What happened August 2008 AD

In August 2008, IKEA also announced that it had created IKEA GreenTech, a €50 million venture capital fund. Located in Lund (a university town in Sweden), it will invest in 8–10 companies in the coming five years with focus on solar panels, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency and water saving and purification. The aim is to commercialise green technologies for sale in IKEA stores within 3–4 years.

After a six-year hiatus, in August 2008, Williams announced a new 26-city tour, Weapons of Self-Destruction. The tour started at the end of September 2009 and concluded in New York on December 3, and was the subject of an HBO special on December 8, 2009.

Pingwu County and Beichuan County, Sichuan, also northeast of Wenchuan and close to the epicenter of a 7.2 Ms earthquake in 1976, suffered a 6.1 Ms  aftershock (5.7 Mw  according to USGS) on August 1; it caused 2 deaths, 345 injuries, the collapse of 707 homes, damage to over 1,000 homes, and blocked 25 kilometers (16 mi) of country roads.

Marie had made her report in August 2008 to Sergeant Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn. Police guidelines advised that rape victims may be uncertain of details or report conflicting information; police should not interrogate victims or use polygraph tests, which do not provide reliable evidence. Investigating Marie's report, police found evidence of an assailant entering via a back porch and abrasions to Marie's vagina and wrist. Marie told two of her foster parents about the incident, but both began to disbelieve her due to her calm and detached demeanor. One parent reported his doubts about Marie's honesty to the police.

In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches, and his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match which helped India win the series. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.

As late as August 5, yet another aftershock of 6.1 Ms (6.2 Mw according to USGS) hit Qingchuan, Sichuan, causing 1 death, 32 injuries, telecommunication interruptions, and widespread hill slides blocking roads in the area including a national highway.

On 8 August 2008, IKEA UK launched a virtual mobile phone network called IKEA Family Mobile, which ran on T-Mobile. At launch it was the cheapest pay-as-you-go network in the UK.

In August, the Evening Standard reported that he was suffering from prostate cancer. Buckingham Palace, which usually refuses to comment on rumors of ill health, claimed that the report was an invasion of privacy and issued a statement denying the story. The newspaper retracted the report and admitted it was untrue.

In August 2008, Marie told Project Ladder case managers that she had made the report under duress and they made her return to the police station. She wanted to take a polygraph test, but Rittgarn told her that she would be jailed and lose her housing if she failed it. Marie declined. After she was made to tell the other Project Ladder participants about her false report, she considered suicide. Later, Marie received notice of a false reporting charge against her filed by Mason. Such charges are rare unless a named person's reputation was damaged or substantial investigate resources were used. Following the charge, Marie quit her job and was the subject of media reports and an attack website made by a former best friend.

On August 17, Phelps won his eighth gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, which had stood since 1972.

On 17 August 2008, Vodafone succeeded to acquire 70% of Ghana Telecom.

The domain name "bitcoin.org" was registered on 18 August 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.

On 22 August 2008, Dion presented a free outdoor concert, mostly in French, on the Plains of Abraham, in Québec City, Canada, for the 400th anniversary of Québec City.The celebration gathered approximately 490,000 people.

In August 2008, she received an honorary doctorate in music from the Université Laval in Quebec City.

Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing and several other cities in the People's Republic of China from 6 to 23 August. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to send their full women's national teams and men's U-23 teams to participate. Men's teams were allowed to augment their squad with three players over the age of 23. Argentina won the tournament.