The Phoenix Mars Lander allude down safely on the Earth’s surface of Mars on May 26 . The $ 420 million lander was search for signs of life sentence in icy regions of the planet .
Seventeen students at Gloucester High School in Gloucester , Mass. , harbinger they were pregnant in late June . At least half of the girls claimed they made a pact to get pregnant together .
In June , gaseous state prices skyrocket . At this station in San Mateo , Calif. , the prices were even steeper than the interior norm of $ 4.10 per gallon .
By November , crude oil had dropped to almost $ 50 per barrel , and petrol prices followed . In response , OPEC reconsider its output and distribution of rock oil .
On Feb. 24 , French actress Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the picture " La Vie en Rose . " She and Sophia Loren are the only two actress ever to win the award for a strange - language film .
On Feb. 19 , Cuban president Fidel Castro announced his resignation from the office he ’d held since January 1959 . He transferred power to his brother , Raul Castro . Pres . George W. Bush expressed hope that Cuba might spring a popular government .
Twenty - three - year - quondam Michael Phelps won eight amber palm at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics , nonplus Mark Spitz ’s world record for the most result won in a single Olympiad .
On Jan. 15 , the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) airlift a ban on the sales event of meat , milk and other products derived from cloned animals . Protestors marched in Washington , D.C. , on Feb. 7 , 2007 , bode consumer outcry against the legislation .
The Tato Nano , on display at the Geneva International Motor Show on March 4 , had many U.S. auto manufacturer inscribe their heads . How could the U.S. auto industry vie with India ’s $ 2,000 summary motorcar ?
Richard Garriott , the 6th civilian space tourer , traveled in a Russian Soyuz space capsule along with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko in October .
On Feb. 13 , Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd redeem a formal apology to phallus of the Stolen Generation , Aborigines who were need from their homes as children as part of a plan to phase out Australia ’s autochthonal race .
On Oct. 1 , the wreckage of Steve Fossett ’s carpenter’s plane was found in Inyo National Forest in California . The man of affairs - cum - adventurer had been missing since September 2007 .
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was the first woman to make a serious play for the presidency , but on June 7 , she take out from the airstream and herald her official endorsement of Barack Obama .
On Nov. 4 , Barack Obama made story as the first African - American to be elected U.S. president . Shown here with his running mate Joe Biden , Obama underscored his campaign with the hope of change .
Republican presidential candidate John McCain steered his campaign in a surprising focus when he tap Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as his running play mate . On the eve of Nov. 4 , McCain conceded defeat in the election .
As U.S. gas monetary value continued to climb , many Americans abandoned their truck and sportswoman usefulness vehicles ( sport utility ) for more fuel - efficient automobile . As a solution , sale of trucks and SUVs dropped 31.7 and 36.4 percent severally from May 2007 .
In an international quislingism , scientist built a atom accelerator call the Large Hadron Collider and sought to recreate the condition that follow the Big Bang . By September , experiments were underway to study the formation of the universe .
In August , difference arise as the former Soviet democracy of Georgia attempted to claim the breakaway part of South Ossetia . Russia respond with a massive military counterstrike , leading to tension in NATO .
The second - contemporaries iPhone was discharge on July 11 . consumer like this group in Dallas camp out to get their manpower on one when memory board opened , but in a twist of fate dubbed the iPocalypse , many could n’t trigger off their new phones .
Gauging from the worry that begin in mid-2008 , economist predicted that by the end of 2009 , 2.8 million U.S. houses will be preclude on , given up or sold for less than the mortgage value .
On Nov. 18 , U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington , D.C. , that the $ 700 billion bailout should be allocated for coin bank rather than bad loans .
On Sept , 29 , after Congress voted against the first version of the $ 700 billion bailout bill , the Dow plunged 778 period in a record gunpoint drop . This drop was the first of many hesitation days in the marketplace , and external securities industry followed case .
Pres . George W. Bush ’s daughter Jenna we d Henry Hager in Crawford , Texas , on May 10 . Some keep up that the Bush administration ’s flailing popularity could be pad by a White House wedding , but his daughter opted for a private affair .
The long - threatened Arctic polar bear universe pay back a cost increase from a Union court ruling on April 29 that call for the Bush governance to definitively square up whether the animal should be protect by the Endangered Species Act .
On March 11 , the Vatican released a list of seven new deathly Sin . The sine for the modern age include polluting , abuse drugs , experimenting on humans , cloning , storing up excessive wealthiness , shift up social strife and lead to poverty .
In January , the Iraqi sevens vote to adopt a raw flagstone , putting behind them the pin that Kurdish officials articulate was a symbol of Saddam Hussein ’s Baath company . On Feb. 5 , the fresh Iraqi masthead flew for the first time in the Green Zone of Baghdad .
The U.S. government announced in November that the 2008 hurricane season ranked as one of the most alive on record . This char in Port au Prince , Haiti , go in a heavily hit field .
In February , Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated Iran ’s first space center , which soon after launched the Researcher One rocket salad . Iran counts itself as one of the reality ’s 11 country that actively pursue distance technology .
A twister that rip through the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in Iowa spite 48 and killed four Boy Scouts and their loss leader . The scouts need in the tragedy met with Pres . Bush on July 12 , recounting their experience .
Amid allegation of ill-usage , more than 400 children were removed from a west Texas cattle ranch owned by member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints . On April 14 , they were transported from the compound to San Angelo Coliseum .
Cyclone Nargis mint Myanmar on May 2 , with wind up to 150 miles ( 241 klick ) per hour . The storm destroy between 80 to 90 percent of the bamboo huts in this settlement , Kyaun Da Min , and the overall death bell from the storm was 84,537 .
Social strife compounded in Zimbabwe when the Movement for Democratic Change gain ground control of the parliament in the March 29 election . Zimbabwean United States President Robert Mugabe ( R ) was urged to sign a power - sharing arrangement with the opposition company .
Bill Gates ' resignation from Microsoft was finalized in July , and he funneled his energies into the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation . On Sept. 25 , he attended a insistency conference for a wellness reform design to aid mothers and newborn in poor nations .
On May 12 , a 7.9 - order of magnitude temblor shake the Sichuan Province of China . The death toll rose to an estimate 87,000 . In Yingxiu , crews sifted through rubble to search for survivors and dupe .
World Youth Day was host in Sydney , Australia , from July 15 to 20 . Young citizenry the world over assemble to lionize their faith , and Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Australia for the first time .
The Aug. 8 opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing sport an elaborated fireworks display . The live show was held at the Bird ’s Nest sports stadium , and spectators study later that parts of the telecast display had been digitally enhanced .
But the summer Olympic Games were n’t all about solemnisation . In Nepal , constabulary restrained Tibetan activists as the Olympic torch expire through Lhasa . More than 500 Tibetan protestors gathered for an anti - Formosan monstrance .
On June 25 , Dubai unveil plans for a revolving skyscraper . Dubai says it will build an 80 - story , shape - shifting building called the Dynamic Tower . The tower will join Dubai ’s unique combination of desert sands and skyscraper in 2010 .
In August , one of the world ’s most wanted state of war criminals , Radovan Karadzic , went on trial in The Hague . Karadzic had eluded authorities for 13 old age and was tried for his crimes in the heathenish cleanup campaign in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 .
Thomas Beatie became the world ’s first transgendered man to carry and give birth to a baby in July . In November , he and his wife , Nancy , announced that he is pregnant again .
On Feb. 17 , despite yell from Serbia and Russia , Kosovo declare itself an independent State Department . Kosovo Albanians celebrated their independency after being under United Nations occupation since 1999 .
Jerome Kerviel was let go of from Paris ' La Sante Prison on March 18 . The German trader lost 4.9 billion euros ( 7.2 billion U.S. dollars ) for the French money box Societe Generale in the world ’s heavy trading deprivation in history .
This can is part of the cellar complex in which Austrian Josef Fritzl put away his daughter for 24 years . The chronicle was exposed on April 18 , when one of the seven child she bore by him was take to the hospital , gravely ill .
Somali pirates made newspaper headline for a serial of ship hijackings this year . Here , eight pirates in a Kenyan royal court house on Nov. 19 side charge for overtaking a Yemen fishing vas in the Gulf of Aden and hold its work party surety .
In Memoriam : Australian actor Heath Ledger die on Jan. 22 of an accidental overdose of prescription medications . The 28 - year - old pull in an Oscar nomination for " Brokeback Mountain " and hold a much laud functioning as the Joker in " The Dark Knight . "
In Memoriam : Comedian George Carlin died at age 71 on June 22 . He had been chosen for the 2008 Mark Twain Prize , award by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts . One of his most famous acts is " Seven word you may Never Say on Television . "
In Memoriam : Bernie Mac , a 50 - year - old comedian , die on Aug. 9 from complications from pneumonia . He gain ground a Peabody Award for the sitcom " The Bernie Mac Show " and was noted for role in films such as " The Original Kings of Comedy " and " Ocean ’s Eleven . "
In Memoriam : On Sept. 26 , after a conflict with cancer , 83 - yr - erstwhile actor Paul Newman died at his home base in Westport , Conn. The eleemosynary Oscar winner was have a go at it for such film as " Cool Hand Luke " and " Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . "
In Memoriam : On Nov. 4 , author Michael Crichton died at age 66 from lymphoma . He was take down for science - fiction works like " Jurassic Park " and " The Andromeda Strain . "
In Memoriam : Miriam Makeba , singer and militant , died on Nov. 10 at the years of 76 . She was called Mama Africa and the Empress of African Song . Her legacy include music as well as activism , having oppose South African apartheid from the sixties to ' 90s .
