A Look Back at 2008: A Year of Firsts

Happy New Year, dear readers!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a welcome respite from work (I sure enjoyed taking a short break from the PCB)! I'm sure you're all back in the office and 100% focused on the tasks at hand, but just in case you need a short break, here's an uplifting look at what we actually accomplished in 2008.

Enjoy!
Dana Zelig, CIS Compliance Specialist and PCB Editor


A Look Back at 2008: A Year of Firsts
By: Karen Agama, CIS Compliance Consultant

The year is ending with plenty of room for improvement, so rather than replay the disheartening events that are so familiar to anyone with access to the outside world, I thought it would be much more fun to celebrate a few milestones.

January: Bobby Jindal, the first Indian American governor in U.S. history, takes office as the 56th governor of Louisiana, earning praise among residents disillusioned with the government as bright, capable, and energetic.[i]

February: As Pyonyang shuts down its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, the New York Philharmonic becomes the first American musical ensemble to perform in North Korea and the largest American contingent to visit Pyonyang since the end of the Korean War.[ii]

March: David Paterson succeeds fallen Governor Eliot Spitzer, becoming the first African American governor of New York, and the first legally blind person to serve as governor of any state.[iii]

April: Danica Patrick becomes the first female winner in any first-rate American motor racing series with her IndyCar victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300.[iv]

May: A team of astronomers, led by Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton Fellow Alicia Soderberg, catches a star in the act of exploding (a supernova) for the first time with NASA’s Swift satellite.[v]

June: Illinois Senator Barack Obama becomes the first African American to be nominated for election to the U.S. presidency by a major political party.[vi]

July: Kuwait names former army chief of staff Ali-Momen as its first ambassador to Iraq since the Gulf War. Momen heads a center in Kuwait that partners with the UN to provide humanitarian aid to Iraq.[vii]

August: At just 23 years old, and despite having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or partly because of it?), Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals in Beijing and becomes the most successful single-Games Olympian of all time.[viii] [ix]

September: Condoleeza Rice becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Libya since 1953, reopening diplomatic relations.[x]

October: Okay, so this is a “second,” not a “first,” but definitely worth celebrating! The Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series for the second time in their 125-year history (their first win was in 1980).[xi]

November: Democrat Barack Obama wins the 2008 United States presidential election, becoming the first African American to be elected to the office of President of the United States.

In reflecting on the larger picture, even though we’re facing some pretty troubling news of late, remember that the American spirit has brought us to this place, where we can celebrate these remarkable firsts. With that enduring will and determination, I have confidence that we will rise to our present challenges, as well. Life is what we make it, and we can all make it better each year, together.

[i] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18081095

[ii] http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717019,00.html

[iii] http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/david_a_paterson/index.html

[iv] http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing/news/story?id=3355226

[v] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2008/swift_supernova.html

[vi] http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1811474-3,00.html

[vii] http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i24EvTHs6ZjsrGI0mqU2ZjD9NJpA

[viii] http://search.espn.go.com/michael-phelps/

[ix] http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/michael-phelps-and-the-potential-of-adhd/?scp=4&sq=michael%20phelps&st=cse

[x] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/09/05/2008-09-05_sect_of_state_condoleezza_rice_arrives_i.html

[xi]http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081028&content_id=3650793&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi