What happened in 2008

“Low”

Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain · 10 weeks at #1 in 2008

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Spotify ↗Apple Music ↗YouTube ↗

1. Jan 5LowFlo Rida Featuring T-Pain10 wks
2. Mar 15Love In This ClubUsher Featuring Young Jeezy3 wks
3. Apr 5Bleeding LoveLeona Lewis4 wks
4. Apr 12Touch My BodyMariah Carey2 wks
5. May 3LollipopLil Wayne Featuring Static Major5 wks
6. May 24Take A BowRihanna1 wk
7. Jun 28Viva La VidaColdplay1 wk
8. Jul 5I Kissed A GirlKaty Perry7 wks
9. Aug 23DisturbiaRihanna2 wks
10. Sep 6Whatever You LikeT.I.7 wks
11. Sep 27So WhatP!nk1 wk
12. Oct 18Live Your LifeT.I. Featuring Rihanna6 wks
13. Oct 25WomanizerBritney Spears1 wk
14. Dec 13Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)Beyonce2 wks

Dates are the first chart week at #1 in 2008; weeks count only those in 2008.Find the #1 song on your birthday →

1. Mar 10The New York Times revealed that Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New York, had patronized a prostitution ring.
2. Apr 20American racing driver Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar auto race.
3. Jun 1A fire on the back lot of Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed the King Kong Encounter and a large archive of music and film master recordings.
4. Jun 11Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper apologised to the First Nations for past governments' policies of forced assimilation.
5. Jul 1Rioting erupted in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, over allegations of fraud surrounding the recent legislative election.
6. Aug 7The start of the Russo-Georgian War over the territory of South Ossetia.
7. Sep 10The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.
8. Sep 15Financial crisis of 2007–2008: The global financial services firm Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while holding over $600 billion in assets, the largest such filing in U.S. history.
9. Sep 29The stock market crashes with the Dow Jones dropping a then record 778 points after the United States House of Representatives vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act fails during the beginning stages of the Great Recession.
10. Oct 29Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five.
11. Nov 4Barack Obama became the first person of biracial or African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.
12. Nov 26A coordinated group of shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai began, ultimately killing 175 people and wounding more than 300 others.
13. Dec 9Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Illinois, was arrested on corruption charges, including for attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by president-elect Barack Obama.
14. Dec 11American stockbroker Bernie Madoff was arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest in history.

Event summaries from Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each links to its article.

• U.S. President

  George W. Bush

• Prime Minister of Canada

  Stephen Harper

• President of France

  Nicolas Sarkozy

• German Chancellor

  Angela Merkel

• Prime Minister of Japan

  Tarō Asō

• President of Russia

  Vladimir Putin → Dmitry Medvedev

Everyone who held the office at some point in 2008, from Wikidata.

A selection of the best-documented titles on Wikidata, by first release year; not a box-office ranking.

• Raegan RevordAmerican actor · Jan 3
• Emma KokDutch singer · Mar 12
• Abby Ryder FortsonAmerican actress · Mar 14
• HyeinSouth Korean singer · Apr 21
• Lilliana KetchmanAmerican dancer and YouTuber · Jun 23
• Iain ArmitageAmerican actor · Jul 15
• Hudson MeekAmerican actor (died 2024) · Aug 5
• Rio NgumohaEnglish footballer · Aug 29
• Jackson Robert ScottAmerican actor · Sep 18
• Ella GrossAmerican singer, model and actress · Dec 1

From Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0.