2008 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

• Politics: During a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at then-president George W. Bush.
• Politics/Sports: For the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese government announced that people could apply for permits to protest in designate areas. None of the permits were granted, and many of those who applied disappeared or were arrested.
• The Top Song was Low by Flo Rida with T-Pain
• The Big Movies included The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Price of a gallon of gas in 2008: $3.32
  Chevrolet Trailblazer: $25,705.00
• Minimum Wage in 2008: $6.55
  *some states higher
  Price of a movie ticket: $7.00
  Price of an X-Box game: $49.99
• The World Population was ~ 6,700,000,000
  
• In 1987, Steve Rothstein bought a lifetime unlimited first class American Airlines AAirpass for $250,000, plus a companion ticket for $150,000 more. He flew over 10,000 flights costing the company $21,000,000. They terminated his ticket in 2008.
• And... a 4chan user made a prank about how Steve Jobs "died of a heart attack", after the prank went around social media, Apple's stock dropped around $5,000,000,000 because of the joke.

An asteroid weighing ~80 metric tons expolded above the Nubien desert in 2008 with only 19 hours notice.

The NOAA no longer recommends crouching to avoid lightning, and as of 2008, instead recommends walking to safety.

The cost of the financial crises in 2008 cost $2,800,000,000,000 ( $2.8 Trillion ) to the world's financial institutions.

During a world-wide hops (needed to make beer) shortage in 2008, Sam Adams brewing company sold craft brewers their hops at cost to keep them in business and has given over 3 million in loans to small breweries to spur competition.

For The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger designed the look for The Joker with makeup he got from a drug store.

Norway knighted a penguin this year. He is the mascot and Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Royal Guard, and his full name is Sir Nils Olav II.

The highest score ever done in a video game was on a ROM of a cancelled Garfield game for the Atari 2600, by Tom Duncan on June 19 2008, the score was 23,418,862,404,272,676,864 points.

Lindsay Lohan tied with Lindsay Lohan for the worst actress Razzie award for both her roles in the movie I Know Who Killed Me.

George Eyser, an American gymnast with a wooden leg, won six medals, including three gold, in a single day at the 1904 Olympics. He was the only Olympian to have competed with a prosthetic limb for the next 100 years, until 2008.

Daniel Craig finished writing the Bond movie Quantum of Solace because of the 2008 Writers Strike.

Only one time in the 45 yr running of the Price is Right game show has a contestant "guessed" the exact value of prizes ($23,743.00) in the Showcase showdown and his name was Terry Kniess.

Kung-Fu Panda was so successful in China that it caused a national debate on why Westerners made a better film about Chinese culture than the Chinese themselves.

The 2008 Constitution of Ecuador recognized nature as an entity with legally enforceable rights, making it the first country in the world to do so.

Dr. Pepper had an ad campaign that promised every American, except Slash and Buckethead, a free can of Dr.Pepper if the Guns and Roses released their long awaited album, Chinese Democracy. They could not keep up with the demand.

The year 2008 was declared the International Year of the Potato by tne UN.

When Barbra Walters interviewed Miley Cyrus in her home in 2008, the camera crew managed to clog all of Miley's toilets. Instead of getting angry, Miley and family later sent Barbra a golden toilet figurine reading "So you'll always remember the Cyrus family."

The last surviving Civil War widow, Maudie Hopkins, didn't pass away until 2008. She married an 86 year old veteran when she was only 19.

On 1st April, 2008 YouTube rickrolled its viewers by redirecting every featured front page video to the original song video, Never Gonna Give You Up.

Michael Jackson went casually to a club and people watch but was surprised when he heard the DJ play his songs and said "Wow, I didn't know that they still played my music".

Joel Waul set the Guinness World Record with a 9400 lb rubber band ball comprised of 700,000 rubber bands. It was purchased by Ripley's Believe It or Not in 2009.

The first literal music video uploaded - Take on Me

(according to boxofficemojo)
1. The Dark Knight
2. Iron Man
3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. Hancock
5. WALL-E
6. Kung Fu Panda
7. Twilight
8. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
9. Quantum of Solace
10. Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Cloverfield, The Dark Knight, Dr. Suess' Horton Hears A Who, Gran Torino, Get Smart, Hancock, The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Mamma Mia!, Marley and Me, Quantum of Solace, Sex and the City, Slumdog Millionaire, Twilight, WALL-E, Wanted