Olympic Opening Ceremonies 080808

BEIJING, China (CNN)

Fireworks, athletes and pageantry on a scale never before seen in the Olympics opened the Summer Games in Beijing on Friday as the Asian nation kicked off the biggest and most scrutinized Games in history.

Chinese President Hu Jintao declared the Olympics officially open, retired Chinese gymnastics champion Li Ning was carried through the air to light the Olympic cauldron, and pyrotechnics exploded throughout Beijing as the crowd of 91,000 at National Stadium cheered wildly. It was a stunning display from the nation of 1.3 billion people. Some media observers believe that the Opening Ceremony may be the most-watched television event in history.

IOC President Jacques Rogge spoke of China's long-held ambition to host the Olympics. "Tonight, that dream comes true," he said. Rogge mentioned the Sichuan earthquake, saying the world was moved "by the great courage and solidarity of the Chinese people."

Emotion was high, as Friday's Opening Ceremony not only officially started the Summer Games but was a symbolic expression of a nation seeking its place as a global superpower. The ceremony began at 8 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008 -- in a country where eight is the luckiest number.

The formal event was the four-hour official ceremony, which began at 8 pm local time (12:00 UTC). The result is a strong positive trend with Chisquare 14616 on 14400 df, for a p-value of 0.100 and Z = 1.281. The figure is striking, but perhaps even more impressive is the full 24-hour UTC day, shown in the second graph below. It has a steep negative trend followed by an equally steep incline, with the inflection point just at the beginning of the opening ceremonies.

Olympic Opening
Ceremonies 080808

Olympic Opening
Ceremonies 080808


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