October 6, 2008 (Monday)
- The MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second pass of the planet Mercury.(NYT)
- An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 hits near the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, killing 60 people. (USGS) (CNN)
- Another earthquake of magnitude 6.4, with two magnitude-5 aftershocks, hits Damxung, Tibet, People's Republic of China, with conflicting casualty reports anywhere from 9 to 30 deaths. (USGS) (CNN)
- Nobel Prize:
- The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Harald zur Hausen of Germany for his discovery of the human papilloma viruses that can cause cervical cancer in women, and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. (BBC News)
- Subprime mortgage crisis:
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by as much as 800.06 points, its biggest intraday drop on record; the Dow closed below the 10,000 mark for the first time since October 26, 2004. (MarketWatch)
- Speaking before a U.S. House Committee, Richard Fuld, CEO of failed Lehman Brothers says that he believed all his decisions "were both prudent and appropriate" given the information he had at the time.(New York Times)
- Significant losses are marked on stock exchanges worldwide: São Paulo Stock Exchange suspended trading after a 15 percent drop in its benchmark index. (Reuters)
- The UK's leading share index, the FTSE 100 closes down 391.1 points (7.85%), the largest single-day points fall since it was launched in 1984. The French CAC 40 also recorded a record drop of 9.04%, whilst Germany's DAX finished down 7.09%. (BBC News)
- United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson announces that Neel Kashkari will be in charge of administering the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.(NASDAQ)
- 2008 Russian financial crisis:
- Trading is suspended on Russia's leading stock exchanges after shares plunged nearly 20 percent amid a backdrop of falling oil prices and fears over the global economy. (International Herald Tribune) (MarketWatch)
- A suicide blast in the Sri Lankan town of Anuradhapura has killed 25 people, including the former army general Janaka Perera. (BBC News)
- Nancy Kissel loses an appeal against her conviction of murdering her husband Robert Kissel in Hong Kong in 2003. (Bloomberg via Hong Kong Standard)
- U.S. to rely on Russia for manned space flights between 2010 and 2015. (International Herald Tribune)
- Human Rights Watch says Somalia is the "most ignored tragedy" and the international community has "completely failed Somali civilians" regarding the destruction of Mogadishu. (BBC News)
- Thousands of anti-government protesters march in Bangkok as People's Alliance for Democracy demand elected government step down. (Agence France Press)
- The 2008 Monorierdő train collision in Hungary leads to the resignation of the transport minister and the president of Hungarian State Railways.