2020 has been a rough year for everybody. Our world now has one less basketball legend, social interaction has been scarcer than ever, and so much more. I will be recapping the major events that have happened this year, allowing for a path to a brighter future.
January was a prelude to a chaotic year that we were about to venture. We started the year with the Australian wildfires. Starting in 2019, this fire has burned a record of 47 million acres and has killed over a billion animals. However, by March 2nd, New South Wales was for the first time in 240 days free of fire. In addition to the wildfires, on January 16th, President Trump was impeached for two counts by the House of Representative, where the Democrats hold a majority. On January 26th, Kobe Bryant, a retired basketball superstar, had complications with his helicopter due to foggy weather, which resulted in a loss of 8 lives.
February did not get any better; however, we did manage to break a record for most awards awarded by the Oscars. On February 9th, Director Bong Joon Ho was awarded Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film for his movie Parasite. The Senate, where the Republicans hold the majority, managed to acquit President Trump from the two charges that were placed against him. Late February, the World Health Organization raised SARS-CoV-2, or more commonly known as COVID-19, to its highest level. Ever since then, there has been a total of 65.1 million people affected and 1.5 million deaths as of date.
On March 9th, the stock market took a big hit. The Dow Jones Industrial average suffered from the worst single-day point drop of 1980 points. Around mid-March, school started closing for the rest of the school year due to the novel Coronavirus.
April was a relatively calm month, or so it seems due to prolonged days in social distancing. On April 8, after Sanders suspended his campaign, Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The Paycheck Protection Program, or often called the PPP, was a bipartisan bill that was voted on starting April 21st through April 24th. The PPP was offered to businesses under the agreement that their business will keep the same amount of people hired from the beginning of the PPP until the end of the PPP. Businesses, both small and large, received 2.5 months worth of salary.
May started off with great news, but ended with despair. On May 1st, Australia reported that it has almost flattened its curve, only reporting 16 new cases within the past 24 hours. On the evening of May 25th, a store employee reported a supposed counterfeit twenty dollar bill used by George Floyd. Four police officers came to the scene and ended up committing a horrendous murder. This event opened America’s eyes towards the long prevalent issue of systematic racism.
For the month of June, Black Lives Matter Protests have taken place. The Hedonometer is a research program run by a professor in Virginia Institute of Technology to quantify the happiness level based on the word choice used in tweets from Twitter. According to the Hedonometer, during the Black Lives Matter Protests, America has hit a record low in happiness level since the Hedonometer’s release in 2008.
On July 5th, a case of the Bubonic Plague, or also referred to as the Black Death, has reemerged in China. In addition to China, there have been reports of it in some parts of the US like Los Angeles and Colorado. The Bubonic Plague is a very infectious disease that played a major role in the 1300s. It ended up wiping up about a third of the population in Europe. On July 14th, a hacker managed to hack Twitter accounts of prominent business and political figures including Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk. The hacker proceeded to tweet out a message talking about how they were going to double the Bitcoin sent to a certain address, saying that they are giving back to the community. Like all good things too good to be true, this was a scam.
On August 4th, there was a tragedy that happened at the Beirut port. Ammonium Nitrate fertilizers catalyzed and caused an explosion killing at least 190 people as a result. On August 17th, the presidential candidate Joe Biden picked his running mate to be California governor Kamala Harris.
On September 18th, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg passed away at the age of 87 after serving 27 years in the Supreme Court. Justice Ginsberg has contributed a great deal to the Supreme Court throughout her 27 years at service. In addition, on September 29th, President Trump and presidential-nominee Joe Biden had their first debate.
On October 2nd, President Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, tested positive for COVID-19. He was then hospitalized for three days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before he was discharged to continue his recovery at the White House. People living in Southern California had a rough October. On October 26th, fast winds caused a fire to spark up leading to the Blueridge and Silverado Fire. This fire has caused an evacuation order for the city of Irvine, but also affected nearby cities with prolonged smoke.
On November 7, various news sources called the election, giving President-elect Joe Biden 279 electoral votes and President Trump 214. The results also make Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the first female Vice President, as well as the first African and Asian American to win the title. President Trump, having lost the race, has filed lawsuits in various states in an order to dispute election results. On November 26th, a monolith that was nearly identical to the one in Utah was discovered in the country of Romania.
On December 2nd, another monolith was found in the state of California. People online have been discussing its purpose, and they likely suggest that they are movie filming sites that were picked out. On December 3rd, another wildfire occurred near the Silverado region. This one being called Bond Fire, it was once again started by fast winds.
2020 has surely been a rough year for everyone. However, we are at the homestretch of 2020. I wish all of you luck to finish off the year strong, and I pray that 2021 will be a better year.