May 2, 2008: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Begins

May 2, 2008: The Marvel Cinematic Universe begins, with the release of the film Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a billionaire scientist who uses his genius to become a superhero and fight injustice.

The character of Iron Man had debuted in Tales of Suspense #39 in March 1963, and had led the Avengers since the group's debut in The Avengers #1 in September of that year. But he had never been in the top tier of Marvel Comics characters in terms of popularity, unlike Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.

Example: Spider-Man had been seen in live-action on TV in 2 separate series, one in 1974-77, another in 1977-79, and 3 movies starting in 2002; the Hulk on TV in 1977-82, 3 TV-movies based on the series in 1988-90, and in a film in 2003; Captain America had been in a movie all the way back in 1944, and then in TV-movies in 1979 (2 of them) and 1990; Thor and Daredevil had each been in one of the Hulk TV-movies, and Daredevil headlined a 2003 movie; and there had been 3 movies each for the F4 and the X-Men.

Until the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021 brought the Tobey Maguire (2002-07) and Andrew Garfield (2012-14, in other words not yet seen in 2008) versions of Spidey together with the Tom Holland version (2016-onward), none of those productions was considered part of the MCU.

But Iron Man not only launched Stark to the forefront of Marveldom, but also symbolized Downey's comeback from a fine acting career that had seemed ruined by drug use.

Other films followed:

* 2008: The Incredible Hulk.

* 2010: Iron Man 2.

* 2011: Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

* 2012: Marvel's The Avengers.

* 2013: Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.

* 2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.

* 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man.

* 2016: Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange.

* 2017: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok.

* 2018: Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp.

* 2019: Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

* 2021: Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

* Scheduled for release in 2022: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

* Planned for 2023: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels.

In addition, there have been TV series: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 2013-20; Agent Carter, 2015-16; Daredevil, 2015-18; Jessica Jones, 2015-19; Luke Cage, 2016-18; The Defenders, 2017; Inhumans, 2017; Iron Fist, 2017-18; The Punisher, 2017-19; Runaways, 2017-19; Cloak & Dagger, 2018-19; Helstrom, 2020; WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and Hawkeye, all 2021; the animated (and thus far cheaper to make) What If..., 2021-22; and Moon Knight, starting in 2022 and possibly continuing beyond.

The MCU, produced by The Walt Disney Company, forced Warner Brothers' hand: It owned the rights to movies for the characters in DC Comics, but the DC Extended Universe has had its problems -- the unsuitability of some of its writers and directors being more important than the quality of the stories and the acting.

In hindsight, it is interesting that the greatest crisis in each brand's live-action history was set in 2019: For Marvel, "The Snap" by Thanos in the film Avengers: Infinity War, on May 31 in their continuity, though the film was released on April 27, 2018; and for DC, the titular event in their miniseries Crisis On Infinite Earths, on December 10, the day it aired on The CW Network. And, in both cases, the man who was then President in real life, Donald Trump, couldn't save anyone.

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May 2, 2008 was a Friday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-1 at Yankee Stadium. Chien-Ming Wang was the winning pitcher. Derek Jeter went 0-for-4, but Melky Cabrera had a 2-RBI double.

* The New York Mets beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-2 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-3 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The Phils got home runs from Chase Utley, Pedro Feliz, and a walkoff in the 10th inning from Pat Burrell.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals, 11-4 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Tim Hudson pitched a 3-hit shutout, 10 strikeouts, no walks. Brian McCann hit a home run.

* The Florida Marlins beat the San Diego Padres, 6-4 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Houston Astros beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-4 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. It took 5 Jays pitchers to complete a 5-hit shutout. In contrast, Mark Buehrle went the distance for the South Siders, but lost.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Skip Schumaker won it with a home run in the bottom of the 11th.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 11-6 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 4-3 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the McAfee Coliseum).

* And the Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals got rained out at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 13. The Royals won both games, 8-3 and 8-4.

Football was out of season. The NBA Playoffs were in the 1st Round:

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics, 103-100 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta. That was a Game 6, and the Hawks won Game 7 2 nights later.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Washington Wizards, 105-88 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington, to win Game 6 and the series. LeBron James had 27 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists.

* And the Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 113-91 at the Delta Center (then named the EnergySolutions Arena) in Salt Lake City, to win Game 6 and the series. Tracy McGrady scored 40 points.

One Stanley Cup Playoff game was played that night, but it was a doozy. The San Jose Sharks beat the Dallas Stars, 3-2 at the HP Pavilion (now the SAP Center) in San Jose. Joe Pavelski scored 1:05 into overtime. That was in Game 6 of an NHL Western Conference Semifinal. But, 2 nights later, Game 7 went to 4 overtimes, and Brenden Morrow won it for Dallas.