What happened 2008 AD in United States of America

On January 11, 2008, Bank of America announced that it would buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion.

In January 2008, Houston, Texas declared 14 January as "Muhammad Yunus Day".

O'Neal made his Suns debut on February 20, 2008, against his former Lakers team, scoring 15 points and grabbing 9 rebounds in the process. The Lakers won, 130–124. O'Neal was upbeat in a post-game press conference, stating: "I will take the blame for this loss because I wasn't in tune with the guys [...] But give me four or five days to really get in tune and I'll get it."

On February 25, 2008, Visa announced it would go ahead with an IPO of half its shares.

On March 5, 2008, Forbes ranked Slim as the world's second-richest person, behind Warren Buffett and ahead of Bill Gates.

On March 6, 2008, Infogrames made an offer to Atari Inc. to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of $1.68 per share, or $11 million total. The offer would make Infogrames sole owner of Atari Inc., thus making it a privately held company. On April 30, 2008, Atari Inc. announced its intentions to accept Infogrames' buyout offer and to merge with Infogrames. On October 8, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

On March 6, 2008, Apple held a press event, announcing the iPhone SDK.

March 17, 2008: The Federal Reserve guaranteed Bear Stearns' bad loans to facilitate its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase.

The IPO took place on March 18, 2008. Visa sold 406 million shares at US$44 per share ($2 above the high end of the expected $37–42 pricing range), raising US$17.9 billion in the largest initial public offering in U.S. history.

On March 20, 2008, the IPO underwriters (including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs & Co., Bank of America Securities LLC, Citi, HSBC, Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS Investment Bank and Wachovia Securities) exercised their overallotment option, purchasing an additional 40.6 million shares, bringing Visa's total IPO share count to 446.6 million, and bringing the total proceeds to US$19.1 billion.

On March 29, 2008, Johnson appeared to induct his father and grandfather Peter Maivia and Rocky Johnson into the WWE Hall of Fame.

One campaign that Nike began for Earth Day 2008 was a commercial that featured basketball star Steve Nash wearing Nike's Trash Talk Shoe, which had been constructed in February 2008 from pieces of leather and synthetic leather waste from factory floors. The Trash Talk Shoe also featured a sole composed of ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. Nike claims this is the first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste, but it only produced 5,000 pairs for sale.

LaSalle Bank and LaSalle Bank Midwest branches adopted the Bank of America name on May 5, 2008.

Because of the magnitude of the quake, and the media attention on China, foreign nations and organizations immediately responded to the disaster by offering condolences and assistance. On May 14, UNICEF reported that China formally requested the support of the international community to respond to the needs of affected families.

Rescue efforts performed by the Chinese government were praised by western media, especially in comparison with Myanmar's blockage of foreign aid during Cyclone Nargis, as well as China's previous performance during the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. China's openness during the media coverage of the Sichuan earthquake led a professor at Peking University to say, "This is the first time [that] the Chinese media has lived up to international standards". Los Angeles Times praised China's media coverage of the quake as being "democratic".

On June 2, 2008, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors for $2.3 billion.

The iTunes Store quickly became the market leader in online music services, with over five billion downloads by June 19, 2008.

However, on June 22, 2008, O'Neal freestyled a diss rap about Bryant in a New York club. While rapping, O'Neal blamed Bryant for his divorce from his wife Shaunie and claims to have received a vasectomy, as part of a rhyme. He also taunted Bryant for not being able to win a championship without him. O'Neal led the audience to mockingly chant several times "Kobe, tell me how my ass tastes."

In 2008, IKEA paired up with the makers of video game The Sims 2 to make a stuff pack called IKEA Home Stuff, featuring many IKEA products. It was released on 24 June 2008 in North America and 26 June 2008 in Europe. It is the second stuff pack with a major brand, the first being The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff.

On June 26, 2008, Senator Charles Schumer , a member of the Senate Banking Committee, chairman of Congress' Joint Economic Committee and the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, released several letters he had sent to regulators, which warned that, "The possible collapse of big mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc. poses significant financial risks to its borrowers and depositors, and regulators may not be ready to intervene to protect them." Some worried depositors began to withdraw money.

Gates retired from his role as Chief Software Architect on June 27, 2008, a decision announced in June 2006, while retaining other positions related to the company in addition to being an advisor for the company on key projects.

On July 2, 2008, Buffett attended a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Obama's campaign in Chicago.

On July 7, 2008, IndyMac announced on the company blog that it: Had failed to raise capital since its May 12, 2008 quarterly earnings report; Had been notified by bank and thrift regulators that IndyMac Bank was no longer deemed "well-capitalized". IndyMac: The first visible institution to run into trouble in the United States was the Southern California–based IndyMac, a spin-off of Countrywide Financial. Before its failure, IndyMac Bank was the largest savings and loan association in the Los Angeles market and the seventh largest mortgage originator in the United States.

The iOS App Store was opened on July 10, 2008, with an initial 500 applications available.

On July 11, 2008, citing liquidity concerns, the FDIC put IndyMac Bank into conservatorship.

July 11, 2008: IndyMac failed.

A TiVo service update in July 2008 allowed the system to search and play YouTube videos.

A bridge bank, IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB, was established to assume control of IndyMac Bank's assets, its secured liabilities, and its insured deposit accounts. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) announced plans to open IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB on July 14, 2008.

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced "Facebook Beta", a significant redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a cleaner look. Facebook began migrating users to the new version in September 2008.

July 30, 2008: The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was enacted.

IndyMac Bancorp filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 31, 2008.

Millard did the second of his two hymn albums because he realized that the church he was attending did not sing hymns, and he wanted his children to have hymns as a part of their lives.

September 7, 2008: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the federal government.

In Arlington County, the Pentagon Memorial was completed and opened to the public on the seventh anniversary of the attacks in 2008. It consists of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon. When the Pentagon was repaired in 2001–2002, a private chapel and indoor memorial were included, located at the spot where Flight 77 crashed into the building.

September 15, 2008: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt after the Federal Reserve declined to guarantee its loans, causing the Dow Jones to drop 504 points, its worst decline in seven years. The same day, Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch.

September 16, 2008: The Federal Reserve took over American International Group. The Reserve Primary Fund "broke the buck" as a result of massive withdrawals from money market accounts.

September 21, 2008: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley converted themselves from investment banks to bank holding companies to increase their protection by the Federal Reserve.

By 2008, both Nokia and BlackBerry announced touch-based smartphones to rival the iPhone 3G, and Android's focus eventually switched to just touchscreens. The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the HTC Dream, also known as T-Mobile G1, announced on September 23, 2008.

September 26, 2008: Washington Mutual went bankrupt after a bank run.

On October 1, 2008, Netflix announced a partnership with Starz to bring 2,500+ new films and shows to "Watch Instantly", under Starz Play.

October 3, 2008: Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

League of Legends was formally announced on October 7, 2008.

On October 21, 2008 his autobiography The Way I Am was published. Detailing his struggles with poverty, drugs, fame, heartbreak, and depression, it includes stories of his rise to fame, commentary about past controversies and original lyric sheets from "Stan" and "The Real Slim Shady".

On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain. Obama won 52.9% of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7%.

On November 4, 2008, Biden was elected Vice President of the United States as Obama's running mate.

He resigned his seat in the U.S. Senate upon being elected President of the United States.

The 2008 National Arts Medal was awarded to Stan Lee and presented in the East Room ceremony by President Bush in 2008. Lee was honored as one of America's most prolific storytellers "for his pioneering work, recreating the American comic books.

Following the reopening of the National Museum of American History on November 21, 2008, the flag is now on display in a special exhibition, "The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem" where it rests at a 10 degree angle in dim light for conservation purposes.

November 25, 2008: The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility was announced.

On December 9, 2008, Atari announced that it had acquired Cryptic Studios, a MMORPG developer.

December 16, 2008: The federal funds rate was lowered to zero percent.