100 Fun Facts About 2008

Why did Thailand's Constitutional Court oust Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in September?

He hosted TV cooking shows, 'Tasting and Grumbling' and 'All Set at 6 am', for months after taking office, which the court ruled made him a paid employee. His successor lasted only until December.

What did timekeepers insert at the end of 2008 so clocks could wait for the Earth's slightly slowing rotation?

A leap second was inserted at the end of 2008 because the Earth's rotation runs slightly slower than atomic time, so clocks were paused to let the planet catch up. Clocks showed 23:59:60 before ticking over to 1 January.

Which laptop did Steve Jobs unveil at January's Macworld as the world's thinnest notebook, at 19 mm?

The MacBook Air made its entrance when Jobs, saying it was thin enough to fit inside an office envelope, slid it out of a manila one on stage.

The 29 firework 'footprints' seen striding over Beijing on TV at the Olympic opening were what?

Largely computer animation replaced the live shot in the broadcast, although real footprints were fired at one per second, one for each of the 29 modern Olympiads. The 29th arrived at the Bird's Nest and became the Olympic rings.

Which sea creature gave science the glowing protein that won its discoverers the Chemistry Nobel?

A jellyfish, Aequorea victoria, is the source of green fluorescent protein, first purified by Osamu Shimomura in the 1960s. Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien shared the 2008 prize for turning it into a tag that lights up living cells.

Which 'Santa Baby' singer, Catwoman in Batman's final TV season, died on Christmas Day, aged 81?

Eartha Kitt took over Catwoman from Julie Newmar in 1967, months before her US career stalled when she criticised the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon. She died of colon cancer at her Connecticut home.

Which airport's Terminal 5 opened in March with British Airways cancelling 34 flights on day one?

Heathrow's Terminal 5 had been opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 14 March, before it took its first passengers and promptly suspended baggage check-in. Until 2012 the building was used solely by British Airways.

Which Belgian-Brazilian brewer paid about $52 billion in cash for Budweiser's maker Anheuser-Busch?

InBev's all-cash offer of $70 a share created the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, uniting Budweiser and Michelob with Stella Artois, Bass and Brahma. Anheuser-Busch accepted on Sunday 13 July.

Which commodity's price hit a record $147 in July, then collapsed to about $32 by December?

Crude oil peaked at just over $147 a barrel in July 2008, then lost most of its value by December as the financial crisis and recession shrank demand for energy.

Microsoft bid an unsolicited $44.6 billion in February for which portal, then still chasing Google?

Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang answered Microsoft's approach with a search-advertising arrangement with Google instead, a plan abandoned after US regulators raised competition concerns.

Which Indian carmaker unveiled the 100,000-rupee Nano, then bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford?

Tata Motors priced the Nano at one lakh rupees, about $2,500, when it went on show on 10 January, and set up Jaguar Land Rover Limited eight days later as the vehicle for taking both marques off Ford's hands.

Which model became France's first lady by marrying Nicolas Sarkozy in February?

Carla Bruni married Sarkozy on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace after a brief romance, and released her third album, Comme si de rien n'était, that July. She stayed first lady until 2012.

Which Conservative unseated Ken Livingstone, London's first mayor, who had held the post since 2000?

Boris Johnson beat Livingstone again in 2012, after which the man who had run the Greater London Council until its abolition in 1986 became a key ally of Jeremy Corbyn.

Which prime minister apologised on 11 June for Canada's residential schools for Indigenous children?

Stephen Harper's apology, made on behalf of the sitting Cabinet for past governments' policies of assimilation, came after his own Cabinet had earlier refused one, saying it was not part of the settlement agreement.

A vault to preserve the seeds of Earth's crops opened in February on which Norwegian archipelago?

Svalbard's Global Seed Vault formally opened on 26 February 2008 as a backup for the world's gene banks. Its first withdrawals began in 2015, after war forced the ICARDA seed bank near Aleppo in Syria to close.

What did Zhai Zhigang become the first Chinese citizen to do during September's Shenzhou 7 mission?

Zhai's walk in space was shown live on Chinese state television, and he waved a small Chinese flag outside the hatch while crewmate Liu Boming stood by in the airlock.

Which family-owned M&M's maker agreed in April to buy chewing-gum giant Wrigley for $23 billion?

Mars brought in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to help fund the all-cash deal, announced on 28 April, for the world's largest chewing-gum producer. Together the two firms sold over $30 billion of goods that year.

Which high-street chain's administrators said in December that its 807 UK stores would close, costing 27,000 jobs?

Woolworths opened in Liverpool in 1909 as the British arm of an American chain and outlasted its parent's shops: the last US Woolworth's stores closed in 1997. Its own final stores shut on 6 January 2009.

Which Briton's two Beijing swimming golds included breaking Janet Evans's 19-year-old 800 m record?

Rebecca Adlington won the 400 m and 800 m freestyle, and her home town of Mansfield renamed the Sherwood Baths, where she had trained for years, the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre.

Which nation won the Six Nations Grand Slam in March, its tenth Grand Slam and a 19th Triple Crown?

Wales took the Slam in Warren Gatland's first championship as coach, months after losing to Fiji and going out of the 2007 World Cup at the pool stage. It was their second Grand Slam in four years.

Which team did Brett Favre play one season for after 253 straight starts for the Green Bay Packers?

The New York Jets had wanted Favre in the 1991 draft, when Ron Wolf worked in their front office, but Atlanta took him first with the 33rd pick. After a season in New York he finished with two years in Minnesota.

Whose Best Actress Oscar for playing Édith Piaf was the first won for a French-language performance?

Marion Cotillard shaved back her hairline and shaved off her eyebrows to resemble Piaf. She was the first Best Actress winner for a non-English-language role since Sophia Loren in the Italian film Two Women.

Which country's Dima Bilan won Eurovision in Belgrade with 'Believe', two years after his first try?

Russia's Dima Bilan shared the stage with Olympic figure-skating champion Evgeni Plushenko, who skated on a small artificial rink, and violinist Edvin Marton. It was the first contest staged with two semi-finals.

Whose 'Hallelujah' sold a record 105,000 copies in one day on its way to UK Christmas number one?

Alexandra Burke's version became the UK's top-selling single of 2008 even though Jeff Buckley fans campaigned to take his recording to the Christmas top spot instead. The one-day tally was a European record.

Which political reporter left Strictly Come Dancing in week 10, saying he was in danger of winning?

John Sergeant kept finishing bottom of the judges' scoreboard while the public kept voting to save him, so he bowed out with a farewell dance rather than risk 'a joke too far'. His partner was Kristina Rihanoff.

Which Wallace & Gromit film drew the biggest UK television audience of Christmas Day?

A Matter of Loaf and Death drew over 14 million viewers on BBC One, the largest Christmas Day audience in five years, though it had already aired in Australia and leaked onto the Pirate Bay three weeks earlier.

Which 'Theme from Shaft' Oscar winner, later the voice of South Park's Chef, died in August aged 65?

Isaac Hayes started out at Stax as a session player and songwriter, writing Sam & Dave's 'Soul Man' with David Porter before finding fame under his own name.

Which Jurassic Park author, who also created the TV drama ER, died in November, aged 66?

Michael Crichton wrote thrillers under pen names while at Harvard Medical School, then never practised as a doctor. ER, which he created in 1994, drew on his own hospital training.

Which Cool Hand Luke star, dead at 83 in September, left his food company to a charity foundation?

Paul Newman started Newman's Own in 1982 with a salad dressing he and writer A. E. Hotchner had been giving to friends, pledging to give all the profits away. He died at his Connecticut home on 26 September 2008.

Which Hollywood union's members voted on 12 February to end a 100-day strike?

The Writers Guild of America's strike ran from 5 November 2007 to 12 February 2008, and 92.5% of those voting chose to end it. It reduced the Golden Globes to a press conference after actors said they would not cross picket lines.

Which Malcolm Gladwell book of November popularised the '10,000-Hour Rule' for mastering any skill?

Outliers argues that world-class expertise in any skill is largely a matter of practising the right way for around 10,000 hours, a claim the authors of the original study have since disputed. Little, Brown published it on 18 November 2008.

Which comics theorist drew the 38-page comic Google used to announce its web browser in September?

Scott McCloud's comic was meant to reach journalists on 3 September, but copies posted to Europe arrived early and a German blogger scanned it online on 1 September, so Google released the Chrome beta a day early, on 2 September.

Which New York Times columnist won the economics Nobel alone for his new trade theory?

Paul Krugman was cited for showing how economies of scale, combined with consumers' taste for variety, shape international trade and where economic activity clusters. He wrote his Times column from 2000 to 2024.

Which golfer won the Open and the PGA Championship, the first European to take the PGA since 1930?

Pádraig Harrington sprained his wrist days before the Open and was unsure he could play, yet he retained the title at Royal Birkdale and won the PGA three weeks later.

Which amputee swam to 16th in the Olympic 10 km, then won five golds at the Beijing Paralympics?

Natalie du Toit lost her left leg in 2001 when a car hit her scooter as she rode from swimming practice, and within months she was back in the pool, training for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Which Chinese sporting great lit the Beijing cauldron while hoisted on cables, miming a run around the stadium rim?

Li Ning won six medals, three of them gold, at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, then founded the sportswear company that bears his name in 1990. His flight around the Bird's Nest rim was the climax of the opening ceremony.

Which American gymnast won the Beijing all-around gold and tied the US record of five gymnastics medals at one Games?

Nastia Liukin's father Valeri won two golds for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Olympics and later opened the gym in Plano, Texas, where she trained; her five Beijing medals tied the US record for one Games.

Who beat hosts Australia 34–20 at Lang Park in November to win a first Rugby League World Cup?

New Zealand's win was Australia's first defeat since Great Britain beat them in November 2006, and it reversed the 2000 final, which Australia had won.

Which batsman passed Brian Lara's 11,953 Test runs in the second Test of Australia's tour of India?

Sachin Tendulkar had needed 177 runs going into July's Sri Lanka series but managed only 95 in six innings; back in form against Australia he made 88 in the second Test to pass Lara, reaching 12,000 Test runs along the way.

Which Led Zeppelin classic did Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis perform at the Beijing closing ceremony?

'Whole Lotta Love' closed a London segment on 24 August in which a double-decker bus circled the stadium, David Beckham kicked a football into the volunteers and the Olympic flag was handed to the mayor of London.

Whose Joni Mitchell tribute, River: The Joni Letters, won Album of the Year at the 50th Grammys?

Herbie Hancock, a veteran of the Miles Davis Quintet, beat albums by Amy Winehouse and Kanye West to give jazz its first Album of the Year since Getz/Gilberto in 1965.

Which debut novel by former Time correspondent Aravind Adiga won the year's Man Booker Prize?

The White Tiger is narrated as a letter to China's premier, Wen Jiabao, by a businessman who explains how he escaped life as a rich family's driver by murdering his employer.

Above which country did 2008 TC3, the first asteroid ever tracked before impact, explode in October?

Sudan's Nubian Desert was searched two months later by students and staff from the University of Khartoum, who recovered some 600 fragments, the first meteorites from an asteroid tracked in space.

Which Kuiper belt dwarf planet was named in July after the Rapa Nui creator god of Easter Island?

Makemake was found just after Easter 2005 and nicknamed 'Easterbunny' by its discoverers, who kept the connection when they chose its formal name. The IAU approved it in July 2008.

Which French author of Desert won the Nobel Prize in Literature, cited for 'poetic adventure'?

J. M. G. Le Clézio had won the 1963 Prix Renaudot for The Interrogation, and the Swedish Academy singled out his focus on the environment, especially the desert.

Which Austrian-born lifter held a photo of his late wife on the podium after winning Beijing gold?

Matthias Steiner's wife Susann had died in a car accident in July 2007; he carried on lifting in Germany, took German citizenship early in 2008 and won Olympic gold holding the photo of the wife who would otherwise have been there with him.

Which 38-year-old became the oldest Olympic marathon champion in history with her win in Beijing?

Constantina Diță broke clear alone just before halfway, stretched her lead past a minute and held on to win by 22 seconds from Catherine Ndereba.

Which former Catholic bishop won Paraguay's presidency, ending 61 years of Colorado Party rule?

Fernando Lugo, known as 'the bishop of the poor', had run the diocese of San Pedro from 1994 to 2005 and was later laicised; his win was the Colorados' first election defeat in 61 years.

Which Will Wright game of September begins with a single-celled organism delivered by a meteor?

Spore's cell stage opens with a cinematic of panspermia, a meteor breaking apart in an alien ocean, and the game then spans action, strategy and role-playing genres; its SecuROM copy protection drew a flood of one-star Amazon reviews.

Which ex-currency trader won November's election in Wellington after two years as opposition leader?

John Key ran global foreign exchange for Merrill Lynch, where he sacked dozens of staff after heavy losses in the late 1990s and was known to colleagues as 'the smiling assassin'.

Which sprinter slowed to celebrate before the line yet still set a 100 m world record in Beijing?

Usain Bolt held out his arms about 20 metres from the finish and crossed the line sideways in 9.69 seconds. He denied afterwards that he had been bragging.

Whose 1972 record of seven golds at one Olympics did Michael Phelps break by winning eight in Beijing?

Mark Spitz almost kept a share of it: Phelps won his seventh gold, the 100 m butterfly, by one hundredth of a second. Serbia's delegation filed a protest on behalf of the beaten Čavić.

Which Batman villain did Heath Ledger play on screen six months after his death in January 2008?

The Joker won Ledger a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which his family accepted on his behalf. He had finished filming The Dark Knight several months before he died.

Which Wall Street bank filed the largest bankruptcy in American history on 15 September 2008?

Lehman Brothers held more than $600 billion in assets when it filed, after talks to sell the firm to Barclays collapsed. The Treasury had told its chief there would be no government bailout.

Which particle accelerator near Geneva circulated its first beam on 10 September 2008?

The Large Hadron Collider ran for only nine days before a faulty electrical connection vented about six tonnes of liquid helium into its tunnel. Repairs kept it shut for 14 months.

Sarah Palin was governor of which state when John McCain chose her as his running mate in 2008?

Alaska had elected Palin two years earlier, at 42, as its youngest governor and the first woman in the job. She was the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket.

Which 2008 film starring Robert Downey Jr. was the first in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Iron Man started shooting without a finished script, so much of its dialogue was improvised. Marvel Studios picked the hero because he was its only major character not yet seen in live action.

Which digital currency was first described in a white paper posted online on 31 October 2008?

Bitcoin's paper reached a cryptography mailing list under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, an author who has never been identified. The network itself began running on 3 January 2009.

Who beat Roger Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final, a five-set match that ended in near darkness?

Rafael Nadal won 9–7 in the fifth set at 9.15 pm, after 4 hours and 48 minutes of play and repeated rain delays. The defeat ended Federer's run of five straight Wimbledon titles.

Which 1980s singer surprised the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade by performing his internet-meme hit?

Rick Astley appeared on a Cartoon Network float to turn the web's bait-and-switch prank on millions of TV viewers. Fans of the joke on 4chan lost interest once it had gone that mainstream.

Which drama about a chemistry teacher who turns to making drugs premiered on AMC on 20 January 2008?

Breaking Bad debuted on the night of the NFL's conference championship games, a slot AMC chose in the hope of catching men once the football ended. It ran for 62 episodes.

Which 2008 Danny Boyle film follows a teenager accused of cheating on an Indian TV quiz show?

Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars, the most of any 2008 film, including Best Picture and Best Director. Its hero explains each right answer by telling the police his life story.

Which 2008 Pixar film has almost no dialogue in its early scenes as its hero tidies an abandoned Earth?

WALL-E's robot sounds were designed by Ben Burtt, who was brought in because the director kept using R2-D2 as his benchmark. Many characters talk only through body language and noises.

The 2008 film Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, is built on the songs of which pop group?

ABBA's four members were photographed together for the first time since 1986 at the film's Stockholm premiere. On release it became the highest-grossing live-action musical to that point.

Which country won football's Euro 2008 by beating Germany 1–0 in the Vienna final?

Spain scored through Fernando Torres, who outmuscled Philipp Lahm and clipped the ball over the diving Jens Lehmann. It made the country European champions for the second time.

Which Balkan territory's assembly declared independence from Serbia in Pristina on 17 February 2008?

Kosovo's declaration was adopted by 109 of the assembly's 120 members. Serbia called it illegal and asked the International Court of Justice for an opinion that October.

Which financier was arrested in December 2008 after his own sons reported his Ponzi scheme to the authorities?

Bernie Madoff had defrauded his clients of almost $65 billion, the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.

Which island nation saw all three of its major commercial banks collapse in late 2008?

Iceland's banks Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir had multiplied in size in the years before. Measured against the size of its economy, the collapse was the largest any country has suffered.

Which Apple service opened on 10 July 2008 with an initial 500 programs for the iPhone?

The App Store offered 125 of its first 500 applications free, Steve Jobs said on opening day. In-app purchases arrived in 2009 and quickly became the main way apps made money.

Which singer's debut album The Fame, released in August 2008, produced the hits Just Dance and Poker Face?

Lady Gaga had worked her way up through the underground club scene before the album. Both singles topped the charts in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Which former Soviet republic fought a five-day war in August 2008 over its breakaway region of South Ossetia?

Georgia's war ended with a ceasefire that the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, negotiated in person on 12 August. The conflict is regarded as the first European war of the 21st century.

Which comedian returned to Saturday Night Live as a guest in autumn 2008 to impersonate candidate Sarah Palin?

Tina Fey won an Emmy for the guest appearances, which came about after people noticed how much she looked like the candidate. One reviewer wrote that she nailed the distinctive accent.

Which music-streaming service founded in Stockholm by Daniel Ek launched in October 2008?

Spotify was conceived as a legal alternative to music piracy and opened first in several European markets. It did not reach the United States until July 2011.

Which company conceded the high-definition disc war in February 2008 by abandoning its HD DVD format?

Toshiba gave up six weeks after Warner Bros. said it would drop HD DVD entirely. The rival Blu-ray format had Sony, Disney and Fox behind it.

Which driver won his first Formula One title in 2008 with an overtake at the final corners in Brazil?

Lewis Hamilton passed Timo Glock's Toyota to finish fifth and take the championship by a single point. The Ferrari garage had already begun celebrating a title for its own driver.

Which British band named its 2008 album Viva la Vida after a painting by Frida Kahlo?

Coldplay put a different painting on the cover: Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, with the title daubed across it in white. It was the best-selling album of 2008.

Which young-adult novel published in September 2008 has a heroine its author called a futuristic Theseus?

The Hunger Games came to Suzanne Collins while she was channel surfing on television. Its first printing of 50,000 copies was raised twice, to 200,000.

Which video game set in Liberty City earned $500 million in its first week on sale in 2008?

Grand Theft Auto IV took $310 million on its first day alone, making it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history at the time. Players control a war veteran named Niko Bellic.

Which country did Cyclone Nargis strike in May 2008, sending a storm surge up the Irrawaddy delta?

Myanmar lost at least 138,000 people, the worst natural disaster in its recorded history. Officials were accused of ceasing to update the death toll to limit the political fallout.

Which golfer won the 2008 US Open in a playoff despite a double stress fracture in his left leg?

Tiger Woods beat Rocco Mediate on the first sudden-death hole after their 18-hole playoff finished level. Two days later he announced knee surgery that ended his season.

Rod Blagojevich, arrested in December 2008 over Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, was governor of which state?

Illinois lawmakers impeached him and removed him from office shortly after the arrest. He later said Oprah Winfrey's sway in the election had so impressed him that he considered offering her the seat.

Which Asian country was declared a republic on 28 May 2008, ending its status as the world's only Hindu kingdom?

Nepal's last king, Gyanendra, had inherited the throne in 2001 after his brother King Birendra died in a massacre at the royal palace. The republic followed years of civil war.

Which London club lost the 2008 Champions League final on penalties after its captain slipped taking his kick?

Chelsea would have won the cup had John Terry scored, but his shot struck the post. Manchester United took the shoot-out 6–5 in the competition's first all-English final.

Which British singer won five Grammys in February 2008 but performed by satellite from London after a visa delay?

Amy Winehouse sang at 3 a.m. UK time from a London studio because her visa had not been processed in time. Her five wins tied the then-record for a female artist in a single night.

Which mountaineer, the first to reach Everest's summit with Tenzing Norgay, died in Auckland in January 2008?

Edmund Hillary died of heart failure at 88 and was given a state funeral. Five years after Everest he had also reached the South Pole overland.

Which Arctic animal was listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act in 2008?

Polar bear numbers could fall by two-thirds by 2050 as sea ice shrinks, a study predicted that same year. It forecast that only one population was likely to survive 50 years.

Which NFL team lost every game in 2008, the first to finish a 16-game season winless?

The Detroit Lions stood alone until 2017, when the Cleveland Browns matched their 0–16 record. Since the merger only the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers had also gone a full season without a win.

Which NFL team lost Super Bowl XLII in February 2008 after going unbeaten through the regular season?

The New England Patriots led 14–10 with 2:42 left, then David Tyree pinned a pass to his helmet for 32 yards on the winning drive. The NFL ranked it third among its 100 greatest plays.

Which Chinese province was struck by a May 2008 earthquake that killed over 69,000 people?

Sichuan suffered 68,636 of the deaths, and at least 4.8 million people were left homeless. In the city of Mianyang alone, seven schools collapsed and buried at least 1,700 people.

Which 2008 James Bond film borrowed its title from a 1959 Ian Fleming short story?

Quantum of Solace first named a tale in Fleming's anthology For Your Eyes Only. The film is a sequel to Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig in his second outing as the MI6 agent.

Which Treasury secretary, a former Goldman Sachs chief, proposed a three-page $700 billion bailout in September 2008?

Henry Paulson kept his plan to three pages, deliberately short on detail so that Congress could pass it quickly. The House of Representatives first voted it down, 228 to 205.

In which country was politician Íngrid Betancourt rescued in July 2008 after six years as a hostage of FARC guerrillas?

Colombia's security forces freed her with 14 other captives, three of them American contractors, in Operation Jaque. She had been seized in 2002 while campaigning for the presidency.

Which artist behind the Andre the Giant sticker campaign designed the Hope poster of Barack Obama in 2008?

Shepard Fairey based the portrait on an Associated Press photograph from a 2006 press conference, a debt a blogger uncovered in January 2009. A lawsuit over fair use followed.

Which Bosnian Serb wartime leader was arrested in Belgrade in July 2008 while posing as an alternative-medicine expert?

Radovan Karadžić had practised under the alias Dragan Dabić, a name taken from a real construction worker, and lectured on his therapies to audiences of hundreds.

Who was sworn in as president in the Grand Kremlin Palace on 7 May 2008, succeeding Vladimir Putin?

Dmitry Medvedev was chairman of the gas company Gazprom's board and gave the post up, because the law bars a president from holding another job.

Which president of Pakistan resigned on 18 August 2008 to avoid impeachment, nine years after seizing power in a coup?

Pervez Musharraf faced a mass movement calling for his impeachment after he suspended the constitution and tried to remove the chief justice in 2007.

Which sibling directors won Best Picture at the Oscars in February 2008 for a Cormac McCarthy adaptation?

The Coen brothers kept the title of McCarthy's novel, No Country for Old Men, which comes from the opening line of a Yeats poem. It won four Academy Awards, more than any other film that night.

Which team beat the Los Angeles Lakers in six games to win the 2008 NBA title, its first since 1986?

The Boston Celtics clinched it by 39 points, the largest margin ever in a title-deciding game. They had acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett the previous summer to join Paul Pierce.

Which comedian, famous for a routine about seven words banned from television, died in June 2008 aged 71?

George Carlin saw that routine become central to a 1978 Supreme Court case about broadcasting. He was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor later in 2008.

Which planet did NASA's MESSENGER probe fly past in January 2008, the first visit since Mariner 10 in 1975?

Mercury had been mapped only 40–45% by Mariner 10, whose final pass came in March 1975. MESSENGER went into orbit around the planet in 2011, the first spacecraft to do so.