After a long and heated campaign, Illinois Senator Barack Obama defeated Rep. Senator John McCain in the Presidential Election on November 4th. 2008. Obama will become the 43rd President of the United States, and the first to be of African-American descent.
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And then there were two…After a year that saw banking giants Lehman Bros, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch go under, only Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were left of the 5 biggest U.S. investment banks.
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Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton put up a good fight against Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary race, but eventually lost to the President-elect. Hillary was offered a position in Obama’s cabinet however and will become the U.S. Secretary of State.
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China was rocked by a disasterous earthquake in May, which was the strongest one to hit China in over 50 years. The earthquake killed thousands, and trapped more under the rubble and debris for days.
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Russia and Georgia almost came to an all-out war back in August. The two clashed over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia. Russia’s overly aggressive tactics further strained the relationship between them and the U.S.
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Amidst the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, President Bush and the rest of Congress came up with a $750 Billion dollar economic bailout plan to help save the struggling credit market.
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The bloody fallout from the December 2007 elections in Kenya carried over into 2008. More than 800 people were killed and over 250,000 others displaced in the wake of the widely disputed presidential elections.
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Gas prices were brutal earlier on in the year, as oil hit over $140 a barrel back in July. However, with the global economy struggling, prices have dropped to incredible lows, with gas being under $2 a gallon in most areas of the U.S.
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In December terrorists rocked India’s Taj Mahal Hotel, as the Islamic militants were holed up in the hotel for 60+ hours. The brutal Mumbai attacks caused India to revamp their security and anti-terrorism units.
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U.S. golden boy Michael Phelps dominated the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing, China. Phelps went 8-8 in his swimming events, winning 8 medals and breaking Mark Spitz’s record for most golds in one Olympic Games.
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Homes such as these were completely destroyed and washed away as devestating floods hit the U.S. Midwest regions. Iowa was hit particularly hard and crops were completely ravaged by the flooding.
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O.J. Simpson went on trial for kidnapping in a case stemming from the Las Vegas memorabilia incident last year. Simpson was found guilty and sentenced to up to 33 years behind bars.
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Somalian pirates made tankers and cargo ships weary this past year, as they hijacked a Saudi supertanker back in November.
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Everyone’s favorite hockey mom, Sarah Palin, dominated the election coverage this year, often overshadowing John McCain. Palin was often mocked by the media for her inability to answer tough questions concerning U.S. policies.
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Former NY governor Eliot Spitzer resigned from office in March after it was revealed that he was linked to high-class call-girl Ashley Dupre.
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Wildfires cost thousands of residents in the California area millions of dollars worth of damages. The wildfires ravaged the west coast, and burned down hundreds of homes.
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Hurricane Ike and Hurrican Gustav pounded the southern U.S. While neither was as severe as Hurricane Katrina, both were deadly storms and caused massive amounts of damage.
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Flood victims reach for food packets dropped by Indian Air Force helicopter at a village near Chattapur northeast of Patna, India, after a monsoon caused rapid flooding in the nation.
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A police officer looks into the cockpit of a Boeing 747 that crashed in Madrid, near Bogota.
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This was not a year for the stock market, as the Dow Jones reached all-time lows back in October. The U.S. market is currently in a state of recession even after the economic bailout plans.
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The big three auto giants were in big trouble at the end of 2008. Chrysler, GM, and Ford all faced bankruptcy as the U.S. economy hit the auto industry particularly hard and caused thousands of jobs to be lost and production to halt.
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Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich became the most corrupt politician in 2008. The Illinois governor was found out to essentially be auctioning off the vacant Senate seat left by Barack Obama.
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A police shooting of a teenager in Greece sparked the most violent riots in decades in Athens. Greek students protested for over three weeks, as the public response to the killing was intense.
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Israel launched an attack on Palestinian forces located in the Gaza strip. The surprise Israeli attack looks to be leading into a prolonged military conflict between the two rivals fighting over the Holy Land.
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Former NASDAQ chief Bernard Madoff was found out to have been running a complex ponzi scheme, affecting some of the biggest investors on Wall Street. The estimated value of the money lost by Madoff’s scheme? It could be upwards of $50 billion.
