This Year in History:
2008
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
On January 1, 2008, with snowflakes falling around him in Buffalo, Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby slips a shot past Ryan Miller to win the NHL’s inaugural Winter Classic—the first regular-season game in league history played outdoors in the United States. The game is played before 71,127 fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the […]
At the New Delhi Auto Expo in India, Tata Motors debuts the Nano, billing it as the world’s cheapest car. The anticipated price tag is around $2,500. Tata, India’s largest automaker, called the four-door, bubble-shaped mini-vehicle (it was just 5 feet wide and 10 feet long) the “People’s Car” and declared that it would be […]
On January 22, 2008, Hollywood mourns a talented young actor’s life cut tragically short, after the body of 28-year-old Heath Ledger is found by his masseuse and housekeeper on the floor of his rented apartment in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. Best known for his Academy Award-nominated turn as the closeted gay cowboy […]
Hollywood’s longest work stoppage since 1988 ends on February 12, 2008, when members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) vote by a margin of more than 90 percent to go back to work after a walkout that began the previous November 5. The writers’ strike began during the negotiation of the WGA’s latest contract […]
On March 16, 2008, Bear Stearns, the 85-year-old investment bank, narrowly avoids bankruptcy by its sale to J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. at the shockingly low price of $2 per share. Bear Stearns seemed to be riding high with a stock market capitalization of $20 billion in early 2007. But its increasing involvement in the […]
On April 20, 2008, 26-year-old Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan, making her the first female winner in IndyCar racing history. Danica Patrick was born on March 25, 1982, in Beloit, Wisconsin. She became involved in racing as a young girl and as a teenager moved to […]
On June 1, 2008, a massive, early morning fire at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park and studio backlot in Universal City, California destroys a trove of irreplaceable recordings by some of the greatest musical artists in American history, thousands of archived digital and video film copies and King Kong Encounter, one of the park’s […]
On August 3, 2008, the first published photos of former couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s newborn twins, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, go up on People magazine’s website. A 19-page photo spread followed in the magazine’s August 18, 2008, issue. People won the rights to the photos after a bidding war that, according to […]
On August 8, 2008, a long-simmering conflict between Russia and Georgia boiled over into a shooting war between the small Caucasian nation and the superpower of which it was once a part. The brief Russo-Georgian War was the most violent episode in a conflict that began more than a decade before. Georgia declared independence from […]
Taking a calculated risk to appeal to conservative voters, Republican presidential nominee John McCain sets the political world abuzz when he announces the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate on August 29, 2008. At the time, Palin, a 44-year-old rising star known for her conservative stances and folksy charm, became the […]
On September 10, 2008, scientists successfully flip the switch for the first time on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) lab in Geneva, kicking off what many called history’s biggest science experiment. Testing particle physics theories, the $8 billion LHC is the largest particle accelerator in the world, […]
On September 15, 2008, the venerable Wall Street brokerage firm Lehman Brothers seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the largest victim of the subprime mortgage crisis that would devastate financial markets and contribute to the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Lehman Brothers History At the time of its collapse, Lehman Brothers was the […]
On September 21, 2008, the last game at historic Yankee Stadium—”The House That Babe Ruth Built”—is played. In the finale, the New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3, as future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera closes the game with a perfect ninth inning. “The way I feel emotionally right now and just physically so drained, […]
On September 29, 2008, after Congress failed to pass a $700 billion bank bailout plan, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points—at the time, the largest single-day point loss in its history. Down 7 percent, a greater loss than the 684.81 skid on September 17, 2001 (the first trading day post-9/11), the S&P 500 […]
On November 4, 2008, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats Senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. The 47-year-old Democrat garnered 365 electoral votes and nearly 53 percent of the popular vote, while his 72-year-old Republican challenger captured 173 electoral votes […]
With over 13 million votes cast, California voters approve Proposition 8 on November 4, 2008, amending the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Only months earlier, in May 2008, the California Supreme Court had deemed the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, making California the second state in the country to legalize gay marriage. Thus, […]
On December 11, 2008, financier Bernard Madoff is arrested at his New York City apartment and charged with masterminding a long-running Ponzi scheme later estimated to involve around $65 billion, making it one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history. Madoff, who was born in Queens, New York, in 1938, founded a small […]
