This blog is as close to a family scrapbook as I've come to making for a very long time. I think it is fun to be able to look back not only at what our family was doing, but also what was happening in the world. So, I decided to include these lists of top local and world news events for 2008. All of the text is copied from the websites I linked to, but I added the photos myself for my own enjoyment.
1 LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley dies at 97; President Thomas S. Monson succeeds him.
2 Economic crisis grips Utah along with the rest of the nation, bringing difficulties to most sectors and people, from the construction industry, housing market, banks and government budgets to worsening conditions for the needy and the middle class.
3 Texas raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Yearning for Zion Ranch casts an intense spotlight on the polygamous sect based on the Utah/Arizona border.
4 LDS Church involvement in the passage of California's Prop 8 amendment banning gay marriage leads to post-election protests, harsh words against the church and threats of a Utah boycott.
5 Former SLOC chief Mitt Romney makes an unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination, raising millions of dollars in Utah and bringing scrutiny to his LDS religion.
6 University of Utah football team goes 12-0 to win the Mountain West Conference and a trip to the Sugar Bowl, becoming BCS busters for the second time in five years.
7 Gasoline prices rise to more than $4 per gallon but finish the year hovering near $1.50 a gallon.
8 David Archuleta of Murray finishes second in "American Idol."
9 After years of stops and starts, court battles and environmental objections, the Legacy Parkway in Davis County opens in September.
10 David Ragsdale guns down his wife in an LDS Church parking lot in Lehi.
By DAVID CRARY Associated Press NEW YORK -- The epic election that made Barack Obama the first African-American president was the top news story of 2008 - followed closely by the economic meltdown that will test his leadership, according to U.S. editors and news directors voting in The Associated Press' annual poll.The campaign, with subplots emerging throughout the year, received 100 first-place votes out of 155 ballots cast for the top 10 stories. Two other political sagas - the history-making candidacies of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin - also made the list.The vast economic crisis, plunging the U.S. into recession and ravaging many business sectors worldwide, was the No. 2 story, receiving 49 first-place votes. The precipitous rise and fall of oil prices was No. 3.The top story of 2007 was the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech University by a mentally disturbed student gunman.
Here are 2008's top 10 stories, as voted by AP members:
1. The U.S. election
Obama emerged from Election Night as a decisive victor and a symbol for the world of America's democratic promise. But he reached that point only after a grueling battle with Clinton for the Democratic nomination and then an often-nasty showdown with the McCain/Palin ticket in the run-up to the election.
2. Economic meltdown
The bad news kept coming - collapses of Wall Street giants; huge stock market losses; plummeting home prices and a surge of foreclosures; desperate times for U.S. automakers. It added up to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and will cost the federal government well over $1 trillion in various rescue and stimulus packages.
3. Oil prices
The global economic angst produced hyper-volatile energy markets. The price of crude soared as high as $150 a barrel in July before crashing to $33 this month. In the U.S., the average price for a gallon of regular gas peaked at $4.11, then plunged below $1.70.
4. Iraq
The much-debated "surge" of U.S. troops helped reduce violence after more than five years of war, but Iraq is still buffeted daily by bombings, ambushes, kidnappings and political uncertainty. A newly ratified U.S.-Iraqi security agreement sets a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal by 2012.
5. Beijing Olympics
China hosted the Olympics for first time, drawing praise for logistical mastery and condemnation for heavy-handed security measures. The games themselves were rated a success, highlighted by the record-shattering performances of swimmer Michael Phelps and sprinter Usain Bolt.
6. Chinese earthquake
A huge quake in May killed 70,000 people in Sichuan province and left 5 million homeless. Many thousands of children were among the victims - authorities said about 7,000 classrooms were destroyed in shoddily built schools.
7. Sarah Palin
Few Americans outside Alaska knew much about its governor when Republican John McCain picked her as his running mate. That changed rapidly. To her conservative admirers, she was a feisty, refreshing change from most politicians; to her critics, she was in over her head, and worthy of all the lampooning she endured.
8. Mumbai terrorism
Ten attackers allegedly sponsored by a Pakistan-based Islamic group terrorized India's financial capital in November, killing 164 people in coordinated attacks on hotels, markets and a train station. India's perennially uneasy relations with Pakistan were badly strained.
9. Hillary Clinton
She didn't win, but Clinton came closer than any other woman in U.S. history to becoming a major party's presidential nominee. Her determined primary campaign, waged vigorously even when it seemed a lost cause, inspired millions of women across the country - and helped persuade Obama to choose her as secretary of state.
10. Russia-Georgia war
The two nations waged a five-day war in August ignited by a Georgian artillery barrage on the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia responded with a drive deep into Georgian territory, causing severe economic damage and aggravating already troubled Russia-US relations.
Stories that almost made the Top 10 included Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 84,000 people in Myanmar; Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which wreaked deadly damage in the Caribbean and on the U.S. Gulf Coast; and the seesaw fate of same-sex marriage in California, where a court ruling approving it was later overturned by a ballot measure.Several write-in votes were cast for two developments that occurred too late to be included on the AP ballot - the indictment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the efforts of struggling U.S. automakers to get a federal bailout. The alleged financial scam involving Bernard Madoff also was revealed too late to make the ballot.
Several of the editors who voted commented on how two transcendent developments dominated the news in 2008."As far as I am concerned, there were only two stories this year," wrote Linda Grist Cunningham of the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star. "Global economy collapses (sending every country into financial, political and personal chaos) and Obama elected U.S. president, changing the way the America does business - financial, political and personal."
Several of the editors who voted commented on how two transcendent developments dominated the news in 2008."As far as I am concerned, there were only two stories this year," wrote Linda Grist Cunningham of the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star. "Global economy collapses (sending every country into financial, political and personal chaos) and Obama elected U.S. president, changing the way the America does business - financial, political and personal."
2 comments:
Very interesting!
Well, I have to admit I haven't read your blog in ages. I somehow just don't seem to have much time for blogging, both reading and writing them. But I'm all caught up now and can I just say--how in the world do you manage to do so much? Just reading your blog makes me tired! You're amazing.
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