On December 1, 2008, the Curb Exchange building at 86 Trinity Place was closed, and the Amex Equities trading floor was moved to the NYSE Trading floor at 11 Wall Street.

In December 2008, HDMS Absalon was involved in the rescue of putative Somali pirates 90 miles off Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.

On December 21, 2008, Atlanta beat the Minnesota Vikings 24 – 17 to clinch a wild card spot, earning a trip to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

On December 9, 2008, Atari announced that it had acquired Cryptic Studios, an MMORPG developer.

AOL released an all-new AIM for the Macintosh on September 29, 2008 and the final build on December 15, 2008.

The 2008 Menier Chocolate Factory production opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in previews on November 24, 2009 and officially on December 13, 2009, with the same creative team.

2008 has brought announcements of new or additional sales to Singapore, Finland, Morocco and South Korea ; in December 2010 the Swiss government requested 150 AIM-120C-7 missiles.

Digicel was finally granted a licence on 17 December 2007 and plans to start operations in the BVI sometime in 2008.

Construction of the second line started in December 2008, which is due to be opened according to initial forecasts by the end of 2012.

* Programming: Principles and Practice Using C ++ by Bjarne Stroustrup – Addison-Wesley Professional ; 1 edition ( December 29, 2008 ); ISBN 0-321-54372-1

A bocce player of note is Umberto Granaglia ( May 20, 1931 – December 13, 2008 ), who was awarded the honor of " Player of the Twentieth Century " by the Confédération Mondiale des Sports de Boules.

In December 2008, Power Fasteners agreed to pay $ 16 million to the state to settle manslaughter charges.

Prior to 31 December 2010, deposits with building societies of up to £ 50, 000 per individual, per institution, were normally protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ( FSCS ), but Nationwide and Yorkshire Building Societies negotiated a temporary change to the terms of the FSCS to protect members of the societies they acquired in late 2008 / early 2009.

The new highspeed ICE railway line from Karlsruhe to Basel was completed in 2008 while phase I of the TGV Rhin-Rhône line, opened in December 2011, has reduced travel time from Basel to Paris to about 3 hours.

With Switzerland joining the Schengen Area on December 12, 2008, immigration checks were no longer carried out at the crossings.

Prior to that Bernd Kellner computed B < sub > n </ sub > to full precision for n = 10 < sup > 6 </ sup > in December 2002 and Oleksandr Pavlyk for n = 10 < sup > 7 </ sup > with ' Mathematica ' in April 2008.

Ellas Otha Bates ( December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008 ), known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter ( usually as Ellas McDaniel ), and rock and roll pioneer.

$ 7. 401 billion ( December 2008 )

Costa Rican colones (₡) per US $ 1 – 512. 11 ( September 4, 2010 ), US $ 1 – 559. 51 ( October 24, 2008 ), per US $ 1 – 500. 10 ( December 2007 ), 516. 78 ( November 2007 ), 506. 11 ( April 2006 ), 479. 57 ( July 2005 ), 299. 63 ( February 2000 ), 285. 68 ( 1999 ), 257. 23 ( 1998 ), 232. 60 ( 1997 ), 207. 69 ( 1996 ) and 179. 73 ( 1995 )

11. 5 % ( 31 December 2008 )

15. 6 % ( 31 December 2008 )

$ 21. 58 billion ( 31 December 2008 )

$ 26. 57 billion ( 31 December 2008 )

In December 2003 Aston Martin announced it would return to motor racing in 2005.

John Michael " Ozzy " Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, England, on 3 December 1948.

In December 2007 in a 4 – 4 draw against Aston Villa, Andriy Shevchenko scored the first penalty kick at the Shed End since Osgood's ashes were buried there.

The Aston University Council discussed the proposal during a meeting on 3 December 2003 and concluded that it should be rejected.

Their nephew Dicky Dorsett ( born 3 December 1919, died 1999 ) played over 250 times for Aston Villa between 1946 and 1952 and also played for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1939 FA Cup Final.

Other fine performances included a brace in open play in a 3-0 home win over Aston Villa in the league on 7 December, and two goals ( one a penalty ) as they eliminated Manchester United from the Football League Cup in a 2-1 win at Anfield in late November.

In December 1999, whilst playing for Aston Villa against Sheffield Wednesday, he sustained a life threatening broken neck, as a result of which he permanently has a titanium plate holding three neck vertebrae together.

The Aston Martin DB7 is a grand tourer which was produced by Aston Martin from September 1994 to December 2004.

* Most goals in a top flight game: 7, Ted Drake for Arsenal v. Aston Villa ( away ), 14 December 1935

On 27 December 1920, Old Trafford played host to its largest pre-Second World War attendance for a United league match, as 70, 504 spectators watched the Red Devils lose 3 – 1 to Aston Villa.

Davy Walsh, the club's top-scorer since the war, was sold on to Aston Villa in December 1950 for a £ 25, 000 fee.

To push for more support locally, the club planted the slogan ' Let Arsenal support Islington ' around Highbury during matches against Aston Villa and Juventus in December 2001 and as a backdrop for manager Arsène Wenger's press conference in the lead up to Christmas.

He scored once in the league for Boro, against Aston Villa in December 2004.

As a manager he began inauspiciously and his first season ended in relegation ; despite Mercer buying Derek Pace, who would go on to become a hero at Sheffield United, from Aston Villa for £ 12, 000 on 26 December 1957.

The rest of his time as manager was spent in the Second Division and in December 1958, wanting to move to a bigger club, he resigned and moved to Aston Villa who were bottom of the First Division.

From September 2004 to December 2006 she was Principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College London, after which she joined Aston University as Vice-Chancellor.

On 26 December 2007, in a 4 – 4 home draw against Aston Villa, on 79 minutes, the home side allowed the ourselves to become outmanoeuvred on halfway leaving just the goalkeeper Petr Čech and Carvalho between Villa's striker, Gabriel Agbonlahor, and the goal, Carvalho attempted the block, went in two-footed and was red carded for the foul, in the same night, he issued a public apology for his horror tackle on the forward.

On 31 December 2011, Drogba scored his 150th goal for Chelsea against Aston Villa, putting him level with Peter Osgood and Roy Bentley in terms of the club's top scorers of all time.

Matilda Ann Aston ( 11 December 1873 – 1 November 1947 ), better known as Tilly Aston, was a blind Australian writer and teacher, who founded the Victorian Association of Braille Writers, and later went on to establish the Association for the Advancement of the Blind, with herself as secretary.

Torres became the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals after scoring against Aston Villa in December 2009.

His stoppage-time winning goal against Aston Villa on 29 December 2009 made him the fastest Liverpool player ever to score 50 league goals.

The couple have two children, a daughter, Nora, born on 8 July 2009 at the Hospital La Rosaleda, in Santiago de Compostela, and a son, Leo, born on 6 December 2010 at Liverpool Women's Hospital, with Torres missing the fixture against Aston Villa at Anfield.