In 2008, "Low" topped the charts, The Dark Knight packed theaters, a stamp cost 42¢, the average home went for about $232,100.
🎵 Top songs of 2008
"Low" — Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
"Bleeding Love" — Leona Lewis
"No One" — Alicia Keys
🎬 In theaters
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
WALL-E
What things cost in 2008
$3.25
Gallon of gas
42¢
Postage stamp
$7.18
Movie ticket
$3.68
Gallon of milk
$232,100
Average home
$23,400
New car
$50,300
Household income
Gas spiked to about $3.25 on average in 2008, roughly $4.90 in today's dollars, and it briefly topped $4 that summer before crashing with the economy. The $7.18 movie ticket works out to about $10.85 now.
The biggest moments of 2008
Barack Obama was elected the 44th U.S. President, the first African American to hold the office.
Swimmer Michael Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Summer Olympics.
A global financial crisis shook banks and economies around the world.
Beijing opened its Summer Olympics at 8:08 p.m. on 8/8/08, considered the luckiest possible moment, with a drummer-filled ceremony viewers never forgot.
A lightning bolt named Usain Bolt shattered world records in both sprints in Beijing, celebrating before he even crossed the 100-meter line.
SpaceX's Falcon 1 reached orbit in September, the first privately built liquid-fueled rocket ever to do it, after three straight failures nearly ended the company.
Toys, TV & trends of 2008
Apple opened the App Store, and downloading apps onto phones became a brand-new hobby.
Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit had whole families racing and balancing in the living room.
Rock Band turned game nights into full concerts with plastic guitars, drums, and microphones.
Bakugan Battle Brawlers, marble-like spheres that popped open into battling creatures, were the toy every kid wanted that year.
The first Twilight movie hit theaters in November, and Team Edward versus Team Jacob debates took over school lunchrooms.
Hulu opened to the public in March, and watching last night's TV shows free on a laptop suddenly felt like the future.
The music scene
Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III sold more than a million copies in its first week and finished as the year's best-selling album. Two future superstars quietly arrived: Katy Perry scored her first number one, and a Lady Gaga debut album called The Fame started slow before conquering the world. Over in Sweden, a startup called Spotify launched in October with a wild idea that people would stream music instead of owning it.
At the movies
A short scene after Iron Man's credits, with Samuel L. Jackson mentioning an "Avenger Initiative," quietly announced the most ambitious franchise plan in movie history. Heath Ledger was posthumously awarded the Oscar for his unforgettable Joker, one of only two acting Oscars ever given after a performer's death. Best Picture went to Slumdog Millionaire, a scrappy crowd-pleaser set in Mumbai that swept eight awards.
Cartoons kids loved
Phineas and Ferb
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (debuted in 2008)
SpongeBob SquarePants
Star Wars came to weekly television animation for the first time with The Clone Wars, which even launched with a theatrical movie in August before settling onto Cartoon Network. It signaled a new era in which giant film franchises would live on TV between blockbusters, a playbook every studio soon copied.
The world in 2008
World population: about 6.7 billion
U.S. President: George W. Bush
The Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest science experiment, powered up for the first time near Geneva.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February, becoming Europe's newest state.
Oil prices hit an all-time record of $147 a barrel in July before collapsing as the global economy stumbled.
India launched Chandrayaan-1, its first mission to the Moon, whose instruments helped confirm the presence of water molecules in lunar soil.
2008 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 2008?
Someone born in 2008 turns 18 in 2026 (17 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 2008?
"Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain was among the biggest hits of 2008.
What movie came out in 2008?
The Dark Knight was one of the films packing theaters in 2008.
How much did gas cost in 2008?
A gallon of gas ran about $3.25 in 2008, and a postage stamp cost 42¢.
How much did a house cost in 2008?
The average home went for roughly $232,100 in 2008, against a typical household income of about $50,300.