12 people (estimated) jump into the chilly waters of Narragansett Bay from the Cranston Marina seawall on New Year’s Day as part of a fundraiser.

1 dog, Charlie, a mixed breed, refuses to participate. “We thought he’d go in because his friends were going in,” his Bay-diving owner said. “But he’s smarter than that.”

2 dogs participate in a protest against the demolition of the old Harris Avenue produce warehouse. Four men and the two canines, Swanee and Scully, run into the building just as backhoes begin some literal housebreaking. Police remove the demonstrators. No one goes to jail. Or the pound.

125 sex-toy companies show up for the New England Leather Alliance Fetish Flair Fleamarket in Providence. Vendors bemoan how lower-cost Chinese merchandise is whipping U.S. sellers of stretchy bedroom restraints.

FEBRUARY

0 chances that Sen. Jack Reed would accept a vice presidential nomination, he said.

18 victories in a row for the New England Patriots, more than any other NFL team.

4 points needed for the Pats to get their 19th straight victory — Super Bowl XLII, which they lost, 17-14, to the New York Giants.

20 years into his tenure as Save the Bay’s executive director, Curt Spalding steps down.

43,000 new voters register in time for the state’s presidential primary, triple the number who signed up in anticipation of the 2004 presidential preliminary. Almost half are under 29 years old and some officials wonder if they’ll show up in the fall.

MARCH

$16,555 conned from 30 unsuspecting victims by reputed con artist and lobsterman John P. Kluth of Newport.

10,000 people turn out to see Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at a campaign rally at Rhode Island College.

200 hours of community service ordered for a 17-year-old Barrington High School student as part of his sentence for drunk driving.

APRIL

6,000 wild turkeys estimated in Rhode Island as hunting season begins.

3,400 poor children expected to be knocked off welfare to close a $168-million deficit in the state budget.

41 marathons completed by Jason Pisano, 37, of West Warwick, who has cerebral palsy and competes in a wheelchair, as he toes the line at the 112th Boston Marathon.

4,152 children apply for 501 openings at the state’s 11 charter schools in the annual lottery.

MAY

$7.3 million allegedly embezzled from 47 investors by Newport yacht racer and commodities trader Elizabeth C. Baldwin.

18 ton limit placed on the Route 95 bridge over the Pawtucket River because of structural deterioration, and first of hundreds of trucks are stopped by state troopers.

0 hits given up by Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester in his May 19 no-hitter, the club’s 18th.

1 black bear sighted in South County backyards, drawing so many gawkers that environmental officials never get a chance to shoot the bear with a sedative. The bear vanishes on its own.

500 home runs clouted by Manny Ramirez, a milestone the Red Sox’ eccentric slugger reaches on May 31 in Baltimore’s Camden Yards.

JUNE

$500 million offered by Twin River to the state in return for slicing by more than half the percentage of money the state gets from the slot parlor.

17 NBA championship titles won by the Boston Celtics after defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on June 17.

25,000 polar bears estimated in the Arctic as the Interior Department lists them as an endangered species because of the shrinking polar ice cap.

JULY

$6.9 billion state budget approved for the fiscal year that runs from the summer of 2008 to the summer of 2009.

95 college students owed a total of $177,000 in scholarships that remained unpaid when the Education Partnership, a nonprofit agency, goes into receivership.

31 maintenance workers arrested by immigration agents and state police on suspicion of being illegal immigrants in raids at six state courthouses on July 15.

17 percent decline in the number of single-family houses sold in the previous three months, compared with the same months in 2007. The median price for those houses falls by 10.7 percent.

510 career home runs — 274 of them with the Red Sox — taken by Manny Ramirez to his new home with the Los Angeles Dodgers on the last day of July.

AUGUST

$43 billion price tag for infrastructure for the 2008 summer Olympics in China.

5th place taken by North Kingstown swimmer Elizabeth Beisel, the youngest member of the U.S. women’s swim team, in the 200-meter backstroke final in the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

$2 recommended in tolls for motorists entering Rhode Island on Route 95 from Connecticut.

4,842 unionized state employees affected when a Superior Court judge blocks Governor Carcieri’s efforts to unilaterally charge them more for health insurance.

SEPTEMBER

7.5 minutes into the 2008 season and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is done for the year after a hit by Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard.

17 votes by which state Sen. Stephen D. Alves loses the Democratic primary to West Warwick baker Michael J. Pinga.

50 percent of the state’s 4,000 vendors miss the deadline to enroll in E-Verify, a federal database system used to check the immigration status of newly hired workers.

$700 billion lost from retirement plans, government pension funds and other investment portfolios Sept. 15, the day the Dow drops 500 points, investment bank Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch sells itself to Bank of America.

OCTOBER

$3.019 for a gallon of gas, down 31 cents in one week.

9.3 percent unemployment rate in Rhode Island — tied for the worst in the nation — as the number of the state’s unemployed swells to 53,000.

486 acres saved by sale of development rights to Tuckahoe Turf Farm in Richmond, creating a conservation area of 3,000 contiguous acres.

700,000 registered voters in Rhode Island, more than 85 percent of the state’s adult population, with about 42,000 signing up since the March presidential primary.

$700-billion Wall Street bailout bill passes Congress and signed into law by President Bush.

NOVEMBER

475,428 voters show up to the polls on Nov. 4 in Rhode Island, breaking the record of 453,477 set in 1992.

1st African-American president is elected as Barack Obama, 47, a U.S. senator for Illinois, becomes the nation’s 44th president.

10 Republicans left in the state legislature — 6 in the House and 4 in the Senate — after the election, down from 18.

$372 million state budget deficit halfway through the current fiscal year, as reported to state lawmakers by budget officials — revised days later to $357 million.

30 years after he disappeared, police believe they have unearthed the remains of mobster-turned-police-informant Joseph P. “Joe Onions” Scanlon in East Providence behind an apartment building. Scanlon had been killed, execution style, in April 1978 by Nicholas “Nicky” Pari, who dies a month after Scanlon’s remains are believed to be found.

DECEMBER

8 years into his job as chief justice of the state Supreme Court, Frank J. Williams, 68, announces his retirement.

28 years in a coma ends for Martha “Sunny” von Bulow, the Newport heiress whose former husband, Claus, was convicted and then later acquitted of attempting to murder her by insulin injection.

1,400 letters (about that at least) written by World War II servicemen who were alumni of Bryant College, now Bryant University, found in a basement at the school. The letters were written in thanks to the Bryant Service Club, a student organization that sent hundreds of letters and gifts of candy and cigarettes and hand-knitted gloves and scarves to soldiers overseas during the war.

$1.9 million in penalties slapped on the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation by the Internal Revenue Service for alleged violations of the federal tax code in 2002 when it issued $19.9 million in construction bonds that were designated tax-free.

3 days left in 2008 to add to this list. JANUARY FEBRUARY