2008 - online puzzles

2008 (MMVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of 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.

2008 was designated as:

International Year of Languages

International Year of Planet Earth

International Year of Sanitation

International Year of the Potato

Events

January

January 1 – Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro.

January 14 – At 19:04:39 UTC, the unmanned MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.

January 21 – Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.

January 24 – A peace deal is signed in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, ending the Kivu conflict.

February

February 4 – Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket into space.

February 13 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.

February 17 – Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, with a mixed response from the international community.

March

March – April – Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.

March 2 – Venezuela and Ecuador move troops to the Colombian border, following a Colombian raid against FARC guerrillas inside Ecuadorian territory, in which senior commander Raúl Reyes is killed.