According to the official Google blog, today marks the eighth birthday for Google News. For eight years, Google has been helping users find news stories while simultaneously ticking off some big names in the news business. To mark the occasion, Google has listed the biggest stories (measured by the number of articles indexed in Google News on the subject) from the last eight years. Here are some highlights:

2003: The beginning of the Iraq War with the U.S. invasion of Iraq

2005: Hurricane Katrina and its devastating effects on New Orleans

2009: The death of Michael Jackson

2010: So far, the top story is the massive earthquake that struck Haiti

These aren’t necessarily the most important stories of the year — they just represent the stories that journalists wrote about more than any others. To see the full list, pop on over to the Google Blog.

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