 – Norwegian police announce that they have arrested a 55-year-old man suspected of being the sexual predator known as The Pocket Man.
• 13 January – A school in Lørenskog is closed after threats of a school shooting came from a video on YouTube. A 15-year-old was arrested for the threat.
• January 21 – The OBX Index drops 6.4%, then the second biggest fall since August 1991 and the third largest in its history.

  February

• February 5 – The Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs opens the case to decide whether three Supreme Court Justices will be impeached over their involvement in the Fritz Moen wrongful conviction.
• February 14 – A political case centering on Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen forces her to resign from her post as Minister of Children and Equality and Ida Hjort Kraby to resign from her newly appointed position as Ombudsman for Children in Norway.
• February 21 – An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale hits Svalbard. This oblique-slip shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of IV and was the strongest earthquake ever to hit Norway.
• February 23 – The 8 km Eiksund Tunnel near Volda in Møre og Romsdal is opened.
• February 26 – The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is officially opened.
• 28 February – Three people were arrested in Oslo, accused of having participated in the financing of terrorist acts abroad.
• February 29 – Anniken Huitfeldt is appointed Minister of Children and Equality.
• February – Former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland is entangled in a political scandal over cancer treatments paid for by the Norwegian state, which she was not entitled to having previously changed her residency abroad.

  March

• March 1 – Austrian Matthias Lanzinger collides with a gate during a World Cup Super-G run at Kvitfjell, resulting in injuries that lead to his left leg being amputated below the knee two days later.
• 28 March – Norway recognizes Kosovo as an independent state.

  April

• 12 April – Official opening of the Oslo Opera House.

  May

• 15 May – Ingeborg Synnøve Midtømme is appointed bishop of the diocese of Møre.

  June

• June 11 – Norway legalises same-sex marriage.
• September – 2008 psychic phone call controversy: it was revealed that the Norwegian politician Saera Khan had racked up extremely high phone bills using the mobile phone with which she was provided for free by the Parliament.

  July

August

September

• September 9 – The OBX Index drops 5.57%, then the fourth biggest drop ever.
• September 29 – In conjunction with the financial crisis of 2007–2008 the OBX Index of the Oslo Stock Exchange drops 8.3%, then its third largest drop ever in one day, but eclipsed only one week later.

  October

• October 6 – The OBX Index drops 9.71%, the third largest drop ever in one day.
• October 8 – The OBX Index drops 6.44%
• October – Bangladeshi-Norwegian parliamentarian for the Labour Party Saera Khan withdraws her candidacy for next year's elections when it is revealed that she has spent large sums using her parliament paid-for mobile phone to call psychic hotlines and then consistently lied to cover up the fact.
• October – Controversy erupts when British writer and Holocaust denier David Irving is invited to the 2009 Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer, to discuss his concept of truth, ending in Irving's invitation being withdrawn. Author Stig Sæterbakken resigns as the festival's content director in protest over the decision.
• October 15 – The OBX Index drops 8.81%
• October 24 – The OBX Index drops 9.24%

  November

December

• December 13 – Six people died in a fire in an apartment building in Oslo.
• December 29 - 2008–09 Oslo riots starts.

  Popular culture

Sports

• October – Tromsø's bid to become host city to the 2018 Winter Olympics is cancelled when the sports board of Norwegian Confederation of Sports votes 9 against 3 to withdraw the application for government financial guarantee.

  Music

• Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

  Film

Literature

Television

Anniversaries

• 200 years since the birth of the poet Henrik Wergeland on June 17, 1808
• 140 years since the founding of the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association
• 100 years since Norway national football team played its first international game on July 12, 1908, in Gothenburg, Sweden
• 100 years since the sports club SK Brann was established
• 100 years since the birth of the poet Olav H. Hauge on August 18, 1908
• 100 years since the birth of the composer and pianist Geirr Tveitt October 19, 1908
• 70 years since the death of Queen Maud of Norway on November 20, 1938

  Sport

• January
• * The 2008 European Men's Handball Championship is hosted by the Norwegian Handball Federation with venues in Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim.
• March 29– The Norwegian Premier League 2008 kicks off, lasting through November 2.
• November 2– The Norwegian Premier League 2008 ends.

  Notable births

• September 29 – Emma Tallulah Behn, the daughter of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and Ari Behn.

  Notable deaths

• January 3 – Bjarne Aagaard Strøm, politician
• January 4 – Bjørn Odmar Andersen, soccer player
• January 14 – Bjørn Paulson, high jumper and jurist
• January 14 – Carsten Thomassen, journalist, killed in terrorist attack

• January 19 – Astrid Løken, entomologist
• January 23 – Stein Rønning, karateka
• January 24 – Johannes Heggland, author and politician
• January 26 – Einar Sverre Pedersen, aviator
• January 28 – Dagfinn Grønoset, author
• January 28 – Marie Takvam, author and actor
• February 9 – Nils Retterstøl, psychiatrist
• February 10 – Ove Jørstad, footballer
• February 10 – Arne Barhaugen, Nordic combined skier
• February 10 – Thorleif Arneberg, politician
• February 15 – Inge Thun, footballer
• February 15 – Magnar Hellebust, politician
• February 16 – Per Erik Monsen, politician
• February 22 – Gerd Olaug Berger, politician
• March 5 – Erik Wiik-Hansen, yacht racer
• March 7 – Julius Paltiel, Holocaust survivor
• March 10 – Marianne Gullestad, social anthropologist

• March 14 – Ingvald Ulveseth, politician
• March 14 – Guri Tambs-Lyche, activist
• March 16 – Victor Sparre, artist
• March 22 – Arne Skarpsno, "Father of the street children"
• March 24 – Odin Sivertsen, politician
• March 30 – Halvor Roll, writer
• March 31 – Stein Haugen, discus thrower
• April 5 – Oskar Edøy, politician
• April 9 – Haaken A. Christensen, art collector
• April 11 – Magne Haraldstad, politician
• April 19 – Klaus Halvorsen, politician
• April 21 – Ola M. Hestenes, politician
• April 23 – Haagen Ringnes, journalist and author
• April 29 – Julie Ege, actress and model
• May 5 – Astrid Gunhilde Karlsen, politician
• May 15 – Tove Billington Bye, politician
• May 15 – Ottar Grønvik, philologist and runologist
• May 18 – Odd Strand, civil servant
• May 19 – Kjell Kristian Rike, sports commentator
• June 2 – Geir Kjetsaa, literary historian, translator and author
• June 9 – Christian Lerche, physician
• June 11 – Gunnar Solum, politician
• June 15 – Ole-Jørgen Nilsen, actor and theatre director
• June 19 – Antonio Bibalo, Italian-born pianist and composer

• June 22 – Odd Aukrust, economist
• June 22 – Jens Petter Ekornes, entrepreneur and politician
• June 22 – Hans Haga, agrarian leader
• June 22 – Einar W. Sissener, businessperson
• June 26 – Asbjørn Haugstvedt, politician
• June 27 – Sasha Gabor, Hungarian-born pornographic actor
• June 30 – Annemarie Lorentzen, politician
• July 3 – Harald Heide-Steen Jr., actor, comedian and singer
• July 8 – Erling Rønneberg, resistance member and politician
• July 9 – Hans Hjelle, politician
• July 10 – Kåre Rodahl, physician
• July 14 – Henki Kolstad, actor
• July 21 – Knut Boye, civil economist
• July 30 – Erik Himle, civil servant and politician
• July 30 – Terje Thoen, ice hockey player
• August 1 – Tore Breda Thoresen, theatre director
• August 2 – Rolf Bae, mountaineer
• August 2 – Helga Gitmark, politician
• August 2 – Kåre Grøndahl Hagem, politician
• August 8 – Ann-Mari Aasland, politician
• August 12 – Helge Hagerup, writer
• August 15 – Thor Pedersen, rower
• August 18 – Ole Frithjof Klemsdal, politician
• September 2 – Andreas Zeier Cappelen, politician
• September 6 – Aril Edvardsen, evangelical preacher and missionary
• September 11 – Nils Johan Ringdal, historian
• September 14 – Knut S. Heier, geochemist
• September 23 – Arne Haugestad, barrister
• September 27 – Olaf Poulsen, speed skater and official
• September 28 – Ivar Kåre Mathisen, politician
• October 6 – Anne Margrethe Strømsheim, resistance member
• October 12 – Vessa Hanssen, opera singer
• October 14 – Bodil Finsveen, politician
• October 18 – Tormod Haugen, author
• October 23 – Liv Marit Moland, politician
• October 30 – Nils Kåre Jacobsen, publisher
• November 8 – Bodil Aakre, jurist and politician
• November 14 – Knut Bjørnsen, sports commentator and journalist
• November 24 – Rolf Ketil Bjørn, businessperson and politician
• December 13 – Kjartan Slettemark, artist.
• December 15 – Anne-Catharina Vestly, children's author
• December 27 – Arild Andresen, footballer and ice hockey player