2008 Timeline

A chronological record of notable events in the year 2008.

| Date | Event | Category | Summary | |——|——-|———-|———| | Jan 20 | Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign | History & Politics | Hillary Clinton’s bid to become the first female US president wins major primaries before she concedes the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama on June 7; she is later named Secretary of State. | | Feb 1 | Britney Spears placed under conservatorship | People | A Los Angeles court places pop star Britney Spears under a conservatorship controlling her personal and financial affairs; it runs 13 years, later fueling the #FreeBritney movement and conservatorship-law reform. | | Feb 10 | Amy Winehouse sweeps the Grammys | People | At the 50th Grammy Awards, Amy Winehouse wins five awards for Back to Black — including Record and Song of the Year for “Rehab” and Best New Artist — becoming the first British artist to win five Grammys in a single night. | | Feb 12 | Writers Guild of America strike ends | Arts & Culture | WGA members vote 92.5% to ratify a settlement ending the 100-day strike, winning jurisdiction over streaming and digital content and revenue-based residual formulas for the digital-entertainment era. | | Feb 17 | Kosovo declares independence | History & Politics | Kosovo’s assembly proclaims independence from Serbia, the last state to emerge from Yugoslavia’s breakup; recognition by the US and Western powers divided the international community. | | Apr 29 | Grand Theft Auto IV released | Science & Technology | Rockstar’s open-world crime epic launches for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, grossing over $500 million in its first week and validating the blockbuster budget model of AAA game development. | | May 2 | Iron Man released | Arts & Culture | Jon Favreau’s superhero film opens, launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its interconnected-franchise model; it earns $585 million worldwide and popularizes the post-credits scene as a franchise device. | | May 2–3 | Cyclone Nargis strikes Myanmar | Society & Economics | Category-4 cyclone makes landfall in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, killing an estimated 138,000 people; the military junta’s refusal of international aid drew worldwide condemnation. | | May 12 | 2008 Sichuan earthquake | Society & Economics | The magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake strikes Sichuan, China, killing about 69,000 people; the collapse of thousands of “tofu-dreg” schools sparked a national accountability controversy. | | Jun 12 | Coldplay releases Viva la Vida | Arts & Culture | Coldplay releases their fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, produced with Brian Eno; it becomes the best-selling album worldwide in 2008 and wins Best Rock Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards. | | Jun 12 | Metal Gear Solid 4 released | Science & Technology | Hideo Kojima’s PlayStation 3-exclusive stealth epic launches, concluding the Metal Gear Solid saga and serving as a landmark technical showcase of the console’s cinematic capabilities. | | Jun 15 | Subprime mortgage implosion | Society & Economics | By mid-2008, the loose lending and securitization of subprime mortgages between 2003 and 2006 have produced the toxic mortgage-backed securities whose collapse drives the global financial crisis. | | Jun 16 | Tiger Woods wins the US Open on a torn ACL | People | Tiger Woods beats Rocco Mediate in a 19-hole playoff at Torrey Pines while playing on a torn ACL and a fractured tibia, claiming his 14th major championship before season-ending knee surgery. | | Jun 27 | WALL-E released | Arts & Culture | Pixar’s animated science-fiction film, directed by Andrew Stanton, opens to acclaim for its near-silent storytelling and environmental themes; it later wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. | | Jul 6 | Rafael Nadal wins Wimbledon | People | Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer in a Wimbledon final widely regarded as the greatest tennis match ever; he later takes Beijing Olympic gold and the world No. 1 ranking in August. | | Jul 10 | Apple App Store launches | Science & Technology | Apple opens the App Store with about 500 third-party applications, creating the mobile app economy and turning the smartphone into a general-purpose computing platform. | | Jul 11 | iPhone 3G launches | Science & Technology | Apple releases the iPhone 3G simultaneously in 22 countries with faster 3G connectivity, a $199 starting price, and the day-old App Store, driving the smartphone into the consumer mainstream. | | Jul 18 | The Dark Knight released | Arts & Culture | Christopher Nolan’s Batman sequel opens, earning over $1 billion worldwide; Heath Ledger’s Joker performance wins a posthumous Academy Award. | | Aug 8 | Russo-Georgian War begins | History & Politics | Russia launches a military intervention in Georgia in response to Georgian operations in South Ossetia, resulting in a five-day war that reshaped post-Soviet geopolitics. | | Aug 8–24 | Beijing Summer Olympics | History & Politics | China hosts the Summer Olympic Games, featuring record-breaking performances by Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, marking China’s emergence as a global sporting and economic power. | | Aug 8 | Beijing Olympics opening ceremony | Arts & Culture | Zhang Yimou directs a four-hour spectacle with 15,000 performers before roughly 1.5 billion viewers, projecting China as both an ancient civilization and a modern technological power. | | Aug 15 | Nastia Liukin wins Olympic all-around gold | People | American gymnast Nastia Liukin wins the women’s all-around gold medal with 63.325 points, defeating teammate Shawn Johnson by 0.6 and becoming the third U.S. woman to win the Olympic all-around title. | | Aug 16 | Usain Bolt sets 100m world record | People | Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt runs 100 metres in 9.69 seconds at the Beijing Olympics, setting a world record and beginning his dominance of the sport. | | Aug 17 | Michael Phelps wins eighth gold in Beijing | People | American swimmer Michael Phelps wins his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, surpassing Mark Spitz’s 1972 mark and setting seven world records at a single Games. | | Aug 24 | Beijing Olympics closing ceremony | Arts & Culture | Zhang Yimou’s two-hour closing ceremony ends the Games with international performers and the Olympic-flag handover to London 2012, projecting a more cosmopolitan image of China than the opening ceremony. | | Aug 29 | Sarah Palin named McCain’s running mate | History & Politics | John McCain names Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate, the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket; an initial polling surge fades amid questions over her readiness. | | Sep 2 | Google Chrome browser launches | Science & Technology | Google releases the beta of its Chrome web browser, introducing the V8 JavaScript engine and a multi-process architecture built for speed and stability; it later becomes the world’s dominant browser. | | Sep 4 | John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign | History & Politics | John McCain accepts the Republican nomination in St. Paul with running mate Sarah Palin, mounting a challenge to Barack Obama that is overtaken by the September financial crisis. | | Sep 7 | Serena Williams’ dominant 2008 season | People | Serena Williams beats Jelena Janković to win the US Open without dropping a set — her ninth Grand Slam title and a return to World No. 1 — capping a comeback season that also brought Olympic doubles gold with Venus. | | Sep 10 | Large Hadron Collider first beam | Science & Technology | CERN’s Large Hadron Collider circulates its first proton beam, inaugurating the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator and opening a new era in high-energy physics. | | Sep 14 | The Hunger Games published | Arts & Culture | Suzanne Collins publishes The Hunger Games, the first novel in a dystopian young adult trilogy set in the nation of Panem; it becomes a global publishing and film phenomenon and a defining text of the genre. | | Sep 15 | 2008 global financial crisis | Society & Economics | The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy triggers the acute phase of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, freezing global credit markets and prompting unprecedented government bailouts and coordinated central-bank intervention worldwide. | | Sep 15 | Lehman Brothers collapse | Society & Economics | Investment bank Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — the largest in US history — with $639 billion in assets, triggering global financial panic. | | Sep 16 | AIG bailout and bonus controversy | Society & Economics | The Federal Reserve authorizes an $85 billion emergency rescue of insurer AIG a day after Lehman’s collapse; a later executive-bonus scandal becomes a defining symbol of Wall Street excess. | | Sep 23 | First Android phone announced (HTC Dream) | Science & Technology | HTC and T-Mobile announce the HTC Dream, sold from October 22 as the T-Mobile G1; it is the first commercially available phone running Google’s Android, which became the world’s most widely used mobile operating system. | | Sep 26 | 2008 US presidential debates begin | History & Politics | The first of three Obama–McCain debates is held at the University of Mississippi as the financial crisis dominates the campaign; the series helped Obama consolidate a decisive lead before the November election. | | Sep 28 | SpaceX Falcon 1 reaches orbit | Science & Technology | SpaceX’s Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach Earth orbit, validating commercial spaceflight and securing a NASA cargo contract. | | Oct 3 | TARP bailout signed | Society & Economics | President George W. Bush signs the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, authorizing the Treasury to purchase toxic assets and stabilize the collapsing financial system. | | Oct 6 | Iceland’s financial crisis | Society & Economics | Iceland passes emergency legislation as its three largest banks collapse, forcing the first IMF rescue of a Western European nation since 1976 and triggering the Icesave dispute with the UK and Netherlands. | | Oct 26 | Rhythm games reach their peak | Science & Technology | Guitar Hero World Tour launches alongside Rock Band 2, driving US music-game sales to roughly $1.9 billion at the genre’s commercial and cultural high point before its rapid decline. | | Oct 31 | Bitcoin whitepaper published | Science & Technology | Satoshi Nakamoto posts Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System to a cryptography mailing list, founding cryptocurrency and blockchain technology amid the global financial crisis. | | Nov 4 | Barack Obama elected US president | History & Politics | Democrat Barack Obama defeats John McCain with 365 electoral votes, becoming the first African American elected to the US presidency. | | Nov 4 | California Proposition 8 passes | History & Politics | California voters approve Proposition 8 by 52.3%, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that reverses a May 2008 court ruling and triggers litigation culminating in nationwide marriage equality by 2015. | | Nov 12 | Slumdog Millionaire released | Arts & Culture | Danny Boyle’s British drama opens in limited US release; the story of a Mumbai slum youth on a game show goes on to win eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and marks a global breakthrough for Indian cinema. | | Nov 19 | Netflix expands streaming to Xbox 360 | Science & Technology | Netflix launches its streaming service on the Xbox 360, offering over 10,000 titles on living-room televisions and accelerating the shift from physical media rental to digital delivery. | | Nov 21 | Twilight film released | Arts & Culture | Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s novel opens, achieving the highest opening ever for a female-directed film and launching a multi-billion-dollar young adult franchise. | | Nov 26–29 | Mumbai terrorist attacks | History & Politics | Coordinated Lashkar-e-Taiba attacks strike hotels, a railway station, and other sites in Mumbai, killing 166 people and straining India-Pakistan relations. | | Dec 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo wins the 2008 Ballon d’Or | People | Cristiano Ronaldo wins his first Ballon d’Or after a 42-goal season and a Premier League–Champions League double with Manchester United, confirming him as the world’s best player amid Real Madrid’s pursuit. | | Dec 11 | Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme exposed | Society & Economics | Investment manager Bernard Madoff is arrested after confessing to a decades-long Ponzi scheme estimated at $64.8 billion — the largest securities fraud in US history at the time. |