Gabble Post takes a look back at the difficult year that was 2020 with a collection of top stories. We wish you and yours a healthy 2021.
January:
January 3: Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis killed by United States drone strike at Baghdad International Airport.
January 10: Qaboos bin Said, Sultan of Oman dies at 79. Haitham bin Tariq is his successor.
January 16: The impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins in the US Senate. He is acquitted on February 5th.
January 30: The World Health Organization declares an outbreak of coronavirus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
January 31: The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdraw from the European Union.
February:
February 11: The World Health Organization names the new coronavirus disease COVID-19.
February 27: A stock market crash begins. The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 1,190.95 points, or 4.4%. It closes at 25,766.64.
February 29: Luxembourg is the first country to make all public transportation free to use.
March:
March 8: Italy places 16 million citizens in quarantine, this expands to entire country the next day.
March 9: The Dow Jones plummets over 2,000 points. Oil prices fall by 30%.
March 11: The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 to be a pandemic.
March 12: Global stock markets crash with the Dow Jones closing at over 2,300 points down. The United States announces a travel ban on the Schengen Area.
March 16: The Dow Jones falls by 2,997.10 points, the single largest drop in history and second largest percentage drop at 12.93%.
March 20: The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 passes 10,000. Total cases reach a quarter million.
March 26: 500,000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed worldwide with nearly 23,000 deaths. The United States passes China and Italy in total number of cases at 81,321 and over 1,000 deaths.
April:
April 1: China reports first asymptomatic cases of COVID-19. 130 in total.
April 2: 1 million COVID-19 cases confirmed worldwide.
April 8: China ends the Wuhan lockdown after 76 days.
April 14: Donal Trump announces the United States will suspend funding towards the World Health Organization.
April 15: COVID-19 total passes 2 million cases worldwide.
April 20: Oil prices fall to a record low. West Texas Intermediate goes into negative values.
April 27: The COVID-19 case total passes 3 million worldwide with 1 million in the United States. The Pentagon releases three videos of “unidentified aerial phenomena” encountered by U.S. Navy pilots.
May:
May 3: Silvercorp USA, a private military company, unsuccessfully attempt a coup in Venezuela.
May 7: 11 people die and over 5,000 get sick from a styrene gas leak in an LG Polymers chemical plant in India.
May 23: China reports no new cases of COVID-19 for the first time since the pandemic began.
May 26: Protests in response to the police killing of Georgie Floyd break out across the United States and around the world, lasting for weeks.
May 27: The Chinese National People’s Congress votes in favor of Hong Kong national security legislation. The United States government declares the region “no longer autonomous” in response.
May 30: SpaceX Dragon 2 launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is the first manned spacecraft to take off from the United States since 2011.
June:
June 15: Skirmishes between India and China in the Galwan Valley result in dozens of injuries and deaths.
June 16: North Korea demolishes the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in Kaesong.
June 23: A 7.5 magnitude earthquake hits Oaxaca, Mexico, killing at least 4 people. It is felt over 400 miles away in Mexico City.
June 28: The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases passes 10 million worldwide with the United States reaching 2.5 million. The global death toll passes 500,000.
June 30: China passes the Hong Kong national security law.
July:
July 1: A constitutional amendment is passed in Russia that allows Vladimir Putin to run for two further six-year terms at the end of his current one. Potentially keeping him in power until 2036.
July 7: Protests begin in Bulgaria seeking to remove Borisov’s cabinet and Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev from office.
July 25: Kim Jon-un declares a state of emergency and orders the lockdown of Kaesong after a person suspected of having COVID-19 returned from South Korea. This is the first case of the disease officially acknowledged by North Korea.
July 30: NASA launches a Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples to bring back. Demonstrations are also performed to prepare for future human missions.
August:
August 1: The Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates becomes operational, making it the first commercial nuclear power station in the Arab world.
August 4: A massive explosion caused by poorly stored ammonium nitrate kills over 220 people and injures thousands in Beirut, Lebanon.
August 9: Protests begin in Belarus after the reelection of Alexander Lukashenko. Major opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya rejects the results.
August 10: COVID-19 total cases passes 20 million worldwide.
August 11: Vladimir Putin announces that Russia has approved the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine, called Sputnik V.
August 26: Jeff Bezos of Amazon becomes the first person with a net worth over $200 billion, according to Forbes.
September:
September 3: Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok signs and agreement with the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, Abdelaziz al-Hilu, to transition the country to a secular state.
September 14: The Royal Astronomical Society announces the detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus, a strong predictor for the presence of microbial life.
September 17: The COVID-19 case total passes 30 million worldwide.
September 21: Microsoft agrees to buy ZeniMax Media, including Bethesda Softworks and its subsidiaries for $7.5 billion, making it the largest and most expensive takeover in video game industry history.
September 29: The worldwide death toll of COVID-19 passes 1 million. The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah dies at 91, his successor is Crown Prince Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
October:
October 15: President Sooronbay Jeenbekov of Kyrgyzstan resigns after protests over the October parliamentary election. Opposition leader Sadyr Japarov assumes office as both acting President and Prime Minister.
October 17: Jacinda Ardern of the Labour Party wins a second term as Prime Minster of New Zealand in a landslide.
October 26: NASA confirms the presence of molecular water on the sunlit side of the Moon with concentrations of up to 412 parts per million near Clavius crater.
November:
November 4: The United States exits the Paris Climate Agreement.
November 7: Joe Biden is announced president-elect after the November 3rd elections.
November 9: Pfizer and BioNTech announce the first successful completion of the phase III trail of a COVID-19 vaccine with 90% effectiveness.
November 11: The Sputnik V vaccine proven to be 92% effective against COVID-19.
November 16: Moderna’s is vaccine proven to be 94.5% effective against COVID-19.
November 23: AstraZeneca’s vaccine with Oxford University is shown to be 70% effective with one dose, and 90% after two.
November 25: The total COVID-19 case number passes 60 million worldwide.
November 26: The largest general strike in history occurs in India, with over 250 million participants.
November 27: Mohsen Fakhirzadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, is assassinated near Tehran.
December:
December 2: The United Kingdom becomes the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
December 4: COVID-19 cases pass 65 million worldwide. Death toll passes 1.5 million. One death every 9 seconds. The United States House of Representatives votes to decriminalize marijuana.
December 8: First Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine given to a grandmother in the United Kingdom.
December 15: The International Criminal Court accuses the Philippines of crimes against humanity for its harsh policies in a war on drugs.
December 25: An RV explodes in Downtown Nashville, injuring three. Only the bomber is killed.
December 30: The United Kingdom approves the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.
December 31: The total COVID-19 numbers sit at 83.4 million cases worldwide with 1.82 million deaths. The United States has 19.9 million cases with 344 thousand deaths.
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