servantx
Quantum Scribe
Year 2008 continues...
July 2 – Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC by Colombian security forces.
July 7 – A suicide-bomber drives an explosives-laden automobile into the front gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 58 and injuring over 150.
July 7–July 9 – The 34th G8 summit is held in Tōyako, Hokkaidō, Japan.
July 10 – Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all charges, by a UN Tribunal accusing him of war crimes.
July 15–July 20 – World Youth Day takes place in Sydney, Australia. Pope Benedict XVI appears at the event.[56]
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.[57]
July 22 – The United Progressive Alliance-led government in India survives a crucial no-confidence vote, based on disagreements between the Indian National Congress and Left Front, over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
July 23 – Ram Baran Yadav is sworn in as the first President of Nepal.[58]
July 25 – A series of seven bomb blasts rock Bangalore, India, killing two and injuring 20; the next day, a series of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, kills 45 and injures over 160 people.
July 27 – At least 17 are killed and over 154 wounded in 2 blasts in Istanbul.
July 28 – At least 48 are dead and over 287 injured after bombs explode in Baghdad and Kirkuk, Iraq.[59][60]
[edit]August
August 1
A total eclipse of the Sun is visible from Canada and extends across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China.[61]
George Tupou V is crowned as the new King of Tonga, an event that had been delayed for over two years following the 2006 Nuku'alofa riots.[62]
August 3 – A stampede at a Hindu temple at Naina Devi in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India, kills 162 and injures 400.
August 4 – Two members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which had threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics, kill 16 and injure another 16 officers at a police station in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.[63][64]
August 6 – President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania is deposed in a military coup d'état.
August 7 – The 2008 South Ossetia war begins, as Georgia and Russia launch a major offensive inside the separatist region of South Ossetia after days of border skirmishes between the two sides.
August 8–August 24 – The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.[65]
August 10 – A propane facility explodes in Toronto overnight and causes a large-scale evacuation, resulting in 2 deaths.
August 15 – Pushpa Kamal Dahal (known as Prachanda) is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, after the Nepalese monarchy was abolished in May.[66]
August 17 – Michael Phelps surpasses Mark Spitz in Gold Medals won at a single Olympics, winning eight.[67]
August 18 – Pervez Musharraf resigns as President of Pakistan, under impeachment pressure from the coalition government.[68]
August 19
Taliban insurgents kill 10 and injure 21 French soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan.[69]
A suicide bomber rams a car into an Algerian military academy, killing 43 and injuring 45.[70]
August 20 – Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport with 172 on board. Of them, 154 die and 18 survive.[71]
August 21 – At least 60 die following twin suicide bombings outside the Pakistan Ordnance Factories in Wah, Pakistan.
August 22 – Pirates hijack German, Iranian, and Japanese cargo ships off the coast of Somalia, in seven such attacks since June 20.[72]
August 24
An aircraft crashes in Guatemala, killing 10, including four Americans on a humanitarian mission.[73]
Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 crashes upon takeoff near Manas International Airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, killing 68.[74]
August 26 – Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia.[75]
August 26–September 1 – Hurricane Gustav makes landfall on Louisiana as Category 2 and kills seven in the United States, after making landfall on western Cuba as Category 4, and killing 66 in Haiti, eight in the Dominican Republic, and 11 in Jamaica.[76][77]
August 28–September 7 – Hurricane Hanna kills seven in the United States, and 529 in Haiti, mostly due to deluges and mudslides.[78]
[edit]September
The CMS experiment of the Large Hadron Collider
September 1–September 14 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on Texas as Category 2 and kills 27 in the United States, after killing four in Cuba, one in the Dominican Republic, and 75 in Haiti.[79][80]
September 2 – Political crisis in Thailand: Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej of Thailand declares a state of emergency in Bangkok.[81]
September 3
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani of Pakistan survives an assassination attempt near Islamabad, while on his way to meet British Leader of the Opposition David Cameron.
President's Dimitris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat hold peace talks in Nicosia, aimed at reunifying Cyprus.[82][83]
September 6 – At least eight boulders dislodge from a cliff near Cairo, Egypt, killing at least 90 and burying an estimated 500 people.[84]
September 9 – Political crisis in Thailand: The Constitutional Court of Thailand orders Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign, after he is paid for appearing on a television cooking show.[85]
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.[86][87]
The 2008 Bandar Abbas earthquake strikes southern Iran, killing 7 and injuring 45 people.[88]
September 12 – A Metrolink train collides head-on into a freight train in Los Angeles, California, killing 25 and injuring 130.[89]
September 14
Aeroflot Flight 821 crashes near the city of Perm, Russia, killing all 88 on board.[90]
Churches are attacked in Mangalore and southern Karnataka, India, leading to Christian protests and strong police suppression.[91]
September 15
Following negotiations, President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara sign a power-sharing deal, making Tsvangirai the new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, laying the catalyst for the Global financial crisis.
September 17 – The International Astronomical Union classifies Haumea as the 5th dwarf planet in the Solar System.[92]
September 19–September 25 – Typhoon Hagupit kills 17 in China, eight in the Philippines, one in Taiwan, and 41 in Vietnam.[93]
September 20 – A suicide truck bomb explosion destroys the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 60 and injuring 266.[94][95][96]
September 25 – Shenzhou 7, the third manned Chinese spaceflight and the first with three crew members, is successfully launched. China becomes the third country ever to conduct a spacewalk.[97]
September 28 – SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.[98][99]
September 29 – The DOW loses 777 points, the biggest one-day point decline ever. The drop came after the House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion bank bailout plan.
September 30 – A Jodhpur temple stampede in western India kills over 224 people, and injures 400.[100][101]
[edit]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.[102]
October 6
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second of three flybys of Mercury, decreasing the velocity for orbital insertion on March 18, 2011.[103][104]
An earthquake measuring 6.6 magnitude kills at least 65 in Kyrgyzstan.[105]
Symantec acquired PC Tools for $262,000,000.[106]
October 7
Global financial crisis: Russia agrees to provide Iceland with a four-billion-euro loan.[107][108]
The meteoroid 2008 TC3 impacts Earth, becoming the first such object to be discovered prior to impact.[109]
October 9 – Global financial crisis: Following a major banking and financial crisis in Iceland, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority takes control of the three largest banks in the country: Kaupthing Bank,[110][111] Landsbanki,[112][113] and Glitnir.[114][115]
October 12 – Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup win the 2008 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 for Ford and Triple 8.
October 14 – Canadian federal election, 2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper is re-elected with a stronger minority government.
October 17 – The United Nations General Assembly elects Turkey, Austria, Japan, Uganda, and Mexico to two-year terms on the Security Council.[116]
October 21 – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially inaugurated. It is a collaboration of over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.[117][118][119][120]
October 22 – The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission.[121][122]
October 29
Global financial crisis: Hungary's currency and stock markets rise on the news that it will receive an international economic bailout package worth $25 billion from the IMF, European Union, and World Bank.[123]
Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, forming the world's largest commercial carrier.[124]
July 2 – Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC by Colombian security forces.
July 7 – A suicide-bomber drives an explosives-laden automobile into the front gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 58 and injuring over 150.
July 7–July 9 – The 34th G8 summit is held in Tōyako, Hokkaidō, Japan.
July 10 – Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all charges, by a UN Tribunal accusing him of war crimes.
July 15–July 20 – World Youth Day takes place in Sydney, Australia. Pope Benedict XVI appears at the event.[56]
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.[57]
July 22 – The United Progressive Alliance-led government in India survives a crucial no-confidence vote, based on disagreements between the Indian National Congress and Left Front, over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
July 23 – Ram Baran Yadav is sworn in as the first President of Nepal.[58]
July 25 – A series of seven bomb blasts rock Bangalore, India, killing two and injuring 20; the next day, a series of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, kills 45 and injures over 160 people.
July 27 – At least 17 are killed and over 154 wounded in 2 blasts in Istanbul.
July 28 – At least 48 are dead and over 287 injured after bombs explode in Baghdad and Kirkuk, Iraq.[59][60]
[edit]August
August 1
A total eclipse of the Sun is visible from Canada and extends across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China.[61]
George Tupou V is crowned as the new King of Tonga, an event that had been delayed for over two years following the 2006 Nuku'alofa riots.[62]
August 3 – A stampede at a Hindu temple at Naina Devi in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India, kills 162 and injures 400.
August 4 – Two members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which had threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics, kill 16 and injure another 16 officers at a police station in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.[63][64]
August 6 – President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania is deposed in a military coup d'état.
August 7 – The 2008 South Ossetia war begins, as Georgia and Russia launch a major offensive inside the separatist region of South Ossetia after days of border skirmishes between the two sides.
August 8–August 24 – The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.[65]
August 10 – A propane facility explodes in Toronto overnight and causes a large-scale evacuation, resulting in 2 deaths.
August 15 – Pushpa Kamal Dahal (known as Prachanda) is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, after the Nepalese monarchy was abolished in May.[66]
August 17 – Michael Phelps surpasses Mark Spitz in Gold Medals won at a single Olympics, winning eight.[67]
August 18 – Pervez Musharraf resigns as President of Pakistan, under impeachment pressure from the coalition government.[68]
August 19
Taliban insurgents kill 10 and injure 21 French soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan.[69]
A suicide bomber rams a car into an Algerian military academy, killing 43 and injuring 45.[70]
August 20 – Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport with 172 on board. Of them, 154 die and 18 survive.[71]
August 21 – At least 60 die following twin suicide bombings outside the Pakistan Ordnance Factories in Wah, Pakistan.
August 22 – Pirates hijack German, Iranian, and Japanese cargo ships off the coast of Somalia, in seven such attacks since June 20.[72]
August 24
An aircraft crashes in Guatemala, killing 10, including four Americans on a humanitarian mission.[73]
Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 crashes upon takeoff near Manas International Airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, killing 68.[74]
August 26 – Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia.[75]
August 26–September 1 – Hurricane Gustav makes landfall on Louisiana as Category 2 and kills seven in the United States, after making landfall on western Cuba as Category 4, and killing 66 in Haiti, eight in the Dominican Republic, and 11 in Jamaica.[76][77]
August 28–September 7 – Hurricane Hanna kills seven in the United States, and 529 in Haiti, mostly due to deluges and mudslides.[78]
[edit]September
The CMS experiment of the Large Hadron Collider
September 1–September 14 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on Texas as Category 2 and kills 27 in the United States, after killing four in Cuba, one in the Dominican Republic, and 75 in Haiti.[79][80]
September 2 – Political crisis in Thailand: Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej of Thailand declares a state of emergency in Bangkok.[81]
September 3
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani of Pakistan survives an assassination attempt near Islamabad, while on his way to meet British Leader of the Opposition David Cameron.
President's Dimitris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat hold peace talks in Nicosia, aimed at reunifying Cyprus.[82][83]
September 6 – At least eight boulders dislodge from a cliff near Cairo, Egypt, killing at least 90 and burying an estimated 500 people.[84]
September 9 – Political crisis in Thailand: The Constitutional Court of Thailand orders Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign, after he is paid for appearing on a television cooking show.[85]
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.[86][87]
The 2008 Bandar Abbas earthquake strikes southern Iran, killing 7 and injuring 45 people.[88]
September 12 – A Metrolink train collides head-on into a freight train in Los Angeles, California, killing 25 and injuring 130.[89]
September 14
Aeroflot Flight 821 crashes near the city of Perm, Russia, killing all 88 on board.[90]
Churches are attacked in Mangalore and southern Karnataka, India, leading to Christian protests and strong police suppression.[91]
September 15
Following negotiations, President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara sign a power-sharing deal, making Tsvangirai the new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, laying the catalyst for the Global financial crisis.
September 17 – The International Astronomical Union classifies Haumea as the 5th dwarf planet in the Solar System.[92]
September 19–September 25 – Typhoon Hagupit kills 17 in China, eight in the Philippines, one in Taiwan, and 41 in Vietnam.[93]
September 20 – A suicide truck bomb explosion destroys the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 60 and injuring 266.[94][95][96]
September 25 – Shenzhou 7, the third manned Chinese spaceflight and the first with three crew members, is successfully launched. China becomes the third country ever to conduct a spacewalk.[97]
September 28 – SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.[98][99]
September 29 – The DOW loses 777 points, the biggest one-day point decline ever. The drop came after the House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion bank bailout plan.
September 30 – A Jodhpur temple stampede in western India kills over 224 people, and injures 400.[100][101]
[edit]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.[102]
October 6
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second of three flybys of Mercury, decreasing the velocity for orbital insertion on March 18, 2011.[103][104]
An earthquake measuring 6.6 magnitude kills at least 65 in Kyrgyzstan.[105]
Symantec acquired PC Tools for $262,000,000.[106]
October 7
Global financial crisis: Russia agrees to provide Iceland with a four-billion-euro loan.[107][108]
The meteoroid 2008 TC3 impacts Earth, becoming the first such object to be discovered prior to impact.[109]
October 9 – Global financial crisis: Following a major banking and financial crisis in Iceland, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority takes control of the three largest banks in the country: Kaupthing Bank,[110][111] Landsbanki,[112][113] and Glitnir.[114][115]
October 12 – Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup win the 2008 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 for Ford and Triple 8.
October 14 – Canadian federal election, 2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper is re-elected with a stronger minority government.
October 17 – The United Nations General Assembly elects Turkey, Austria, Japan, Uganda, and Mexico to two-year terms on the Security Council.[116]
October 21 – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially inaugurated. It is a collaboration of over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.[117][118][119][120]
October 22 – The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission.[121][122]
October 29
Global financial crisis: Hungary's currency and stock markets rise on the news that it will receive an international economic bailout package worth $25 billion from the IMF, European Union, and World Bank.[123]
Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, forming the world's largest commercial carrier.[124]
