Monday, December 29, 2008

2008 Firsts

No, this is not a post featuring 2008 first time events, it's a list of firsts that occured in 2008. I know my posts are long, but not that long!

Here are nine things we never saw prior to the year 2008:

1. The obvious first first: the United States saw the election of its first African-American presidential nominee for a major party and its first African-American president-elect.

2. The numbers behind the obvious first: The first presidential campaign topping $1 billion dollars ($1.7 billion to be more precise). And there were a lot of first time voters in this year's election.

3. March 25, 2008, the first democratic elections were held in Bhutan, the world's only Buddhist kingdom, Gospel for Asia reports.

4. Also in March 2008, for the first time the number of adherents to Islam outnumbered the number of adherents to Roman Catholicism.

4. 30,000 people turned out for fifth day of the first test cricket match between India and England. (Okay, it's official. I'm giving cricket "firsts" and I don't even know who is in the playoffs for the NFL! I've been in the Caribbean too long!)

5. Have we seen the first historical evidence of the Druids?

6. Bruno Julie, "the Mauritian Magician," earns Mauritius its first Olympic medal. The sport? Men's boxing.


7. In May 2008, the Archbishop of Perth announced the first female bishop of the Australian Anglican church, Kay Goldsworthy. A few days later, the first woman bishop was appointed in Victoria as well. Meanwhile, openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson began his second term

8. Their campuses are only a couple miles apart, but this year marked the first time that historically black N.C. Central University squared off against Duke University in a baseball game.

9. UNESCO completes first ever study of historical and contemporary slavery.


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