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Decades: 1980s • 1990s • 2000s Centuries: 19th • 20th • 21st See also: Other events of 2008 List of years in Norway

Stavanger and Sandnes, together with Liverpool, are European Capitals of Culture for 2008.

Events

Anniversaries

• 200 years since the birth of the poet Henrik Wergeland on June 17, 1808
• 100 years since Norway national football team played its first international game on July 12, 1908 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• 100 years since the sports club SK Brann was established (September 26)
• 100 years since the birth of the poet Olav H. Hauge on August 18, 1908
• 70 years since the death of Queen Maud of Norway on November 20, 1938

January – March

Official opening of Eiksund undersea tunnel February 23

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.[1]
    • Nordic Battlegroup consisting of military forces from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Ireland, and Estonia under the control of the European Union, is established.
    • Mercury becomes banned from use in Norway.
  • January 5 – A blizzard strikes the Agder counties of Southern Norway.
  • 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.
  • January 21 – The OBX Index drops 6.4%, the biggest fall since August 1991.
• 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.
  • 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 apointed position as Ombudsman for Children.
  • February 21 – An eathquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale hits Svalbard. It's the strongest earthquake ever to hit Norway.
  • February 23 – The 8 km Eiksund undersea tunnel near Volda in Møre og Romsdal is opened.
  • February 26 – The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is officially opened.
  • February 29 – Anniken Huitfeldt is appointed Minister of Children and Equality.
  • – 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.
• 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.

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

Sports

• 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 30 – The Norwegian Premier League 2008 kicks off, lasting through November 2.

Births

Deaths

• January 14 – Carsten Thomassen, journalist is killed an a terrorist atttack on Serena Hotel in Kabul (b. 1969)
• January 23 – Stein Rønning, 1990 world champion in karate (b. 1965)
• February 9 – Nils Retterstøl, professor of psychiatry (b. 1924)
• February 10 – Ove Jørstad former football player (b. 1970)