October 13, 2008 (Monday)
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average increases by 935 points or 11.1 percent as stock markets around the world respond positively to steps to relieve the economic crisis of 2008. (New York Times)
- Summer 2008 California wildfires
- A second wildfire breaks out in the hills above Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley prompting mandatory evacuations. (AP via USA Today)
- Santa Ana winds causes an existing fire in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles to flare up resulting in the closure of two freeways. (CNN)
- The United Kingdom House of Lords rejects the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 by 309 votes to 118. (Reuters)
- The European Union temporarily lifts travel bans on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and other top officials for six months to encourage democratic reforms in that country. (BBC News)
- Nobel Prize:
- United States economist Paul Krugman wins the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics for "analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity".(AP via Google News)
- The U.S. Federal Reserve approves the merger of Wells Fargo and Wachovia after Citigroup withdraws the legal case in a New York federal court to put a hold on the merger.
- The Natural Capital Project releases the first version of (InVEST), an open source ecosystem service evaluation software inspired by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.