Remembering 2008, a year of momentous events

JANUARY

1/1 -- Revelers celebrate the new year around the world; the ball drops for the 100th year in New York's Times Square.

1/2 -- Pakistan postpones elections to February because of continued rioting after the assassination of leading opposition candidate Benazir Bhutto. Oil prices soar to $100 a barrel for the first time.

1/3 -- Barack Obama wins Democratic caucuses in Iowa, while Mike Huckabee wins Republican caucuses.

1/4 -- Nation's jobless rate hits 5 percent, a two-year high, fanning recession fears. Britney Spears loses custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline a day after police and paramedics are called to her home.

1/8 -- Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican John McCain win New Hampshire primaries.

1/10 -- President Bush, visiting Israel and the Palestinian West Bank, says a Mideast peace pact will require "painful political concessions by both sides."

1/11 -- Bank of America says it will buy Countrywide Financial in a deal that rescues the country's biggest mortgage lender. Sir Edmund Hillary, first to summit Mount Everest, dies.

1/13 -- Golden Globes are announced at dry, news conference-style ceremony, devoid of stars because of the Hollywood writers' strike.

1/22 -- Oscar-nominated actor Heath Ledger, 28, dies of accidental prescription-drug overdose.

1/28 -- Bush, in his final State of the Union address, urges passage of an economic-stimulus package, saying "we can all see that growth is slowing."

1/31 -- Dow Jones industrial average closes at 12,650, ending its worst January in eight years with a decline of 4.63 percent.

FEBRUARY

2/1 -- Exxon Mobil posts the largest annual profit by a U.S. company -- $40.6 billion -- and the biggest quarterly profit, breaking its own records. Microsoft announces an unsolicited bid for Yahoo, which soon rejects it.

2/3 -- New York Giants score a late touchdown for a spectacular Super Bowl win, ending the New England Patriots' run at an undefeated season.

2/5 -- McCain wins several states on Super Tuesday; Clinton and Obama trade victories.

2/7 -- Sugar-dust explosion at a refinery near Savannah, Ga., kills 14 workers.

2/10 -- Amy Winehouse wins five Grammys and delivers a defiant performance of "Rehab" from London.

2/11 -- Pentagon charges six Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, with murder and war crimes in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

2/12 -- Obama overtakes Clinton in the race for Democratic convention delegates. General Motors says it lost $38.7 billion last year, the largest annual loss in automotive history, and offers buyouts to 74,000 hourly workers. Barking, baying Uno becomes the first beagle named Westminster Kennel Club's best in show.

2/13 -- Roger Clemens tells Congress: "I have never taken steroids or HGH" -- and is later investigated for possible perjury. Hollywood writers end a 100-day strike that disrupted the TV season and canceled awards shows.

2/17 -- Kosovo declares itself a nation. Days later, Serb rioters break into the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade and set fire during protests against Western support for an independent Kosovo.

2/18 -- Opposition parties of Bhutto and ex-Premier Nawaz Sharif win enough seats to form a new government in Pakistan.

2/19 -- Fidel Castro resigns the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power; brother Raul is later named as president.

2/23 -- Jennifer Lopez gives birth to twins Max and Emme, with husband Marc Anthony.

2/24 -- Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" wins Academy Awards for best picture and best director.

2/29 -- British defense chiefs pull Prince Harry out of a combat zone in Afghanistan after word of his 10-week deployment becomes public.

MARCH

3/2 -- Dmitry Medvedev, hand-picked as Vladimir Putin's successor, scores a big victory in Russia's presidential election.

3/4 -- Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre retires after 17 seasons, saying he is tired.

3/5 -- McCain clinches the Republican nomination.

3/7 -- Labor Department says employers slashed 63,000 jobs in February, the most in five years.

3/9 -- Spain's governing Socialists win a second term but without a majority in parliament.

3/12 -- New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigns two days after reports surfaced that he was a client of a prostitution ring.

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3/13 -- Gold hits a record, rising to $1,000 an ounce for the first time, but it falls sharply later in the year.

3/14 -- Protests led by Buddhist monks in Tibet turn violent, leading to an extensive crackdown by China's military.

3/15 -- Construction crane topples in New York City, killing seven people.

3/17 -- Paul McCartney's divorce from Heather Mills is settled for $48.6 million.

3/18 -- In a bold speech in Philadelphia, Obama urges nation to break its "racial stalemate."

3/19 -- Science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90.

3/23 -- American death toll in Iraq reaches at least 4,000 after a roadside bomb kills four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad.

3/30 -- Army says remains of Sgt. Matt Maupin, captured in Iraq in 2004, have been found.

APRIL

4/3 -- NATO decides not to put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian opposition, but it pledges they will become members one day.

4/4 -- Texas authorities start removing the first of more than 400 girls from compound built by a polygamist sect.

4/5 -- Charlton Heston, big-screen hero and later leader of National Rifle Association, dies at 84.

4/7 -- Anti-China protesters disrupt the Olympic torch relay in Paris, at times forcing Chinese organizers to put out the flame and take the torch onto a bus to secure it.

4/14 -- Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. announce they are combining.

4/16 -- Supreme Court upholds a lethal-injection method, which lets states resume executions after seven-month halt.

4/18 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gives birth to a boy, Trig, who has Down syndrome.

4/21 -- Gasoline prices jump to a record $3.50 a gallon in the U.S.

4/24 -- White House says North Korea assisted Syria's secret nuclear program, and a nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel last year was not intended for "peaceful purposes."

4/25 -- Three New York police detectives are acquitted in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day.

4/26 -- Police in Austria arrest a man, free his daughter and her six children, whom he fathered while holding the woman captive in a cellar for 24 years.

4/28 -- The first tax rebates are sent from the $168 billion stimulus package.

4/29 -- Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, discoverer of LSD, dies at 102.

MAY

5/3 -- Powerful Tropical Cyclone Nargis strikes Myanmar.

5/10 -- Jenna Bush marries Henry Hager, son of a Virginia Republican party official, at the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Texas.

5/12 -- Devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province kills 70,000, and deaths of children in shoddily built schools prompt public outrage. Nearly 400 workers are arrested in an immigration raid at kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa.

5/13 -- LPGA great Annika Sorenstam says she will retire at end of golf season.

5/15 -- Red Cross estimates the Myanmar cyclone caused as many as 128,000 deaths and predicts more unless the ruling junta lets in aid quickly. California Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage, but conservatives press for constitutional ban to be on November ballot.

5/17 -- Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown runs away with the Preakness; the Triple Crown quest ends three weeks later when he finishes last in the Belmont Stakes.

5/20 -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is diagnosed with cancerous brain tumor.

5/21 -- Oil prices blow past $130 a barrel and gas prices climb above $3.80 a gallon. David Cook wins "American Idol" in landslide over David Archuleta.

5/22 -- Indiana Jones returns to big-screen in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

5/23 -- Myanmar's rulers lift the ban on foreign aid workers and commercial ships, but they refuses cyclone aid from U.S., French and British military ships.

5/25 -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrives to begin a search for water on Red Planet.

5/28 -- Nepal's lawmakers abolish the monarchy and declare the country a republic, ending 239 years of royal rule.

5/29 -- Texas Supreme Court says children seized from polygamist sect should be returned to their parents.

JUNE

6/3 -- Obama clinches the Democratic nomination, making him first black candidate to lead his party. General Motors closes four pickup and SUV factories as it tries to adjust to customers' preference for small cars amid high gas prices.

6/6 -- Dow drops 394 points to 12,209, its worst loss in more than a year.

6/7 -- Clinton ends her presidential campaign and gives Obama her unqualified endorsement.

6/9 -- Retail gas prices rise above $4 per gallon.

6/12 -- Taiwan and China agree to set up permanent offices in each other's territory for the first time in nearly six decades. U.S. Supreme Court rules that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their detention in federal court.

6/13 -- Floods swamp Iowa cities, with evacuations urged in low-lying areas of Des Moines.

6/16 -- Tiger Woods, playing on a throbbing injured knee, wins an epic U.S. Open after a 19-hole playoff with Rocco Mediate. He later has surgery and misses the rest of year.

6/17 -- Truck bombing in Baghdad kills 63, the highest toll in Iraq in three months. Boston Celtics win their 17th NBA title, and first in two decades, by beating the Los Angeles Lakers.

6/19 -- Obama says he will bypass public financing for the general election, even though McCain accepts it.

6/21 -- Ferry carrying more than 800 people capsizes as Typhoon Fengshen batters the Philippines; only four dozen survivors are found.

6/22 -- Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulls out of Zimbabwe's presidential runoff because violence against his supporters has discredited the vote. George Carlin, known for "Seven Words" comedy routine, dies.

6/26 -- Supreme Court affirms that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to own guns. Oil prices pass $140 a barrel, and Dow drops 358 points, more than 3 percent, to close at 11,453.

6/27 -- North Korea destroys the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program, the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor. Widespread voter intimidation ensures President Robert Mugabe of winning Zimbabwe's election.

JULY

7/2 -- Colombian spies trick rebels to free kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors.

7/4 -- Jesse Helms, an unyielding conservative in Senate for 30 years, dies.

7/6 -- U.S. launches airstrike at combatants in Afghanistan's Nuristan province; the Afghan government later says 47 civilians died. Rafael Nadal wins a riveting five-set Wimbledon final, denying Roger Federer a sixth straight title.

7/7 -- Suicide car bomb at the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan kills at least 58, the deadliest attack in Kabul since 2001.

7/9 -- Prosecutor says new DNA tests clear JonBenet Ramsey's family in the girl's 1996 slaying.

7/11 -- Oil prices reach an all-time high of $147 a barrel.

7/12 -- Angelina Jolie gives birth to twins Knox and Vivienne, making a family of eight with Brad Pitt.

7/14 -- Belgian brewer InBev SA says it is buying Anheuser-Busch.

7/18 -- Epic Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" premieres.

7/19 -- Obama visits U.S. troops in Afghanistan during a war-zone tour with other senators.

7/21 -- Radovan Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb leader and one of the world's top war-crimes fugitives, is arrested in a Belgrade suburb by Serbian security forces. By month's end, he is extradited to face genocide charges at the U.N. war-crimes tribunal after nearly 13 years on the run.

7/24 -- Ford Motor Co. posts the worst quarterly performance in its history, losing $8.67 billion, and plans to quickly change focus from trucks to small cars.

7/31 -- Monthly U.S. toll in Iraq falls to the lowest point since the war began; Iraqis also are dying in dramatically lower numbers.

AUGUST

8/5 -- Oil prices fall below $120 a barrel for first time since May, and retail gas prices continue to fall.

8/6 -- Government says troubled Army scientist Bruce Ivins was solely responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks.

8/7 -- Brett Favre ends his offseason-long retirement and joins New York Jets.

8/8 -- Former presidential candidate John Edwards admits he had an extramarital affair. Russia sends armored column into the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia after Georgia launches an offensive to crush separatists there.

8/10 -- Michael Phelps wins gold in his first swimming event at the Beijing Olympics.

8/14 -- Consumer prices jump 0.8 percent; inflation rises at the fastest rate in 17 years.

8/15 -- Nastia Liukin edges U.S. teammate Shawn Johnson for the women's gymnastics gold medal. Georgia's president signs a cease-fire that also calls on Russia to end hostilities.

8/16 -- Phelps wins a record eighth gold medal in a single Olympics. Jamaica's Usain Bolt speeds to Olympic gold in the 100-meter dash. Celebrities Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi marry at their California home.

8/20 -- Flooding from Tropical Storm Fay swamps Florida for a third day.

8/23 -- Obama introduces running mate Joe Biden as a leader ready to be president.

8/26 -- Russia recognizes the independence of two Georgian breakaway regions over Western opposition.

8/28 -- Obama accepts the Democratic presidential nomination, saying his life shows the promise of America.

8/29 -- McCain picks Palin as his running mate, says she is reformer like him.

SEPTEMBER

9/1 -- Weaker-than-expected Hurricane Gustav hits Louisiana with only glancing blow on New Orleans.

9/4 -- McCain accepts the Republican nomination and urges the crowd to "fight for what's right for our country." Dow falls 344 points to 11,188 on gloomy economic data. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigns and pleads guilty to obstruction of justice in sex scandal. He is later sentenced to four months in jail.

9/5 -- Unemployment climbs to a five-year high of 6.1 percent.

9/7 -- Troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are placed in government conservatorship.

9/11 -- Two U.S. deaths make 2008 the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

9/12 -- Commuter train strikes a freight train in Los Angeles, killing 25 people. China says it is investigating milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine that has sickened babies. The country later reports more than 50,000 illnesses from milk products.

9/13 -- Large Hurricane Ike bashes the Texas coast and blows out windows in Houston skyscrapers.

9/15 -- Dow drops 504 points to 10,917, while oil closes below $100 a barrel for the first time in six months amid upheaval in the financial industry.

9/21 -- Sleek 1960s drama "Mad Men" becomes the first basic-cable show to win top series Emmy; "30 Rock" and its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin win comedy awards.

9/24 -- Galveston reopens to residents who are warned about Ike's debris and lack of utilities.

9/26 -- Hollywood screen legend and philanthropist Paul Newman dies.

9/27 -- China marks its first spacewalk as astronaut Zhai Zhigang floats outside for 13 minutes.

9/29 -- Stock markets plunge as the House defeats a $700 billion emergency bailout plan for the nation's battered financial industry.

OCTOBER

10/3 -- A $700 billion bailout is approved by Congress and signed by Bush amid dire warnings if it fails.

10/4 -- O.J. Simpson is convicted of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.

10/6 -- Dow drops to 9,955, its first close below 10,000 since 2004.

10/7 -- In a second presidential debate, Obama and McCain clash repeatedly over the causes and cures for economic crisis.

10/10 -- Pirates off Somalia issue an ultimatum: They will destroy a hijacked tanker carrying tanks and other heavy weapons if a ransom is not paid.

10/11 -- U.S. removes North Korea from its terrorism blacklist after Pyongyang relents on nuclear inspections.

10/13 -- Dow gains a shocking 936 points after eight days of losses, but it can't withstand economic worries.

10/14 -- Florida mother Casey Anthony is arrested on a first-degree murder charge alleging she killed her 3-year-old daughter, Caylee.

10/15 -- Madonna and Guy Ritchie announce they are divorcing after nearly eight years of marriage.

10/16 -- Oil prices fall below $70 a barrel, less than half the July peak.

10/24 -- Relatives of singer-actress Jennifer Hudson are found slain in a Chicago home; her estranged brother-in-law is later arrested.

10/27 -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is convicted of corruption but calls the verdict unjust; he later loses re-election in a close race against Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

10/29 -- Philadelphia Phillies close out rain-delayed Game 5 after two days to win the World Series over Tampa Bay Rays.

NOVEMBER

11/2 -- Madelyn Payne Dunham, grandmother whom Obama praised as teaching him many life lessons, dies.

11/3 -- Alaska personnel board finds that Palin violated no ethics laws by firing the public-safety commissioner.

11/4 -- Obama wins the presidency, says "change has come to America." Democrats gain seats in the Senate and House. Voters in California ban same-sex marriage just months after the state Supreme Court legalized it.

11/7 -- School in Haiti collapses while children are in classes, causing more than 90 deaths. Unemployment bolts to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent.

11/12 -- Same-sex marriages begin in Connecticut, a month after a court ruled that gays have the right to wed.

11/15 -- Wildfire destroys nearly 500 mobile homes in Los Angeles.

11/17 -- Somali pirates hijack a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million in crude oil.

11/19 -- Dow closes below 8,000, its lowest close since March 2003. Aid groups say Zimbabwe's government is to blame for a cholera epidemic.

11/22 -- Obama promotes an economic plan that he says will create or save 2.5 million jobs. Revised Nebraska haven law takes effect with a 30-day age limit, ending abandonments of older children.

11/26 -- Gunmen storm luxury hotels, a crowded train station and a Jewish center in Mumbai, India, holding and killing captives while repelling police response.

11/28 -- Dow rises for fifth straight session, rallying on Obama's economic team and government efforts to fight the financial crisis.

11/29 -- Indian commandos end the militants' 60-hour rampage through India's financial capital, which killed more than 160 people.

DECEMBER

12/1 -- U.S. is declared to officially be in a recession, oil drops below $50 a barrel, and Dow loses 679 points to end a five-day win streak. Obama taps Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

12/2 -- Republican Saxby Chambliss wins Georgia runoff, denying Democrats the prospect of a 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority in Senate. New York Giants fine and suspend Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress after he accidentally shot himself in the thigh at a nightclub.

12/5 -- Alarming half-million jobs vanish as unemployment hits a 15-year high of 6.7 percent. Weary O.J. Simpson is sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison for a Las Vegas robbery.

12/9 -- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is arrested after wiretaps allegedly show him scheming to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat. NBC announces that "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is moving to prime time next May.

12/10 -- Pakistani officials say two men India identified as key plotters of the Mumbai attacks have been detained.

12/11 -- Former Nasdaq Chairman Bernie Madoff is arrested and accused of running a Ponzi scheme that lost $50 billion. Suicide bomber kills at least 55 people near Kirkuk, the deadliest attack in Iraq in six months.

12/14 -- Bush ducks to avoid shoes an Iraqi journalist hurls at him during news conference in Baghdad.

12/15 -- Thailand names opposition leader as the new prime minister after six months of instability and protests that culminated with a weeklong takeover of two Bangkok airports.

12/16 -- U.N. Security Council authorizes nations to attack pirate bases on Somalia's coast.

12/17 -- OPEC slashes 2.2 million barrels of oil from daily production, its single largest cut ever. Crude oil sinks to $40, the lowest level in almost 4½ years.

12/19 -- Bush approves an emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry with $17.4 billion in rescue loans. The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas falls to $1.66, well less than half the price just six months earlier and the lowest level in nearly five years.

12/22 -- Toyota Motor Corp. forecasts its first-ever annual operating loss, citing a relentless sales slide.