Incumbents
Monarch: Harald V
Prime Minister: Jens Stoltenberg
Events
January
January 1 – The Agency for Public Management and eGovernment is established. January 1 – Nordic Battlegroup consisting of military forces from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, and Estonia under the control of the European Union, is established. January 1 – Mercury becomes banned from use in Norway. January 11 – Norwegian police announce that they have arrested a 55-year-old man suspected of being the sexual predator known as The Pocket Man. 13 January – A school in Lørenskog is closed after threats of a school shooting came from a video on YouTube. A 15-year-old was arrested for the threat. January 21 – The OBX Index drops 6.4%, then the second biggest fall since August 1991 and the third largest in its history.
February
February 5 – The Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs opens the case to decide whether three Supreme Court Justices will be impeached over their involvement in the Fritz Moen wrongful conviction. February 14 – A political case centering on Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen forces her to resign from her post as Minister of Children and Equality and Ida Hjort Kraby to resign from her newly appointed position as Ombudsman for Children in Norway. February 21 – An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale hits Svalbard. This oblique-slip shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of IV (Light) and was the strongest earthquake ever to hit Norway. February 23 – The 8 km Eiksund Tunnel near Volda in Møre og Romsdal is opened. February 26 – The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is officially opened. 28 February – Three people were arrested in Oslo, accused of having participated in the financing of terrorist acts abroad. February 29 – Anniken Huitfeldt is appointed Minister of Children and Equality. February – Former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland is entangled in a political scandal over cancer treatments paid for by the Norwegian state, which she was not entitled to having previously changed her residency abroad.
March
March 1 – Austrian Matthias Lanzinger collides with a gate during a World Cup Super-G run at Kvitfjell, resulting in injuries that lead to his left leg being amputated below the knee two days later. 28 March – Norway recognizes Kosovo as an independent state.
April
12 April – Official opening of the Oslo Opera House.
May
15 May – Ingeborg Synnøve Midtømme is appointed bishop of the diocese of Møre.
June
June 11 – Norway legalises same-sex marriage. September – 2008 psychic phone call controversy: it was revealed that the Norwegian politician Saera Khan had racked up extremely high phone bills using the mobile phone with which she was provided for free by the Parliament.
July
August
September
September 9 – The OBX Index drops 5.57%, then the fourth biggest drop ever. September 29 – In conjunction with the financial crisis of 2007–2008 the OBX Index of the Oslo Stock Exchange drops 8.3%, then its third largest drop ever in one day, but eclipsed only one week later.
October
October 6 – The OBX Index drops 9.71%, the third largest drop ever in one day. October 8 – The OBX Index drops 6.44% October – Bangladeshi-Norwegian parliamentarian for the Labour Party Saera Khan withdraws her candidacy for next year's elections when it is revealed that she has spent large sums using her parliament paid-for mobile phone to call psychic hotlines and then consistently lied to cover up the fact. October – Controversy erupts when British writer and Holocaust denier David Irving is invited to the 2009 Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer, to discuss his concept of truth, ending in Irving's invitation being withdrawn. Author Stig Sæterbakken resigns as the festival's content director in protest over the decision. October 15 – The OBX Index drops 8.81% October 24 – The OBX Index drops 9.24%
November
December
December 13 – Six people died in a fire in an apartment building in Oslo. December 29 - 2008–09 Oslo riots starts.
Popular culture
Sports
October – Tromsø's bid to become host city to the 2018 Winter Olympics is cancelled when the sports board of Norwegian Confederation of Sports votes 9 against 3 to withdraw the application for government financial guarantee.