2008

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century – 21st century – 22nd century
Decades:	1970s  1980s  1990s  – 2000s –  2010s  2020s  2030s
Years:	2005 2006 2007 – 2008 – 2009 2010 2011

2008 by topic
Arts, history, and science
Archaeology Architecture Art Literature Poetry Music Science
Countries
Lists of leaders
State leaders Colonial governors Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works category
Works

2008 (MMVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday in the Gregorian calendar, the 2008th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 8th year of the 3rd millennium, the 8th year of the 21st century, and the 9th year of the 2000s decade.

January

Edmund Hillary

Heath Ledger

• January 3 – Yo-Sam Choi, Korean boxer (b. 1972)
• January 7 – Philip Agee, American spy and writer (b. 1935)
• January 10 – Christopher Bowman, American ice skater (b. 1967)
• January 10 – Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress and television personality (b. 1921)
• January 11 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist (b. 1919)
• January 15 – Brad Renfro, American actor (b. 1982)
• January 16 – Nikola Kljusev, Macedonian Prime Minister (b. 1927)
• January 17 – Bobby Fischer, American-Icelandic chess grandmaster (b. 1943)
• January 17 – Allan Melvin, American actor (b. 1923)
• January 18 – Lois Nettleton, American actress (b. 1927)
• January 19 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (b. 1937)
• January 22 – Heath Ledger, Australian actor (b. 1979)
• January 22 – Claude Piron, Swiss linguist and psychologist (b. 1931)
• January 26 – George Habash, Palestinian politician (b. 1926)
• January 27 – Gordon B. Hinckley, American Mormon leader (b. 1910)
• January 28 – Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens (b. 1939)
• January 29 – Margaret Truman, American author (b. 1924)

February

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Roy Scheider

Janez Drnovšek

• February 2 – Joshua Lederberg, American molecular biologist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
• February 5 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1917)
• February 7 – Andrew Bertie, British Grand Master of the Order of Malta (b. 1929)
• February 9 – Baba Amte, Indian social activist (b. 1914)
• February 10 – Roy Scheider, American actor (b. 1932)
• February 11 – Alfredo Reinado, East Timorese rebel (b. 1967)
• February 11 – Tom Lantos, American politician (b. 1928)
• February 12 – Imad Mughniyah, Lebanese militant (b. 1962)
• February 12 – Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgian businessman and politician (b. 1955)
• February 13 – Kon Ichikawa, Japanese movie director (b. 1915)
• February 13 – Henri Salvador, French singer (b. 1917)
• February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and movie maker (b. 1922)
• February 19 – Natalia Bessmertnova, Russian ballerina (b. 1941)
• February 19 – Yegor Letov, Russian singer (b. 1964)
• February 23 – Janez Drnovšek, former President and Prime Minister of Slovenia (b. 1950)
• February 23 – Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver (b. 1917)
• February 25 – Static Major, American musician (b. 1974)
• February 27 – William F. Buckley, Jr., American writer and conservative commentator (b. 1925)
• February 27 – Ivan Rebroff, German singer (b. 1931)

March

Arthur C. Clarke

Paul Scofield

• March 1 – Raúl Reyes, Colombian guerrilla (b. 1948)
• March 2 – Jeff Healey, Canadian musician (b. 1966)
• March 3 – Giuseppe Di Stefano, Italian operatic tenor (b. 1921)
• March 3 – Norman Smith, English singer and record producer (b. 1923)
• March 4 – Gary Gygax, American writer and game designer (b. 1938)
• March 5 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German-American writer and computer scientist (b. 1923)
• March 6 – Peter Poreku Dery, Ghanaian cardinal (b. 1918)
• March 14 – Chiara Lubich, Italian Catholic activist (b. 1920)
• March 16 – Ivan Dixon, American actor (b. 1931)
• March 18 – Anthony Minghella, English movie director and screenwriter (b. 1954)
• March 19 – Arthur C. Clarke, English writer, inventor, and futurist (b. 1917)
• March 19 – Hugo Claus, Flemish writer, painter and movie director (b. 1929)
• March 19 – Paul Scofield, English actor (b. 1922)
• March 21 – Klaus Dinger, German musician (b. 1946)
• March 22 – Adolfo Suárez Rivera, Mexican cardinal (b. 1927)
• March 24 – Neil Aspinall, British record producer and business executive (b. 1942)
• March 24 – Richard Widmark, American actor (b. 1914)
• March 26 – Manuel Marulanda, Colombian guerrilla (b. 1930)
• March 27 – Jean-Marie Balestre, French sports executive (b. 1921)
• March 30 – Dith Pran, Cambodian-American photojournalist (b. 1942)
• March 31 – Jules Dassin, American movie director (b. 1911)

April

Charlton Heston

• April 3 – Hrvoje Ćustić, Croatian footballer (b. 1983)
• April 5 – Charlton Heston, American actor (b. 1923)
• April 8 – Stanley Kamel, American actor (b. 1943)
• April 10 – Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, Mexican cardinal (b. 1919)
• April 12 – Patrick Hillery, 6th President of Ireland (b. 1923)
• April 13 – John Archibald Wheeler, American theoretical physicist (b. 1911)
• April 14 – Ollie Johnston, American animator (b. 1912)
• April 15 – Benoît Lamy, Belgian movie writer-director (b. 1945)
• April 16 – Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (b. 1917)
• April 17 – Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (b. 1913)
• April 29 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist and writer, discoverer of LSD (b. 1906)

May

Irena Sendler

Sydney Pollack

• May 1 – Anthony Mamo, 1st President of Malta (b. 1909)
• May 1 – Philipp von Boeselager, German military officer (b. 1917)
• May 3 – Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, Spanish Prime Minister of (b. 1926)
• May 8 – Eddy Arnold, American singer (b. 1918)
• May 8 – François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (b. 1982)
• May 10 – Leyla Gencer, Turkish soprano (b. 1928)
• May 12 – Robert Rauschenberg, American pop artist (b. 1925)
• May 12 – Irena Sendler, Polish humanitarian (b. 1910)
• May 13 – Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1930)
• May 13 – Bernardin Gantin, Beninese cardinal (b. 1922)
• May 13 – John Phillip Law, American actor (b. 1937)
• May 15 – Willis Lamb, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
• May 23 – Cornell Capa, Hungarian-American photographer (b. 1918)
• May 24 – Rob Knox, British actor (b. 1989)
• May 26 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1934)
• May 28 – Sven Davidson, Swedish tennis player (b. 1928)
• May 29 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (b. 1927)
• May 29 – Luc Bourdon, Canadian Hockey player (b. 1987)

June

Chinghiz Aitmatov

Cyd Charisse

George Carlin

• June 1 – Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer (b. 1936)
• June 1 – Tommy Lapid, Israeli television presenter, journalist, and politician (b. 1931)
• June 2 – Bo Diddley, American musician (b. 1928)
• June 2 – Mel Ferrer, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1917)
• June 4 – Agata Mróz-Olszewska, Polish volleyball player (b. 1982)
• June 7 – Dino Risi, Italian director (b. 1916)
• June 8 – Šaban Bajramović, Serbian musician (b. 1936)
• June 9 – Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American science fiction writer (b. 1931)
• June 9 – Karen Asrian, Armenian chess grandmaster (b. 1980)
• June 10 – Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstani writer (b. 1928)
• June 11 – Ove Andersson, Swedish rally driver (b. 1939)
• June 11 – Võ Văn Kiệt, former Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1922)
• June 13 – Tim Russert, American journalist (b. 1950)
• June 15 – Stan Winston, American special effects and makeup artist (b. 1946)
• June 17 – Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (b. 1922)
• June 18 – Jean Delannoy, French movie director (b. 1908)
• June 22 – George Carlin, American writer, actor, and comedian (b. 1937)
• June 23 – Arthur Chung, President of Guyana (b. 1918)
• June 24 – Leonid Hurwicz, American economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
• June 27 – Sam Manekshaw, Field Marshall of Indian Army (b.1914)
• June 28 – Ruslana Korshunova, Kazakhstani model (b. 1987)
• June 29 – Don S. Davis, American actor (b. 1942)

July

Evelyn Keyes

• July 4 – Evelyn Keyes, American actress (b. 1916)
• July 5 – René Harris, President of Nauru (b. 1947)
• July 11 – Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and inventor (b. 1908)
• July 12 – Tony Snow, American political commentator (b. 1955)
• July 13 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian and politician (b. 1932)
• July 15 – György Kolonics, Hungarian canoeist (b. 1972)
• July 22 – Estelle Getty, American actress (b. 1923)
• July 25 – Johnny Griffin, American saxophonist (b. 1928)
• July 25 – Randy Pausch, American writer and computer scientist (b. 1960)
• July 27 – Youssef Chahine, Egyptian movie director (b. 1926)
• July 29 – Mate Parlov, Croatian boxer (b. 1948)

August

Bernie Mac

Isaac Hayes

• August 1 – Pauline Baynes, English illustrator (b. 1922)
• August 1 – Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Indian politician (b. 1916)
• August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
• August 9 – Bernie Mac, American actor and comedian (b. 1957)
• August 9 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (b. 1941)
• August 10 – Isaac Hayes, African-American musician (b. 1942)
• August 11 – Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician (b. 1929)
• August 13 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1904)
• August 15 – Jerry Wexler, American music producer (b. 1917)
• August 16 – Ronnie Drew, Irish singer (b. 1934)
• August 16 – Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese microbiologist (b. 1913)
• August 19 – Levy Mwanawasa, President of Zambia (b. 1948)
• August 20 – Hua Guofeng, Chinese premier (b. 1921)
• August 23 – Thomas Huckle Weller, American virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
• August 28 – Phil Hill, American race car driver (b. 1927)

September

Paul Newman

• September 1 – Don LaFontaine, American voice actor (b. 1940)
• September 6 – Anita Page, American actress (b. 1910)
• September 9 – Nouhak Phoumsavanh, President of Laos (b. 1910)
• September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American writer (b. 1962)
• September 15 – Richard Wright, English musician (b. 1943)
• September 18 – Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer (b. 1931)
• September 26 – Paul Newman, American actor (b. 1925)

October

Jörg Haider

• October 1 – Boris Efimov, Russian political cartoonist (b. 1900)
• October 6 – Paavo Haavikko, Finnish poet (b. 1931)
• October 8 – George Emil Palade, Romanian cell biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
• October 10 – Alexey Prokurorov, Russian cross-country skier (b. 1964)
• October 11 – Jörg Haider, Austrian politician (b. 1950)
• October 13 – Guillaume Depardieu, French actor (b. 1971)
• October 13 – Antonio José González Zumárraga, Ecuadorian cardinal (b. 1925)
• October 13 – Alexei Cherepanov, Russian hockey player (b. 1989)
• October 20 – Sœur Emmanuelle, Belgian-born French nun (b. 1908)
• October 25 – Muslim Magomayev, Azerbaijani singer (b. 1942)
• October 25 – Estelle Reiner, American actress and singer (b. 1914)
• October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American writer (b. 1925)
• October 29 – William Wharton, American author (b. 1925)
• October 31 – Studs Terkel, American writer and liberal commentator (b. 1912)

November

Michael Crichton

• November 1 – Jimmy Carl Black, American drummer (b. 1938)
• November 1 – Jacques Piccard, Swiss explorer and engineer (b. 1922)
• November 1 – Yma Sumac, Peruvian soprano (b. 1922)
• November 4 – Michael Crichton, American writer and producer (b. 1942)
• November 4 – Juan Camilo Mouriño, Mexican politician (b. 1971)
• November 10 – Kiyoshi Itō, Japanese mathematician (b. 1915)
• November 10 – Miriam Makeba, South African singer (b. 1932)
• November 12 – Mitch Mitchell, English drummer (b. 1946)
• November 14 – Tsvetanka Khristova, Bulgarian athlete (b. 1962)
• November 22 – Ibrahim Nasir, Maldivian President (b. 1926)
• November 27 – Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Indian Prime Minister (b. 1931)
• November 29 – Jørn Utzon, Danish architect (b. 1918)

December

Eartha Kitt

• December 1 – Paul Benedict, American actor (b. 1938)
• December 1 – Mikel Laboa, Basque singer and songwriter (b. 1934)
• December 2 – Odetta, American singer (b. 1930)
• December 5 – Alexy II, Russian Orthodox Patriarch (b. 1929)
• December 5 – Nina Foch, Dutch-born American actress (b. 1924)
• December 9 – Yuri Glazkov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1939)
• December 9 – Dražan Jerković, Croatian football player and manager (b. 1936)
• December 11 – Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, American physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
• December 11 – Bettie Page, American pin-up model (b. 1923)
• December 11 – Maddie Blaustein, American voice actress (b. 1960)
• December 12 – Avery Dulles, American Roman Catholic Cardinal (b. 1918)
• December 12 – Van Johnson, American actor (b. 1916)
• December 12 – Tassos Papadopoulos, 5th President of Cyprus (b. 1934)
• December 13 – Horst Tappert, German actor (b. 1923)
• December 15 - León Febres Cordero, 46th President of Ecuador (b. 1931)
• December 18 – Majel Barrett, American actress (b. 1932)
• December 18 – Mark Felt, American FBI agent, "Deep Throat" from the Watergate scandal (b. 1913)
• December 20 – Olga Lepeshinskaya, Russian ballerina (b. 1916)
• December 20 – Robert Mulligan, American director (b. 1925)
• December 22 – Lansana Conté, President of Guinea (b. 1934)
• December 24 – Harold Pinter, English playwright (b. 1930)
• December 24 – Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist (b. 1927)
• December 25 – Eartha Kitt, American singer and actress (b. 1927)
• December 29 – Freddie Hubbard, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1938)

Births

• May 2 - Kate Moyer, Canadian actress (Our House, Buffaloed, Children of the Corn and Delia's Gone)

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry – Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, Roger Y. Tsien
• Economics – Paul Krugman
• Literature – Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
• Peace – Martti Ahtisaari
• Physics – Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa, Yoichiro Nambu
• Physiology or Medicine – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Harald zur Hausen, Luc Montagnier

Major religious holidays

• January 7 – Christmas in Eastern Christianity
• January 10 – Islamic New Year by Lunar calendar
• February 5 – Carnival (Shrove Tuesday)
• February 6 – Ash Wednesday, observance of Lent begins
• February 7 – Chinese New Year
• March 1 – Saint David's Day, celebrated in Wales and the United States.
• March 15 – Saint Patrick's Day, celebrated in Ireland, the United States, and most of the English-speaking world. (Held on March 15 instead of the usual 17th to avoid the second day in Holy Week). This March 17 will be the last one to fall within Holy Week until 2160.
• March 20 – March Equinox, also known as Ostara
• March 20 – Purim
• March 21 – Nowruz (Iranian New Year holiday)
• March 21 – Good Friday
• March 22 – Holi
• March 23 – Easter Sunday, the earliest Easter has fallen since 1913
• April 13 – Vaisakhi
• April 20 – Passover, Palm Sunday in Eastern Christianity
• April 27 – Pascha (or Easter) in Eastern Christianity
• May 1 – Ascension of Jesus in Western Christianity
• May 1 – Beltane, a Cross-quarter day
• May 19 or May 20 – Vesak (the birthday of the Buddha) in Buddhism
• June 5 – Ascension of Jesus in Eastern Christianity
• June 9 – Shavuot
• June 15 – Pentecost in Eastern Christianity
• June 20 – June Solstice, also known as Midsummer or Litha
• June 22 – All Saints' Day in Eastern Christianity
• July 5 – Saints Cyril and Methodius day in Eastern Christianity
• August 1 – Lammas, a Cross-quarter day
• August 15 – Assumption of Mary
• August 16 – Raksha Bandhan
• September 1 – New Liturgical Year in Eastern Christianity
• September 2 – Start of Ramadan
• September 4- Janmastami -Birth of Lord Krishna
• September 22 – September Equinox, also known as Mabon
• September 30 – Rosh Hashanah
• October 1 – Eid ul-Fitr
• October 9 – Yom Kippur
• October 13 – Sukkot
• October 28 – Diwali
• November 1 – Samhain, a Cross-quarter day and Neopagan new year
• December 8 – Immaculate Conception
• December 8 – Eid al-Adha
• December 21 – Hanukkah begins at sundown
• December 21 – December Solstice, also known as Yule
• December 25 – Christmas in Western Christianity

2008 Media

• 

  2008 Events Collage

Other websites

• 2008 Calendar at Internet Accuracy Project