50 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 beat the previous record holder, Toshiba's 2005 Portégé R200, by less than a millimetre. Jobs introduced it during Apple's keynote on 15 January 2008.

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 died of colon cancer on Christmas Day 2008 at her home in Weston, Connecticut, 55 years after recording the festive hit that made her a fixture of every December. She had taken over Catwoman from Julie Newmar in 1967.

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.

What record price per barrel did oil hit in July, before collapsing to around $32 by December?

$147 a barrel (precisely $147.30) was the peak of a five-year climb from under $30 in 2003, and the crash that followed cut US oil consumption by the most since 1980.

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 Italian-born 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 moved in for the rest of his five-year term. 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 received its first seeds in January and formally opened on 26 February 2008; Norway and the Crop Trust pay the running costs. It was built to hold backups of every crop on Earth.

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

Zhai's walk in space on 27 September 2008 took him completely outside the craft, and he had been named commander of Shenzhou 7 only ten days earlier. He had waited since joining China's first astronaut group in 1998.

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 said on 18 December that its 807 UK stores would close, costing 27,000 jobs?

Woolworths' first wave of closures shut 200 stores on 27 December, with the rest to follow in the new year unless a buyer appeared within days. All were to be gone by 5 January 2009.

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

Rebecca Adlington's 400 m and 800 m freestyle wins made her Great Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988 and the first British swimmer to take two golds at one Games since 1908.

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

Wales beat every other Home Nation for the Triple Crown, then completed the Slam at the end of a championship played over five weekends from 2 February to 15 March. 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 nearly drafted Favre in 1991, when Ron Wolf, then a Jets assistant, wanted him one pick before Atlanta took him. 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 became only the fifth performer to win an acting Oscar for a non-English-language role, and the second Best Actress to do so after Sophia Loren in 1961's Two Women.

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

Russia's win came at the first contest staged with two semi-finals, held in the Belgrade Arena on 20 and 22 May before the final on 24 May. Bilan co-wrote 'Believe' with Jim Beanz.

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 premiered on BBC One on Christmas Day and drew the day's biggest UK audience?

A Matter of Loaf and Death drew over 14 million viewers on BBC One at 8.30pm, the largest Christmas Day audience in five years, despite having 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 was only the third Black winner of a competitive Academy Award, after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier, when 'Theme from Shaft' took Best Original Song in 1972. He voiced Chef from 1997 until 2006.

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

Michael Crichton died on 4 November 2008, US election day, and ER, which he had created in 1994, ran on without him until 2009. Jurassic Park had been published in 1990.

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

Paul Newman died at his Westport, Connecticut, home on 26 September 2008, and on his death the Newman's Own food company passed to the Newman's Own Foundation. He had starred in Stuart Rosenberg's Cool Hand Luke.

Which Hollywood union's 12,000 members returned to work on 12 February after a 100-day strike?

The Writers Guild of America's East and West branches struck from 5 November 2007 to 12 February 2008, 14 weeks and two days, and 92.5% of members voted to end it. Even the Golden Globes lost the actors' support in solidarity.

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 retained the Open at Royal Birkdale by four strokes from Ian Poulter, then beat Ben Curtis and Sergio García by two at the PGA, the first Irish winner and only the fourth man to take both in one year.

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

Natalie du Toit was only the third amputee ever to qualify for an Olympics and one of just two Paralympians at the Beijing Games, alongside Polish table-tennis player Natalia Partyka. She had already won five golds at Athens 2004.

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

Li Ning was hoisted high into the air on cables and mimed running around the rim of the Bird's Nest before igniting the cauldron, 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 a replay of the 2000 final, which Australia had won; it is counted among rugby league's biggest upsets.

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, took the top award with guests including Leonard Cohen, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and Tina Turner on the record.

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

The White Tiger was written soon after Adiga resigned from Time, and his second book, Between the Assassinations, followed within weeks of the prize.

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

Sudan's Nubian Desert got the fireball when the rock exploded about 37 km up with the energy of up to 2.1 kilotons of TNT, the first impact ever predicted before the meteor entered the atmosphere.

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

Makemake is the fourth-largest dwarf planet, 60% of Pluto's diameter, and the IAU approved the name 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 beat the previous marks of 37 for a man and just 30 for a woman, three years after taking bronze at the 2005 World Championships.

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 had run global foreign exchange for Merrill Lynch for six years before entering Parliament in 2002, and he became the 38th prime minister after two years as leader of the Opposition.