In history, year 2008 has its own importance and known for many memorable events like famous birthdays, inventions, natural disaster, treaties, change of rulers, special days etc. Find below a list of important historical events which happened during the year 2008.
| Date/Month | Event / Incidence / Incident |
|---|
| 01 january | The newly formed state Cyprus replaced it's currency with the Euro. |
| 02 january | For the first time, the price of oil reached 100 dollar per barrel. |
| 05 january | Mikheil Saakashvili was decisively re-elected as President of Georgia in 'the first genuinely competitive presidential election' inthe history of the country. |
| 16 january | Five days after proposing lyrics for the wordless Marcha Real, the Spanish national anthem, the Spanish Olympic Committee withdrew the proposal due to widespread criticism. |
| 21 january | The Eyak language in Alaska became extinct after Marie Smith Jones, the language's last native speaker, died, an event that became a symbol in the fight against language extinction. |
| 04 february | The London low emission zone , governing what types of vehicles may enter Greater London, came into being. |
| 05 february | Eighty-seven tornadoes occurred over the course of the SuperTuesday tornado outbreak across multiple U.S. states, causing 56 deathsand over $1 billion in damage. |
| 07 february | Space Shuttle Atlantis launches STS 122 to deliver laboratory to the ISS. |
| 10 february | An arson fire severely damaged the Namdaemun gate in Seoul, the first of South Korea's National Treasures. |
| 10 february | The Namdaemun gate in Seoul, the first of South Korea'sNational Treasures, was severely damaged by arson. |
| 11 february | Rebel East Timorese soldiers invaded the homes of PresidentJosé Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, seriously wounded the former. |
| 13 february | The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd issue a formal apology for the Aboriginal people of Australia. |
| 13 february | Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apology to Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. |
| 17 february | Kosovo declares independence from Serbia. |
| 20 february | US navy destroys a US spy satellite with missile on February 20, 2008. |
| 24 february | Fidel Castro resigns as President of Cuba, his brother Raul Castro is unanimously elected. |
| 26 february | In the first significant cultural visit from the United States to North Korea since the Korean War, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed in East Pyongyang Grand Theatre. |
| 06 march | A Palestinian gunman shot and killed eight students andcritically injured eleven in the library of the Mercaz HaRav Kookyeshiva in Jerusalem. |
| 14 march | A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupted inLhasa and elsewhere in Tibet. |
| 24 march | Bhutan holds it first general election. |
| 24 march | The Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party, led by Jigme Thinley,won 45 out of 47 seats in the National Assembly of Bhutan in thecountry's first-ever general election. |
| 06 april | Egyptian workers staged an illegal general strike, two days before key municipal elections. |
| 08 april | On board Soyuz TMA-12, Yi So-Yeon became the first Koreanperson, and second Asian woman, to go into space. |
| 08 april | The wind turbines at the Bahrain World Trade Center, the first building to incorporate turbines into its design, became operational. |
| 20 april | Fernando Lugo became the first non-Colorado Party candidate to be elected President of Paraguay in 61 years. |
| 02 may | Cyclone Nargis is the most damaging cyclone in the history of Myanmar, occurred on May 2, 2008. It had caused major catastrophic destruction and killed more than 130,000 people excluding 55,000 people missing. It started to be formed on 27th April and made landfall in the Ayeyarwady Division of Myanmar at its peak strength with165 km per hour. |
| 02 may | The current ongoing Chaitén volcano eruption in Chile, the first in 9,500 years, began. |
| 04 may | Eminent Tabla player Pandit Kishan Maharaj was died on May 4, 2008 in Varanasi at the age of 84. He was honored with prestigious Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan award for his valuable contribution in Indian classical music. |
| 06 may | The Chaiten volcano entered a new eruptive phase for the first time in about 9,500 hundred years in May 2008 and erupted on May 6, 2008 with significant force which produced pyroclastic flows and lava explosion. Eruption column was raised to height of 30,000 metres approximately. |
| 12 may | The Great Sichuan Earthquake occurred on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province, China with the magnitude of 8.0 Ms. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit China since 1976 and 21st earthquake of all time, killing 69, 197 people and left 18, 222 people missing. |