Timeline March 2008

Events in March 2008 9

• 1914 – 2008 Richard Widmark (1914-2008) Died 24 March 2008, aged 93 American film actor who made his memorable debut as a giggling killer in Kiss of Death and went on to a decades-long career in Hollywood. He worked with directors including John Ford and Elia Kazan.
• 1954 – 2008 Anthony Minghella (1954-2008) Died 18 March 2008, aged 54 British film director and screenwriter who won the Academy Award for Best Director for The English Patient. He also directed The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.
• 2008 Breaking Bad season 1 7 episodes Seven episodes cut short by the writers strike, from the diagnosis to the first deal with Tuco.
• 2008 AMD spins out its fabs — GlobalFoundries created AMD spins off its semiconductor manufacturing operations into a new company — GlobalFoundries — in March 2009, with majority funding from Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC). AMD becomes a fabless chip designer, outsourcing manufacturing to GlobalFoundries initially and later to TSMC and Samsung. The spin-off eliminates AMD's enormous capital expenditure burden — fabs cost billions to build and operate — and allows AMD to focus on chip design. It is a necessary survival move but also an admission that AMD cannot afford to compete with Intel in manufacturing.
• 2008 Davidson's NCAA Tournament run stuns the world In the 2008 NCAA Tournament, Curry leads Davidson on one of the greatest Cinderella runs in college basketball history, defeating Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before falling two points short of the Final Four against Kansas. He averages 25.9 points per game in the tournament, becoming a household name overnight.
• 2008 Iditarod 2008 Winner: Lance Mackey — 9 days 11h Lance Mackey won his second consecutive Iditarod. He was also the reigning Yukon Quest champion, making him the only musher to hold both titles simultaneously.
• 2008 John Mellencamp inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Inducted by Billy Joel.
• 2008 Bear Stearns collapses Investment bank rescued in Fed-backed fire sale Bear Stearns, one of the largest US investment banks, faced a liquidity crisis and was rescued through a Federal Reserve-backed sale to JPMorgan Chase announced on 16 March 2008. The collapse was an early warning sign of the deepening global financial crisis.
• 2008 Zimbabwe election crisis Disputed presidential vote and power-sharing deal Robert Mugabe lost the first round of Zimbabwe's presidential election on 29 March 2008 but refused to concede, and violence forced his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw from a runoff. Regional pressure led to a power-sharing agreement signed on 15 September 2008.