2008 has been an eventful year to say the least - it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I've done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008 in photographs. It's not the story of 2008, it's certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days. Look for part 1 from yesterday and part 3 tomorrow. (40 photos total)
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Imam Hashim Raza leads mourners in prayer during a funeral for Mohsin Naqvi at al-Fatima Islamic Center in Colonie, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 22, 2008. Naqvi was a Muslim, a native of Pakistan (he emigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was 8 years old and became a citizen at 16) and a U.S. Army officer. He was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Students practice martial arts at Xuecheng Martial Arts School in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, China on June 11, 2008. Around 300 students from all over the nation, aged from 5 to 17 years old, receive martial arts training as well as cultural courses at this school, local media said. (REUTERS/China Daily)
In this Jan. 23, 2008, the construction site of the new China Central Television headquarters building is seen in Beijing. The building's two angled towers were connected in December to form a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical sections. The 230 meter (755 foot) building, one of Beijing's tallest, houses more than 10,000 staff. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
A bull sarcophagus in which a member of the Ubud royal family was cremated burns during the funeral ceremony Tuesday July 15, 2008 in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)
Spacesuit engineer Dustin Gohmert drives NASA's new lunar truck prototype through the moon-like craters of Johnson Space Center's Lunar Yard. The lunar truck was built to make such off roading easy, with six wheels that can be steered independently in any direction. In addition, the steering center can turn a full 360 degree, giving the driver a good view of what's ahead, no matter which way the wheels are pointing. (NASA/JSC)
A woman on a horse runs alongside the peloton during stage five of the 2008 Tour de France from Cholet to Chateauroux on July 9, 2008 in Chateauroux, France. (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
A Tibetan (R) carrying a stick prepares to attack a fallen man in this photograph taken during protests in Lhasa March 14, 2008. Tibetans attacked Han Chinese and their businesses during violent protests in Lhasa over several days. (REUTERS)
In this photo released by the official Xinhua news agency, members of China's armed police demonstrate a rapid deployment during an anti-terrorist drill held in Jinan, east China, on Wednesday July 2, 2008, roughly one month ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Xinhua/Fan Changguo)
A firefighting airtanker drops Phos-Check fire retardant over the Gap fire as more than 1,000 wildfires continue burning across about 680 square miles of central and northern California, on July 3, 2008 near Goleta, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Samuel Peter from Nigeria receives a punch from Vitali Klitschko of Ukraine during their WBC heavyweight boxing world championship fight in Berlin, Germany on Oct. 11, 2008. Klitschko won the fight after round nine due to technical knock out. (AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski)
View of the Large hadron Collider's CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment Tracker Outer Barrel (TOB) in the cleaning room. The CMS is one of two general-purpose LHC experiments designed to explore the physics of the Terascale, the energy region where physicists believe they will find answers to the central questions at the heart of 21st-century particle physics. The Large Hadron Collider was scheduled to be up and running by the end of 2008, but electrical difficulties have set the date back to summer of 2009. (Maximilien Brice, © CERN)
Left-to-right: Netherlands Antilles' Churandy Martina, Zimbabwe's Brian Dzingai, Jamaica's Usain Bolt, Wallace Spearmon of the US and Britain's Christian Malcolm compete in the men's 200m final at the Bird's Nest National Stadium during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 20, 2008. Bolt went on to win the event, in a world record time of 19.3 seconds. (Olivier Morin/AFP)
Protesters holding candles march during a rally demanding a full-scale renegotiation of the beef deal with the U.S. and the resignation of President Lee Myung-bak around the city hall in Seoul, South Korea on June 7, 2008. Hundreds of thousands of people fearing infection of mad cow disease participated in the protest. (REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak)
A convoy of Russian troops makes its way through the Caucasus Mountains toward the armed conflict between Georgian troops and separatist South Ossetian troops, in the South Ossetian village of Dzhaba on August 9, 2008. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a "state of war" as his troops battled it out with Russian forces over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. (Dmitry Kostyukov/AFP)
An unidentified crying Georgian woman is calmed by her husband after learning that her child was killed in a neighboring village, in Gori, about 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, Georgia on August 11, 2008. (REUTERS/Gleb Garanich)
A solar eclipse can be seen above the Jiayuguan Fort on the Great Wall of China in the town of Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China on August 1, 2008. (REUTERS/David Gray)
Drummers perform during the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics at the National Stadium on August 8, 2008 in Beijing. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
Giovanna Trillini of Italy and Nam Hyunhee of South Korea compete in the semifinals of the women's individual foil fencing event at the Fencing Hall on Day 3 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 11, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Ireland's Gabriel Shelly, left, along with his coach celebrates after winning the bronze medal in Boccia-1 match against China's Wang Yi at the Paralympic games in Beijing, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/ Elizabeth Dalziel)
A single home is left standing among debris from Hurricane Ike September 14, 2008 in Gilchrist, Texas. In its brief, but eventful life, Ike wreaked enough havoc to be blamed for over $31.5 billion in damage and nearly 150 deaths across the Caribbean and Gulf Coast. (David J. Phillip-Pool/Getty Images)
Afghan youths dive at a swimming pool on Wazir Akbar Khan hill in Kabul on June 24, 2008. Temperatures in the Afghan capital are approaching the 30 degrees Celsius mark as the summer sets in in Central Asia. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images)
Ethnic Tibetan worshippers enter a monastery to celebrate Monlam, or Great Prayer Festival, during a sandstorm in Aba, Sichuan province, February 17, 2008. Thousands of Tibetan pilgrims gathered to celebrate Monlam, one of the most important festivals in Tibetan Buddhism. (REUTERS/Reinhard Krause)
Rockets fly over bell tower of Ayios Marcos church during Greek Orthodox Easter celebrations on the eastern Aegean island of Chios in Greece late on April 26, 2008. Two rival parishes of Vrontados village fire thousands of rockets every Easter Saturday aiming at the opposing church's bell tower in a centuries-old tradition. (REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis)
Thousands of sportsmen and women are seen on their way from Maloja to S-Chanf near St Moritz in south eastern Switzerland on March 9, 2008 as they participate in the annual Engadin skiing marathon. (AP Photo/Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella)
The downtown core of Vancouver and the Lions Gate Bridge rise above a morning fog in this view from Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver, British Columbia November 17, 2008. (REUTERS/Andy Clark)
Pakistani people watch as an acrobat rides his motorcycle around a circular track during the memorial of Muslim saint Syed Lal Shah next to his shrine in Muree, about 60 kilometers north of Islamabad, Pakistan on June 15, 2008. Hundred of pilgrims gather during six days every year to pay respect at the tomb of Syed Lal Shah. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A giant mechanical spider, part of a piece of free theater by French company La Machine entitled "Les Mecaniques Servants", walks along the waterfront in Liverpool, England on September 5, 2008. The 37-ton spider which stands at 50 feet (15 meters) tall was in Liverpool as part of the city's European capital of culture celebrations. (REUTERS/Phil Noble)
Red Star Belgrade's fans light torches during the Serbian First Division soccer match against Mladost Lucani in Belgrade, Serbia on March 29, 2008. (REUTERS/Ivan Milutinovic)
Muslim women attend prayers on the eve of the first day of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan at a mosque in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia on August 31, 2008. (REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas)
In this June 27, 2008 file photo, a man runs next to balloons placed at Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro. Demonstrators released around 4,000 red balloons during an event representing the 4,000 people who were expected to become victims of violence over the next six months. (AP Photo/ Ricardo Moraes)
A diver practices in the new National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China on Aug. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A visitor looks at a mock skeleton of the cartoon character Tom from "Tom and Jerry" by South Korea's artist Hyungkoo Lee during a special exhibition "Animatus" at Natural History Museum Basel, Switzerland on August 26, 2008. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth)
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper (bottom L) and other MP's listen as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine speaks in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa June 11, 2008. Canada, seeking to close one of the darkest chapters in its history, formally apologized earlier that week for forcing 150,000 aboriginal children into grim residential schools, where many say they were abused. (REUTERS/Chris Wattie)
U.S. soldiers search for weapons on an Afghan man, who works for a private security firm escorting truck convoys, after they found illegal weapons in his vehicle, in a village near Kandahar, Afghanistan in this April 27, 2008 photo. Forty countries are now contributing to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which has around 47,000 troops. the United States also contributing some 14,000 troops serving in a separate force. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)
In this Jan. 11, 2008 photo, eagles await transfer to a warm U.S. Fish and Wildlife warehouse after being rescued from the cold in Kodiak, Alaska. They were among 50 eagles which dove into the back of an uncovered dump truck full of fish guts and became too wet to fly away. (AP Photo/Jay Barrett)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy gently touches the hand of his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy during a welcoming ceremony in Ben Gurion airport in Israel on June 22, 2008. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis)
