Former NFL star O.J. Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery.
YouTube Live had the largest viewed broadcast ever, with guest artists performing from San Francisco and Tokyo.
NASA declared the conclusion of the Phoenix mission after contact was lost with the Phoenix lander.
Barack Obama became the first African American to win a United States Presidential Election.
The James Bond spy movie 'Quantum of Solace' with Daniel Craig premiered in London.
Google Play was launched.
NASA launched its IBEX satellite from the Stargazer mother ship launch pad above the Marshall Islands.
Iran attempted to create the world's largest sandwich at 1,500 meters long but failed due to a crowd eating it before it was measured.
Swedish music streaming service Spotify was launched by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
Zhai Zhigang became the first person from China to perform a spacewalk while on the Shenzhou 7 mission.
Google launched Google Chrome, its own cross-platform web browser.
Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan's Slumdog Millionaire premiered at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival.
American swimmer Michael Phelps became the first person to win eight gold medals at one Olympic Games.
Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly swim in a record 50:58 at the Beijing Olympic finals.
Airbedandbreakfast.com was launched by its three founders, which is now known as Airbnb.
Morgan Freeman's car flipped over several times on the highway in Mississippi.
Batman's 'The Dark Knight' premiered in London.
The state of California began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched into Earth's orbit atop a Delta II rocket.
The Discovery Space Shuttle was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-124.
The California Supreme Court ruled that the state ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
More than 69,000 people lost their lives to a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in Sichuan, China.
139,000 people lost their lives when Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar.
Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto IV, the sixth in the GTA series, for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to win an Indy car race.
Construction of the Bahrain World Trade Center was officially completed.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z married with only 40 guests present on their special day.
The Gordon Ramsay Plane Food restaurant opened within terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport.
Space shuttle Endeavour successfully docked with the International Space Station during NASA's STS-123 mission.
After recording for four years, Duffy released her debut studio album ''Rockferry."
Dmitry Medvedev was elected as the third President of Russia.
The UK's Prince Harry was withdrawn from a military tour of Afghanistan.
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Fidel Castro stepped down as President of Cuba after keeping the position for thirty-two years.
The Republic of Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.
Amy Winehouse scored five awards at the 50th Grammy Awards.
The first episode of Breaking Bad premiered on AMC.
