Happy New Year

Wow...how time flies. This month, i will be celebrating my first 365 days in the United States and yet it seems just like yesterday when i first stepped out of the plane that took me from Lagos, Nigeria to Amsterdam where i caught a connecting flight to the States. I remember almost running back into the plane 'cos of the cold... it was freezing. Up until then, the coldest temperature i'd ever seen and felt was from the refrigerator in my apartment back home in Nigeria.

A lot transpired in 2008, some good, some bad and some pretty ugly. A friend of mine on facebook has taken it upon himself to do a recap of 2008 and he's titled it "events that shaped 2008". I've decided to share his recap on my blog, grouping them into four quarters. Here's the first part...the first quarter.

January
Jan 22....Actor Heath Ledger of Australia dies of a medication overdose.
Jan 24....Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is forced to resign following a lost vote of confidence in the Senate .
Jan 28....Inflation in Zimbabwe rises to about 150,000%. The Zimbabwean dollar is essentially worthless.
Jan 31....United States presidential election, 2008: Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hold the first two-person debate.

February
Feb 4....U.S. President George W. Bush introduces a Federal budget of $3.1 trillion and a near-record deficit just ahead — $410 billion.
Feb 22....The Northern Rock bank is formally nationalized by the British government.
Feb 27....Microsoft is fined a record €899 million by the EU anti-trust commission.

March
Mar 5....Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is named the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine.
Mar 14....Queen Elizabeth officially opens London Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5.
Mar 16....JPMorgan Chase announces plans to buy investment bank Bear Stearns for $2 a share following liquidity problems caused by the crisis.
Mar 16....Scientists from Harvard Medical School announce a breakthrough technique that could stop cancer cells' growth by inhibiting the enzyme pyruvate kinase.
Mar 22....Ma Ying-jeou is elected President of the Republic of China with more than 58% of the votes in the 2008 presidential election, handing the presidency back to the Kuomintang (KMT) after eight years under the Democratic Progressive Party.
Mar 26....Ford Motor Company announces it will sell its British luxury-car brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors for $2.3 billion.

Watch out for the second quarter on the next blog. Happy New year once more.