2008

2008 (MMVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter FE) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2008th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 8th year of the 3rd millennium, the 8th year of the 21st century, and the 9th year of the 2000s decade.

2008 was designated as:

Events

January

Coronation Street

Coronation Street (informally known as Corrie) is a British soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on Coronation Street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on Salford, its terraced houses, café, corner shop, newsagents, textile factory and The Rovers Return pub. The fictional street was built in the early 1900s and named in honour of the coronation of King Edward VII.

The programme was conceived in 1960 by scriptwriter Tony Warren at Granada Television in Manchester. Warren's initial kitchen sink drama proposal was rejected by the station's founder Sidney Bernstein, but he was persuaded by producer Harry Elton to produce the programme for thirteen pilot episodes. Within six months of the show's first broadcast, it had become the most-watched programme on British television, and is now a significant part of British culture. This show has been one of the most financially lucrative programmes on British commercial television, underpinning the success of Granada Television and ITV.

Carla Connor

Carla Connor (née Donovan, previously Gordon and Barlow) is a fictional character from the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Alison King. She made her first appearance on screen during the episode airing on 1 December 2006. Carla has been referred to as "the new Elsie Tanner". Carla's storylines have included the breakdown of two marriages, being held hostage in her factory by Tony Gordon (Gray O'Brien) and escaping when the building explodes, battling alcoholism, drink driving and running over Stella Price (Michelle Collins), being raped by her fiancé Frank Foster (Andrew Lancel), attempting to commit suicide, becoming a suspect in Frank's murder, her affair and marriage to Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne), learning that Peter has been having an affair with Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan), becoming a suspect in Tina's murder, suffering a miscarriage, surviving a minibus crash, escaping a fire at her flats started by her arch-enemy Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), coping when people blame her for starting the fire, developing a gambling addiction, learning that family friend Johnny Connor (Richard Hawley) is actually her biological father and being attacked by thugs at the local restaurant, resulting in a road accident.

Steve Spangler

Steve Spangler (born December 8, 1966) is a television personality, author and science teacher. Spangler founded Steve Spangler Science and its wholesale division, Be Amazing Toys. He serves as CEO of Steve Spangler Science and the creative director of Be Amazing Toys. Both companies develop science education teaching tools and toys. Spangler posted the first Diet Coke and Mentos video on YouTube in September 2005 and his 2002 televised demonstration of the eruption went viral launching a chain of several other Diet Coke and Mentos experiment viral videos. He earned two Heartland Emmy Awards and a total of five Emmy nominations. Spangler holds a Guinness World Record for the largest physics lesson and is an inductee of the National Speakers Association Speaker Hall of Fame.

Career

Education work

Spangler's career began as a science teacher in the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado. As part of a science outreach program, Spangler created a traveling science show targeted to elementary and middle school students in an effort to increase interest in science. In 1991, Spangler began traveling throughout Colorado and the surrounding states to present school assembly programs and teacher training workshops focused on using more inquiry-based science activities in the classroom.