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.

In December 2008, Aston Martin announced that it would cut its 1, 850 workforce by 600.

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 )

Handwritten notes taken by Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger on December 7, 1985 indicate that Reagan was aware of potential hostages transfers with Iran, as well as the sale of Hawk and TOW missiles to " moderates elements " within that country.

It initially applied to nationals of five countries, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan, who were required to register by December 16.

* On December 26, 2003, the massive 2003 Bam earthquake devastates southeastern Iran ; over 40, 000 people are reported killed in the city of Bam.

* December 2 – The United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations.

* December 7 – A visit to Iran by American Vice President Richard Nixon sparks several days of riots.

* December 27 – Persia becomes Iran.

* December 22 – Another deadly earthquake strikes Damghan, Iran, killing 200, 000 people.

* 1256 – December 15 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.

* December 15 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.

The December 1979 constitution, and its 1989 amendment, define the political, economic, and social order of the Islamic Republic of Iran, declaring that Shi ' a Islam of the Twelver school of thought is Iran's official religion.

The growing tension prompted MPs in December 2007 to pass a non-binding resolution banning the use of the country ’ s territory for any attack on Iran.

The convention was developed and adopted by participating nations at a meeting in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran on February 2, 1971, hosted by the Iranian Department of Environment, and came into force on December, 21 1975.

Following the failure of the Shah during January 1979 to maintain control of Iran, the Saudis were forced to deal with the prospect of internal destabilization via Islamic fundamentalism, a reality which would quickly be revealed in the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Wahhabi extremists during November and a Shia revolt in al-Hasa during December.

Rezā Shāh Pahlavi (;, born Rezā Khan ( March 15, 1878 – July 26, 1944 ), was the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran from December 15, 1925, until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran on September 16, 1941.

The Majlis, convening as a constituent assembly on December 12, 1925, declared him the Shah as in the Constitution of Iran.

The operation ended officially on 31 December 1996 at the request of the Government of Turkey who wanted to improve relations with Iran and Iraq.

* Catalyst for Iranian Resistance: US “ democracy promoters ” and regime change in Iran, Znet article by Michael Barker, December 18, 2006.

Karmal announces a new set of proposals for negotiations with Pakistan and Iran, either separately or together ; this is a slight departure from proposals he made in May and in December 1980.

After cutting short a two-day trip to Iran, Ceauşescu held a televised speech on 20 December, in which he condemned the events of Timişoara, considering them an act of foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Romania and an aggression through foreign secret services on Romania's sovereignty, and declared National Curfew, convoking a mass meeting in his support in Bucharest for the next day.

* Farideh Farhi, The U. S. and Iran After the NIE, The Audit of Conventional Wisdom Series, MIT Center for International Studies, December 2007. pdf

In December 1891 a fatwa was issued by the most important religious authority in Iran, marja ’- i taqlid Mirza Hasan Shirazi, declaring the use of tobacco to be tantamount to war against the Hidden Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi.

Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979, and to approve a new democratic-theocratic hybrid constitution whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country, in December 1979.

A week later on December 10 and 11, a " total of six to nine million " anti-shah demonstrators marched throughout Iran.