Is there a Windows 8 equivalent of 'Recent Items'/'My Recent Documents'?

I used to use "Recent Items" and "My Recent Documents" in the start menu in previous versions of Windows to quickly open a recently opened document/activity.

Is there an equivalent aggregated list of recent documents in Windows 8, or is it just per application?

If there isn't an equivalent, is there a way I can quickly access a list of recently accessed, opened, and edited documents?

Yes, there is a way to do this: Just open the run dialog box by pressing Win + R and type in "recent". There you can see your recent activities.

Note: "Recent places" can be access under Windows Explorer's under "Favorite".

Also you can create a shortcut of the "recent" at your desktop and then pin it to start menu. For this just right click on desktop and seclect New>Shortcut. In file location type the path

C:/users/username/recent

and click the Next button, it will prompt the name and now click Finish. You will see the shortcut on desktop now and you can pin it to start menu. Also you can define Hotkey for this from properties now.

Since avirk's solution didn't work for me I searched further and found a similar solution in Is there a Windows 8 "Recent Items" Jump List? .

It says you can access the recent files via

C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

I had to navigate manually to the location, but then I could drag the folder to the "Favorites" icon.

So I finally got a working solution now.