Facts and Events That Happened in This Year
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.
Pablo Picasso's 'Portrait of Suzanne Bloch' was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café by Candido Portinari.
Martinique earthquake shook the majority of the Eastern Caribbean.
MTV and Harmonix released Rock Band for PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America.
Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo's third 3D Mario game, was released for the Nintendo Wii in North America.
Spacecraft Chang'e 1 entered lunar orbit at 02:15 UT and became the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit the moon successfully.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released in North America for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became Argentina's first female president.
Former Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan as suicide bombers attacked her convoy in Karachi.
American reality show 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' premiered on the E! Network.
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor became the first Malaysian in space aboard Russia's Soyuz TMA-10.
The American Sitcom, 'The Big Bang Theory', premiered on CBS.
After three years in development, Bungie finally released Halo 3 for the Xbox 360.
The survival movie 'Into the Wild,' starring Emile Hirsch, premiered at the Rome Film Festival.
Actor George Clooney crashed on a motorcycle.
The CERN Large Hadron Collider was powered up for the first time.
Chris Messina Tweeted #barcamp, which became the first use of a hashtag on Twitter.
Storm Botnet sent a staggering 57 million emails.
Bioshock, the first-person dystopian horror shooter game, was released for Xbox 360 and PC.
The EF2 tornado ripped through Brooklyn, New York, for 18 minutes, causing nine injuries and $20 million in damages.
NASA launched the Phoenix spaceship from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, US.
The Mississippi River Bridge collapsed during rush hour.
Pratibha Patil was sworn in as India's first female president.
J.K. Rowling's final book in the series 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' book was published worldwide.
Erden Eruç began the world's first successful solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.
The first-generation Apple iPhone went on sale.
The first large-scale exhibition of Frida Kahlo's works was displayed in Mexico.
Michael Bay's Transformers premiered in Sydney, Australia.
Rihanna released her third studio album titled 'Good Girl Gone Bad.'
The Coen brothers film, ''No Country for Old Men," premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End premiered in Anaheim, California.
Sicko, a documentary on the US healthcare system, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Three-year-old English girl Madeleine McCann went missing while on vacation with her parents, family, and friends in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
Jazz composer and musician John Coltrane received the Special Citation Pulitzer Prize after his death.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has confirmed that he did snort his father's ashes.
Rihanna's single 'Umbrella' was released.
The PlayStation 3 was released in Europe, Austrailia, New Zealand, Africa, and the Middle East.
The website Tumblr was launched by its founder David Karp.
American pop singer Ariana Grande joined YouTube at 13 years old.
The Doomsday Clock's minute hand was moved two minutes closer to midnight, making the new Doomsday just five minutes to midnight.
Instruments used to observe Venus found two-thirds of the planet's southern hemisphere brightened after aerosols were triggered on an 'astronomical' scale.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling officially finished writing The Deathly Hallows.
Steve Jobs announced Apple's very first smartphone, the iPhone 1.
Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union.
