From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
March 2008 was the third month of the current leap year. It began on a Saturday and ended after 31 days on a Monday.
[edit] International holidays
St Patrick's Day has been moved from March 17 to March 15 in 2008. In addition, the Feast of the Annunciation has been moved from March 25 to March 31 for this year, so as not to conflict with Easter Week. See the main articles on these holidays for more information.
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- The remains of Padre Pio, the Capuchin monk who died in 1968 after living for decades with inexplicable, bleeding wounds on his hands and feet, are exhumed. (AP via International Herald Tribune)
- Iran considers shutting down private access to Internet service during its legislative elections. (International Herald Tribune)
- The U.N. Security Council approves a third round of sanctions against Iran with near unanimous support. (AP via Yahoo! News)
- A U.S. Navy submarine conducts at least one missile strike using Tomahawk cruise missiles in Somalia. The attack was aimed at Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaeda terrorist. (AFP via Google News) (AP via Yahoo! News) (CNN)
- A Pentagon report to the United States Congress states that the Peoples Republic of China's reluctance to explain the extent and purpose of its military buildup poses a risk to stability in Asia. (AP via Google News)
- Androulla Vasiliou replaces Markos Kyprianou as European Commissioner for Health. (European Council)
- Earth Liberation Front sets fires to five model luxury homes in Woodinville, Washington in an act of eco-terrorism. (CNN) (AP via Yahoo! News) (KIRO-TV)
- A gunman opens fire at a Wendy's restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida, killing one person and critically wounding three others before committing suicide. (ABC News) (AP via Yahoo! News)
- Albertans go to the polls in a provincial general election, electing an eleventh straight Progressive Conservative government. (CBC)
- The bodies of six people are found in a Memphis, Tennessee home. Two of the dead are children, while three others remain in critical condition. (ABC News)
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- The discovery of the Rings of the Saturnian moon Rhea, the first known rings around a moon, is announced. (NASA)
- The United States Senate passes legislation providing for more rigorous inspection of toys and other playthings imported into the United States. (AP via USA Today)
- At least eight people, including four children, are killed and dozens wounded in a shooting attack on the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem. (AP via WTVJ)
- At least 54 people die and 130 are injured as two bombs explode in Baghdad, Iraq. (BBC News)
- Viktor Bout, one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, is arrested at a hotel in Thailand. (The New York Times)
- Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's butler, refuses to be questioned about whether he lied to the inquest into her death in 1997. (Reuters)
- A bomb causes minor damage to the door of a U.S. military recruiting center in Times Square, New York City. (Reuters)
- Philippine authorities arrest three people accused of plotting terrorist attacks on foreign embassies in Manila. (BBC News)
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- The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces a major expansion of efforts to fight smog in cities and towns throughout the United States. (AP via Google News)
- The total amount of digital information is estimated at 281 exabytes in 2007, exceeding available data storage for the first time. (Ars Technica) (IDC via EMC)
- Crude oil futures contracts end trading at a new closing high of $109.92 a barrel after earlier topping $110 a barrel for the first time. (MarketWatch)
- Israeli commandos kill four militants on the West Bank including three members of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. (Reuters)
- Sweden’s largest lake, the Vänern, which is also the third largest lake in Europe, will be lowered by 15 centimeters, in order to avoid flooding. (Expressen)
- Southwest Airlines grounds 41 jets after the FAA discovers the airline failed to inspect its Boeing 737s for structural flaws during 2006 and 2007. (Reuters)
- The last French veteran of World War I, Lazare Ponticelli, an Italian immigrant who lied about his age to join the French Foreign Legion and fight in the trenches, dies at 110. (BBC News)
- French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner and his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt pronounce their support for Serbian membership of the European Union. (Reuters)
- Chinese police fire tear gas to disperse protesters during the second day of demonstrations by Buddhist monks in Lhasa, Tibet demanding the region's independence. (AFP)
- Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer resigns effective March 17 amid a prostitution ring scandal. He will be replaced by David Paterson, the first African American and legally blind person to hold this position. (Yahoo! Finance)
- A gunman opens fire at a bank in McComb, Mississippi, killing two people, before forcing his wife into a car and driving away, later killing her and committing suicide. (WAPT)
- A man under investigation for the sexual abuse of children at an orphanage in Sofia, Bulgaria, opens fire on teenage witnesses, killing one and wounding two others before committing suicide. (MSNBC)
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- Darfur Conflict: Chad's President Idriss Déby and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir meet in Senegal to sign the Dakar Agreement, the sixth peace agreement in five years. (BBC News)
- The Canadian House of Commons extends the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan until 2011. (CBC)
- The body of Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul who was kidnapped in Iraq on February 29, is found in a shallow grave close to the city. (Reuters)
- The price of gold reaches $1000 per troy ounce for the first time. (BBC News)
- Serbian President Boris Tadić disbands parliament and calls an early general election for May 11. (BBC News)
- Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008: Geraldine Ferraro resigns from the Clinton campaign after making comments that "if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." (The New York Times)
- The U.S. dollar, after repeatedly testing 100 yen in Asian dealings and early European action, breaks through to touch 99.75, its lowest level since November 1995. (Reuters)
- Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart experience some of their warmest weather of record for this season as result of an Australian autumn heatwave. (The Age)
- Leaders of the European Union meet in Brussels, Belgium with climate change and energy security dominating the agenda. (BBC News)
- Turkish prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya asks the Constitutional Court of Turkey to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party for anti-secular activities. (BBC News)
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- Queen Elizabeth officially opens London Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5. (The New York Times)
- Colombian Ministry of National Defense Juan Manuel Santos says the government will pay US$2.5 million to Pedro Pablo Montoya, the FARC rebel who killed Iván Ríos. (BBC News)
- Muhammed Rahim, an al-Qaeda member who helped Osama bin Laden escape from Tora Bora, Afghanistan in 2001, is taken to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (BBC News)
- After a summit in Brussels, European Union leaders agree to a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020. (BBC News)
- United States investment bank Bear Stearns gets emergency funding from JPMorgan Chase, with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's backing. (BBC News)
- An EF2 tornado hits Atlanta, Georgia, damaging many buildings including the CNN Center, the Georgia Dome, the World Congress Center and the Philips Arena. (BBC News)
- Iranian voters go to the polls in legislative election. Nearly 90 percent of reformist candidates have been disqualified from the election. (BBC News)
- Seven are reported dead in Lhasa, Tibet as protests turn violent. Protests began Monday on the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising with calls for the release of detained Buddhist monks. Other protests followed calling for Tibetan independence and displaying the banned Tibetan national flag. (CNN) (AP via the Houston Chronicle)
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez dares the United States to designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism. (AP via CNN)
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- Wales achieve the Grand Slam by beating France 29-12 in the final match of Rugby Union's 2008 RBS Six Nations. (BBC News)
- Protesting Guatemalan farmers release four Belgian tourists they had taken hostage on Thursday. (AP via Google News)
- Michael D. Griffin, the current Administrator of NASA, announces the agency will concentrate more on the outer Solar System and less on Mars exploration, due to cuts to its 2009–2012 budget. (BBC News)
- A bomb explodes at a restaurant in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing a Turkish woman and injuring 10 other people. (BBC News)
- A construction crane falls on a residential building in Manhattan, New York City, killing four people and injuring at least 17. (Reuters) (AFP via Google News) (BBC News)
- The Mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, declares a state of emergency following the previous night's tornado, while northwest Georgia is hit by more tornadoes, causing at least one death. (Reuters via Canada.com)
- Tens of thousands of Italians gather in Bari to march against the mafia and remember its many victims. (Reuters) (EuroNews)
- Three former police officers are jailed over the killing of Ukrainian investigative journalist Georgiy R. Gongadze in 2000. (BBC News)
- A weapons depot near Tirana, Albania is hit by multiple explosions, killing at least 11 people and injuring around 300. (BBC News)
- More then 9,000 people around the world protest against Scientology under the banner of Anonymous. (Tampa Tribune) (Village Voice)
- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya's proposal to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party is against the "national will". (BBC News)
- At the 11th National People's Congress, Hu Jintao is elected to a second term as the President of China, and Xi Jinping is elected Vice-President. (Xinhua via the People's Daily)
- 2008 unrest in Tibet:
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- United States presidential election, 2008:
- UNMIK and NATO KFOR forces clashed with Serb protesters in North Kosovo resulting in over 150 wounded after arresting Serb lDawyers and court officials who had taken control of a UN court. The clashes are part of ongoing unrest following Kosovo's declaration of independence. (BBC News)
- A container ship pilot whose ship hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge resulting in an oil spill is charged with breaking United States pollution laws. (Reuters)
- Subprime mortgage crisis:
- 2008 unrest in Tibet:
- 2008 National People's Congress: Li Keqiang, Hui Liangyu, Zhang Dejiang, and Wang Qishan are approved by the National People's Congress as the new Vice-Premiers of the State Council. (People's Daily)
- War in Iraq:
- Pakistan:
- Albanian Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu resigns over the 2008 Tirana explosions. (BBC News)
- United Nations police are forced to retreat from Serb areas of Mitrovica after clashes with Serb protesters. At least 22 UN policemen and two Kosovo Force soldiers are injured. (BBC News)
- David Paterson is sworn in as the new Governor of New York after the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. (BBC News)
- French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party loses the 2008 municipal elections. (BBC News)
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and half of her cabinet visit Israel in a move to upgrade bilateral relations (BBC News)
- The trial of Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović, two former Serbian State Security Service officers and allies of Slobodan Milošević, starts at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. (BBC News)
- Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony enters the Central African Republic, thus violating a ceasefire. (BBC News)
- A suicide bomber attacks a NATO convoy in Gereshk in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, killing three Afghan civilians. (BBC News)
- World War II Royal Australian Navy warship HMAS Sydney is discovered off the coast of Western Australia after being missing for 65 years with the loss of all 600+ crew. (ABC News Australia)
- A former Luftwaffe pilot reveals he may have shot down the airplane of French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint Exupéry, thus killing him, on July 31, 1944. (BBC News)
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- Aloha Airlines, a Hawaii based airline which operates inter-island and trans-pacific flights, has suspended all passenger services effective March 31, 2008, due to bankruptcy. (Honolulu Advertiser)
- The enlargement of the EU's borderless zone to eight Eastern European countries and Malta is completed through the lifting of air border controls between them and the 15 countries already part of the area. (European Commission)
- French architect Jean Nouvel wins one of the world's premier architecture honors, the Pritzker Prize. (The New York Times) (Gaulia) (Time Magazine)
- Battle of Basra (2008): Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr calls for his followers, the Mahdi Army, to lay down their arms and end their fighting with the Iraqi Army in Basra. (Fox News)
- North Korea threatens to cut off dialogue with South Korea over comments a South Korean military official reportedly made last week about a possible pre-emptive strike against the country. (Bloomberg)
- A privately registered Cessna 501 Citation carrying five people crashes into two homes in Farnborough, Kent, United Kingdom, after taking off from London Biggin Hill Airport. (BBC News) Onboard were former racing drivers Richard Lloyd and David Leslie. (Sky News)
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[edit] Scheduled events
[edit] References
