2008 in Norway

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««« 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003	2008 in Norway	»»» 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Decades: 1980s • 1990s • 2000s • 2010s Centuries: 19th • 20th • 21st See also: 2008 in Norwegian football Other events of 2008 List of years in Norway

The Norwegian twin cities Stavanger/Sandnes, together with English Liverpool, are European Capitals of Culture for 2008.

[edit] Incumbents

• King of Norway - Harald V of Norway

[edit] Events

[edit] Anniversaries

• 200 years since the birth of the poet Henrik Wergeland on June 17, 1808^[1]
• 140 years since the founding of the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association (January 21)^[2]
• 100 years since Norway national football team played its first international game on July 12, 1908 in Gothenburg, Sweden^[3]
• 100 years since the sports club SK Brann was established (September 26)^[4]
• 100 years since the birth of the poet Olav H. Hauge on August 18, 1908^[5]
• 100 years since the birth of the composer and pianist Geirr Tveitt October 19, 1908^[6]
• 70 years since the death of Queen Maud of Norway on November 20, 1938^[7]

Official opening of Eiksund undersea tunnel February 23

[edit] January – June

Svalbard Global Seed Vault opens February 26
Photo:Global Crop Diversity Trust

Anniken Huitfeldt is appointed new Minister of Children and Equality

• January
  • January 1 –
    • The Agency for Public Management and eGovernment is established.^[8]
    • Nordic Battlegroup consisting of military forces from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Ireland, and Estonia under the control of the European Union, is established.^[9]
    • Mercury becomes banned from use in Norway.^[10]
  • January 11 – Norwegian police announce that they have arrested a 55-year old man suspected of being the sexual predator known as The Pocket Man.^[11]
  • January 21 – The OBX Index drops 6.4%, then the second biggest fall since August 1991 and the third largest in its history.^[12][13]
• February –
  • February 5 – The Stortinget's Oversight Committee opens the case to decide whether three Supreme Court justices will be impeached over their involvement in the Fritz Moen wrongful conviction scandal.^[14]
  • February 14 – A political scandal centering on Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen forces her to resign from her post as Minister of Children and Equality and Ida Hjort Kraby to resign from her newly appointed position as Ombudsman for Children.^[15]
  • February 21 – An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale hits Svalbard. It's the strongest earthquake ever to hit Norway.^[16]
  • February 23 – The 8 km Eiksund undersea tunnel near Volda in Møre og Romsdal is opened.^[17]
  • February 26 – The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is officially opened.^[18]
  • February 29 – Anniken Huitfeldt is appointed Minister of Children and Equality.^[19]
  •  – Former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland is entangled in a political scandal over cancer treatments paid for by the Norwegian state, which she was not entitled to having previously changed her residency abroad.^[20]
• March
  • March 1 – Austrian Matthias Lanzinger collides with a gate during a World Cup Super-G run at Kvitfjell, resulting in injuries that lead to his left leg being amputated below the knee two days later.^[21]

Oslo Stock Exchange languishes during the global liquidity crisis

[edit] July – December

• September
  • September 9 – The OBX Index drops 5.57%, then the fourth biggest drop ever.^[12][13]
  • September 29 – In conjunction with the global liquidity crisis the index of Oslo Stock Exchange drops 8.3%, then its third largest drop ever in one day, but eclipsed only one week later.^[22]

Labour politician Saera Khan gets wrapped up in a scandal after lying about using public money to call psychics.
Photo: Harry Wad

• October
  • October 6 –
    • The OBX Index drops 9.71%, the third largest drop ever in one day.^[13]
    • Tromsø's bid to become host city to the 2018 Winter Olympics is cancelled when the sports board of Norwegian Confederation of Sports votes 9 against 3 to withdraw the application for government financial guarantee.^[23]
  • October 8 –
    • The OBX Index drops 6.44%^[24]
    • Bangladeshi-Norwegian parliamentarian for the Labour Party Saera Khan withdraws her candidacy for next year's elections when it is revealed that she has spent large sums using her parliament paid-for mobile phone to call psychic hotlines and then consistently lied to cover up the fact.^[25]
  • October 15 –
    • The OBX Index drops 8.81%^[26]
  • October 24 –
    • The OBX Index drops 9.24%^[27]
• December
  • December 13 – Six people die in a fire in an apartment building in Oslo,^[28]

[edit] Arts and literature

• January / February –
  • In Melodi Grand Prix 2008 the song "Hold On Be Strong" with Maria Haukaas Storeng was selected to be the Norwegian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in late May.^[29]
• October –
  • Controversy erupts when Holocaust denier and historian David Irving is invited to the 2009 Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer, to discuss his concept of truth^[30], ending in Irving's invitation being withdrawn.^[31] Author Stig Sæterbakken resigns as the festival's content director in protest over the decision.^[32]

[edit] Sport

For football, see 2008 in Norwegian football

• January
  • The 2008 European Men's Handball Championship is hosted by the Norwegian Handball Federation with venues in Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim.
• March 29 – The Norwegian Premier League 2008 (association football) kicks off, lasting through November 2.^[33]
• November 2 – The Norwegian Premier League 2008 ends.^[33]

[edit] Births

• September 29 – Emma Tallulah Behn, the daughter of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and Ari Behn.^[34]

[edit] Deaths

[edit] January to March

• 4 January – Bjørn Odmar Andersen, soccer player (b.1943)^[35]
• 14 January - Bjørn Paulson, high jumper and Olympic silver medallist, jurist (b.1923)
• 14 January – Carsten Thomassen, journalist, killed in terrorist attack on Serena Hotel in Kabul (b.1969)^[36]

Kjell Kristian Rike (1944–2008)

• 19 January - Astrid Løken, entomologist (b.1911)
• 23 January – Stein Rønning, 1990 world champion in karate (b.1965)^[37]
• 24 January – Johannes Heggland, author and politician (b.1919)^[38]
• 28 January – Dagfinn Grønoset, author (b.1920)^[39]
• 28 January – Marie Takvam, author and actor (b.1926)^[40]
• 9 February – Nils Retterstøl, professor of psychiatry (b. 1924)^[41]
• 10 February – Ove Jørstad footballer (b.1970)^[42]
• 10 February – Arne Barhaugen, Nordic combined skier (b.1932)
• 15 February – Inge Thun, footballer (b. 1945)^[43]
• 16 February – Per Erik Monsen, Progress party politician (member of Parliament 1997-2005) (b. 1946)^[44]
• 7 March – Julius Paltiel, Holocaust survivor (b. 1924)^[45]
• 10 March – Marianne Gullestad, social anthropologist (b. 1946)^[46]

Aril Edvardsen (1938–2008)

• 14 March – Ingvald Ulveseth, Labour party politician (b. 1924)^[47]
• 16 March – Victor Sparre, visual artist (b. 1919)^[48]
• 22 March – Arne Skarpsno volunteer worker, known as the "Father of the street children" (b. 1926)^[49]

[edit] April to June

• 5 April - Oskar Edøy, politician (b.1916)
• 21 April - Ola M. Hestenes, politician (b.1919)
• 23 April – Haagen Ringnes, journalist and author (b. 1928)^[50]
• 29 April – Julie Ege, actress and model (b.1943)^[51]
• 15 May – Tove Billington Bye, Centre party politician (b.1928)^[52]
• 15 May - Ottar Grønvik, philologist and runology scholar (b.1916)
• 18 May - Odd Strand, civil servant (b.1925)
• 19 May – Kjell Kristian Rike, sports commentator (b.1944)^[53]
• 2 June - Geir Kjetsaa, professor of Russian literary history, translator and author (b.1937)
• 11 June – Gunnar Solum, Labour party politician (b. 1929)^[54]
• 15 June – Ole-Jørgen Nilsen, actor and theatre director (b. 1936)^[55]
• 19 June – Antonio Bibalo, Italian-Norwegian pianist and composer of contemporary music (b. 1922 in Trieste, Italy)^[56]

Kjartan Slettemark (1932–2008)

• 22 June – Odd Aukrust, economist (b. 1915)^[57]
• 22 June – Jens Petter Ekornes, entrepreneur (b. 1942)^[58]
• 22 June – Hans Haga, agrarian leader (b. 1924)^[59]
• 22 June - Einar W. Sissener, businessperson (b.1929)
• 26 June – Asbjørn Haugstvedt, Christian Democratic politician (b.1926)^[60]
• 27 June – Sasha Gabor, Hungarian-born pornographic actor (b.1945)^[61]
• 30 June - Annemarie Lorentzen, politician and Minister (b.1921)

[edit] July to September

• 3 July – Harald Heide-Steen Jr. actor, comedian and singer (b. 1939)^[62]
• 8 July – Erling Rønneberg, trainer of the Norwegian resistance movement and mayor of Ski (b. 1923)^[63]
• 14 July – Henki Kolstad, actor (b. 1915)^[64]
• 21 July – Knut Boye, civil economist (b.1937)^[65]
• 30 July - Erik Himle, civil servant, politician and Minister (b.1924)
• 2 August – Rolf Bae, mountaineer, fall from K2 (b.1975)^[66]
• 2 August – Helga Gitmark, Centre party politician (Minister of the Environment 1973) (b.1929)^[67]
• 15 August - Thor Pedersen, rower and Olympic bronze medallist (b.1924)
• 18 August - Ole Frithjof Klemsdal, politician (b.1923)
• 2 September – Andreas Zeier Cappelen, politician and minister (b.1915)^[68]
• 6 September – Aril Edvardsen, evangelical preacher and missionary (b. 1938)^[69]
• 11 September – Nils Johan Ringdal,author and historian (b. 1952)^[70]
• 14 September - Knut S. Heier, geochemist (b.1929)
• 23 September – Arne Haugestad, Supreme Court lawyer, Arne Treholt's defender (b. 1935)^[71]
• 27 September - Olaf Poulsen, speed skater and president of the International Skating Union (b.1920)

[edit] October to December

• 6 October - Anne Margrethe Strømsheim, resistance member (b.1914)
• 18 October - Tormod Haugen, author (b.1945)
• 8 November - Bodil Aakre, jurist and politician (b.1922)
• 14 November - Knut Bjørnsen, sports commentator and journalist (b.1932)
• 24 November - Rolf Ketil Bjørn, businessperson and politician (b.1938)
• 13 December – Kjartan Slettemark, political artist (b. 1932).^[72]
• 15 December – Anne-Catharina Vestly, children's book author (b. 1920)^[73]
• 27 December - Arild Andresen, soccer and ice hockey player (b.1928)

[edit] References