Historical Events in 2020

Events 1 - 200 of 858

• Jan 1 Pro-Iranian protesters end siege of US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq

• Jan 3 US drone strike kills top Iranian security and intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani outside Baghdad airport in Iraq

• Jan 4 Floods and landslides caused by torrential rain in Jakarta, Indonesia, kill at least 53
• Jan 5 Chinese professor Zhang Yongzhen publishes the first SARS-CoV-2 genome map online, allowing health professionals worldwide to identify COVID-19
• Jan 5 Iran pulls out of the 2015 nuclear deal, will not limit its uranium enrichment
• Jan 6 Crawford Steel executives Sid Spiegel and Gary Stern via holding company S & S Sportsco purchase the Montreal Alouettes from the Canadian Football League
• Jan 7 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Puerto Rico, island's largest in a century, followed by many aftershocks kill 1 person and destroy 800 homes
• Jan 8 Duke and Duchess of Sussex announce they are stepping back as "senior" royals, will work towards becoming financially independent
• Jan 8 Iran launches missile strike on Irbil and Al Asad bases in Iraqi housing some American troops in retaliation to assassination of General Qasem Soleimani

• Jan 8 Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 crashes just after take-off from Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 people on board
• Jan 11 Diego the giant 100-year-old tortoise retires to the Galapagos islands after his high libido is credited with saving his species

• Jan 12 1st ATP Cup Men's Tennis, Sydney: Novak Đoković & Viktor Troicki beat Spanish pair Pablo Carreño Busta & Feliciano López 6-3, 6-4 to clinch inaugural title for Serbia, 2-1; Đoković beats Rafael Nadal 6-2, 7-6
• Jan 12 Argentine striker Sergio Agüero becomes top-scoring overseas player in English Premier League football history with a hat-trick in Manchester City's 6-1 rout of Aston Villa; total 177 takes him past Thierry Henry
• Jan 12 Taal volcano, 70km (45 miles) south of Manila in the Philippines begins erupting prompting evacuations
• Jan 13 Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow are fired by team owner Jim Crane for their roles in the sign-stealing scandal after MLB suspends both for one year
• Jan 13 Oldest material existing on earth at 7.5 billion years old revealed by scientists studying the Murchison meteorite that fell to earth in Australia in 1960s

• Jan 14 Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora is fired amid Major League Baseball's investigation into sign-stealing by the Houston Astros; Cora was the Astros' bench coach before moving to Boston

• Jan 16 Former Sacramento State softball player Alyssa Nakken becomes first woman to hold a coaching position on a MLB staff when named an assistant by the San Francisco Giants

• Jan 16 Newly appointed manager Carlos Beltran and New York Mets mutually agree to part ways because of his role in Houston Astros sign stealing scandal; third manager forced out of a job as a result of the allegations
• Jan 18 Premiership Rugby announces reigning European and English champions Saracens to be relegated for exceeding salary cap the previous 3 seasons; club fined £5.3m and docked 35 Premiership points
• Jan 21 Revival of Charles Fuller's stage drama "A Soldier's Play, starring David Alan Grier and Blair Underwood at the American Airlines Theatre, NYC; run suspended dut to Covid-19 closures, wins 3 Tony Awards
• Jan 21 World's oldest asteroid impact at 2.2 billion years old found in Yarrabubba, Western Australia, may have ended an ice age, reported in "Nature Communications"
• Jan 23 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp marked by an international forum in Jerusalem, Israel

• Jan 23 Voice of a 3,000 year old Egyptian priest recreated by scientists 3D printing his vocal tract published in "Scientific Reports"
• Jan 25 Severe rainstorms cause landslides and floods in Brazil's Minas Gerais state, killing at least 30

• Jan 27 Former king of Belgium, Albert II admits fathering a child after DNA tests confirm paternity

• Jan 29 Number of COVID-19 cases passes those of SARS with over 7,700 cases in China confirmed, with 170 deaths
• Jan 30 The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at a meeting in Geneva
• Jan 31 United Kingdom formally withdraws from the European Union (Brexit)
• Feb 1 Largest swarm of locusts across East Africa leads Somalia to declare national emergency
• Feb 1 Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, appointed the new Prime Minister of Iraq by President Barham Salih after 4 months of protests

• Feb 2 Palindrome Day: the date 02022020 reads the same forward and backward including in the US and China (last one like this 11 November 1111)

• Feb 3 Cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3700 passengers quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan after cases of COVID-19 found on board

• Feb 3 Malawi's constitutional court annuls 2019 election which saw President Peter Mutharika re-elected due to voting irregularities
• Feb 4 Charles McGee, American retired US Air Force officer and fighter pilot of the Tuskegee Airmen promoted from colonel to brigadier general

• Feb 5 US Senate votes to acquit President Donald Trump 52-48 on charges of abuse of power and 53-47 on obstruction of Congress
• Feb 6 Antarctica records high temperature of 64.9 F / 18.2 C at Esperanza, Argentina’s research station
• Feb 6 Date of the 1st COVID-19 related death in the US (confirmed by the CDC April 21)
• Feb 6 US astronaut Christina Koch completes the longest continuous spaceflight by a female astronaut after 328 days on the International Space Station, landing in Kazakhstan
• Feb 8 Gunman shoots and kills 29 people in a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, with 57 injured. Shooter shot and killed by security forces a day later.
• Feb 8 Irish General Election: No party wins a majority, Sinn Féin 37 seats and the popular vote, Fianna Fáil 38 seats, Leo Varadkar's ruling Fine Gael only 35 seats

• Feb 9 Deaths from COVID-19 virus overtake those of Sars (2003) with 813 deaths worldwide, with more than 34,800 known infections
• Feb 9 Fastest conventional plane flight from New York to London made by British Airways Boeing 747-436 in 4 hours and 56 minutes; average speed of 1,327 km/h / 825 mph, aided by tailwinds from due to Storm Ciara
• Feb 9 Solar Orbiter probe attached to an Atlas rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral
• Feb 9 Storm Ciara makes landfall in northern Scotland bringing widespread wind and flooding to northern Europe resulting in 18 deaths
• Feb 9 Suspected militants attack and kill at least 30 people, many while sleeping in their cars in Auno, north-eastern Nigeria, kidnapping women and children
• Feb 10 More than 30 bushfires put out by heaviest rainfall for 30 years in New South Wales, Australia, helping end one of the worst bushfire seasons ever, 46 million acres burnt, over 1 billion animals killed, 34 people dead
• Feb 11 "The Hot Wing King" a play by Katori Hall premieres off-Broadway at Signature Theatre in New York (Pulitzer Prize 2021 for Drama) [1]
• Feb 11 Bernie Sanders wins the New Hampshire Democratic primary
• Feb 11 Largest wave ever surfed by a woman by Brazilian Maya Gabeira riding a 73.5ft (22.4m) wave at Nazaré, Portugal
• Feb 11 Snow falls in Baghdad, Iraq, for only the second time in a century
• Feb 11 US Attorney General, William Barr recommends cutting suggested sentence of Roger Stone, prompting prosecutors to resign
• Feb 13 Fire in US-run orphanage kills 15 children near Port-au-Prince, Haiti
• Feb 13 January 2020 was the hottest January in recorded history according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Feb 13 Premier of Tania León's "Stride" for the New York Philharmonic at the David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City (2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music) [1]
• Feb 13 Scientists overturn current thought about how planets form - not by violent collision but gentle clumping, through study of Arrokoth in Kepler belt, published in "Science"
• Feb 14 More than 800,000 people displaced from their homes in north-western Syria amid assault by Syrian pro-government forces on last rebel stronghold
• Feb 14 UEFA places 2 year ban on Manchester City from European club competition for committing "serious breaches" of club licensing and financial fair play regulations; EPL champions also fined €30million
• Feb 15 Beijing orders people returning to the city after Lunar New Year holiday to self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent spread of Covid-19
• Feb 16 'Ghost ship' cargo vessel MV Alta washed up on the Irish coast near Ballycotton by Storm Dennis, after drifting across the Atlantic from Bermuda
• Feb 16 America evacuates 400 citizens from COVID-19-infected cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan
• Feb 17 62nd Daytona 500: Denny Hamlin wins second straight title by 0.014 seconds over Ryan Blaney on the second restart in overtime; his third Daytona victory

• Feb 17 General Motors announces it is retiring the Holden brand in Australasia
• Feb 17 India's Supreme Court grants equal rights to women in the armed forces

• Feb 18 Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, suspending those claims
• Feb 18 President Donald Trump commutes the 14-year sentence of former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich's corruption conviction
• Feb 18 Swarms of desert locusts affecting east Africa reach South Sudan, threatening a food crisis
• Feb 19 German gunman opens fire in a bar in Hanau, Germany, killing nine in a racially motivated attack

• Feb 20 Trump associate Roger Stone sentenced to 40 months imprisonment for obstructing a congressional investigation

• Feb 23 African American Ahmaud Arbery shot to death after being chased down by two white men in Brunswick, Georgia. Video of the killing emerges in May, prompting arrests.

• Feb 23 Fashion designer heavyweights Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons announce they will work alongside each other at Prada
• Feb 23 First major COVID-19 outbreak in Europe in Italy with 152 cases and three deaths, prompting emergency measures, locking down 10 towns in Lombardy

• Feb 23 Violent protests against new citizenship laws in Delhi, India erupt leaving at least 38 people dead over the next few days
• Feb 24 Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape and a criminal sexual act in landmark case that ignited #MeToo movement

• Feb 24 Memorial service for NBA star Kobe Byrant held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles
• Feb 24 New York firefighter Daniel Foley, who found his brother's body in ruins of World Trade Center, dies of cancer bringing first responders death toll to 343
• Feb 24 Scientists identify the first animal that doesn't need oxygen to breathe - a tiny parasite living in salmon tissue, reported in journal PNAS

• Feb 25 147 murders occurred during a five day police strike in Ceará, Brazil, despite army patrolling the streets according to authorities
• Feb 25 Iran emerges as a newCOVID-19 hotspot, recording 95 cases and 11 deaths as a deputy health minister that appeared on TV confirmed as also infected
• Feb 26 Saudi Arabia bars overseas pilgrims from accessing religious sites of Mecca and Medina because of COVID-19 fears for 1st time in living memory
• Feb 27 Biggest cosmic explosion ever detected from a supermassive black hole in Ophiuchus galaxy 390 million lights years away, (size of 15 Miky Ways), published in "Astrophysical Journal"
• Feb 27 Dow Jones Index suffers its biggest points fall in history closing down 1,190.95 in New York amid concerns about COVID-19
• Feb 28 Court of Arbitration for Sport bans Chinese triple Olympic gold medallist Sun Yang from swimming for 8 years for breaking anti-doping rules
• Feb 29 US and Taliban sign deal to end 18-year war in Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar. US and NATO allies will withdraw their troops after 14 months if deal kept.
• Feb 29 Watford beats Liverpool, 3-0 at Vicarage Road; first Reds loss since Manchester City January 2019; ends joint-longest winning streak (18) and second longest unbeaten run (44) in English top-flight football history
• Mar 1 First known COVID-19 case identified in New York, a health care worker returning from Iran
• Mar 1 Muhyiddin Yassin sworn as Malaysian Prime Minister by Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah
• Mar 1 Pete Buttigieg drops out of the US Democratic presidential race
• Mar 1 Turkey launches major offensive against Syrian government in northern Syria after 36 Turkish soldiers killed in air and artillery strikes 3 days earlier

• Mar 3 Heavy rain and landslides hit coastal areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, Brazil, killing at least 18 people
• Mar 3 Iran releases 54,000 people from prison to avoid spread of COVID-19 as country reports 77 deaths and 2,300 cases including two dozen MPs
• Mar 3 Irishwomen Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamar, of Grafton Architecture, are the 1st women to share the Pritzker Architecture Prize
• Mar 3 Last Ebola patient discharged from hospital in Beni, DR Congo, raising hopes outbreak at an end in the country after 2,300 deaths
• Mar 3 Powerful storm producing multiple tornadoes rips through central Tennessee killing at least 25
• Mar 3 Super Tuesday: Biggest voting day for Democrats selecting their presidential candidate revives Joe Biden's campaign, he wins nine states, while Bernie Sanders wins four including California
• Mar 3 UK had its wettest February since records began in 1862, according to the Met Office, 209.1mm of rainfall, 237% above average
• Mar 3 US Federal Reserve makes its largest rate cut in a decade, short-tern interest rates by 0.5% to protect economy against COVID-19
• Mar 3 World Bank pledges $12 billion in emergency aid for developing countries dealing with COVID-19
• Mar 4 "Once in a century" winter in Moscow the hottest in 140 years, with 7.5° C (13.5° F) above average temperatures and virtually no snow [1]

• Mar 4 New study confirms human-caused climate change did make the 2020 Australian bushfire season worse, published by World Weather Attribution

• Mar 6 American rapper Lil Uzi Vert second album, "Eternal Atake", tops the Billboard charts upon its release
• Mar 6 Russia refuses to reduce oil production over COVID-19 fears, breaking with Saudi Arabia and OPEC and prompting a price war

• Mar 8 America registers 521 cases of COVID-19 with 21 deaths across 33 states
• Mar 8 BNP Paribas Open international tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, dubbed 'the 5th Grand Slam' is cancelled due to concerns surrounding COVID-19 and the safety of participants and attendees
• Mar 8 ICC Women's Cricket T20 World Cup, Melbourne: Defending champions Australia beats India by 85 runs; Beth Mooney [77no] Player of the Series; Alyssa Healy 75 off 39 balls MVP; crowd 86,174
• Mar 8 Italy announces it is locking down northern region of Lombardy, including Milan, with 16 million people, as COVID-19 cases reach 5,800 with 233 deaths
• Mar 9 Italy announces it is locking down the whole country due to a spike in COVID-19 cases with 10,040 cases and 630 deaths
• Mar 9 National one-day women's strike held in Mexico to protest high rates of femicide (more than 10 women murdered every day)

• Mar 10 Russian lower house of Parliament passes legislation to allow Vladimir Putin to hold office of President for life
• Mar 10 Three months into the COVID-19 epidemic Chinese President Xi Jinping finally travels to Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak as the rate of daily new infections declines in China falls to 19 new cases and 17 deaths
• Mar 11 11-year bull market ends as the Dow Jones industrial average falls more than 20%, becoming a bear market

• Mar 11 Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 23 years in prison for a criminal sex act and rape in New York
• Mar 11 NBA suspends 2019-20 season until further notice after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19
• Mar 11 Smallest dinosaur ever discovered - skull preserved in piece of amber smaller than a fingertip from a mine in Myanmar, reported in "Nature"
• Mar 12 NHL announces the pausing of the 2019-20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic

• Mar 12 US President Trump bans travel with 26 European countries, though not the UK, due to COVID-19 (UK and Ireland added a day later)
• Mar 13 12 hours after PGA Tour cancelled its flagship event, The Players Championship, Augusta National announces postponement of the Masters Tournament to a date to be fixed because of COVID-19 pandemic

• Mar 13 Elite football in Britain, including England's Premier League, EFL, Women's Super League plus in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is suspended until at least 3 April because of COVID-19 pandemic

• Mar 13 US President Donald Trump declares a national emergency, freeing up $50 billion to fight COVID-19
• Mar 14 Longest-ever scheduled passenger flight by distance by Air Tahiti Nui from French Polynesia to mainland France 9,765 m (15715 km) due to COVID-19 and it was domestic
• Mar 15 European countries impose restrictions on gatherings and borders as COVID-19 deaths rates rise dramatically - Italy 1,809, Spain 288, France 120
• Mar 15 US Federal Reserve slashes interest rates to near zero to support the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Mar 16 COVID-19 study by London Imperial College showing migration approach could lead to 250,00 deaths in UK, over 1 million in US, prompts strategy changes from both countries
• Mar 16 COVID-19: France orders a national lockdown, US recommends meetings 10 or less, 6 counties in San Francisco and surrounding counties told to "shelter in place"
• Mar 16 Global infections and deaths from COVID-19 overtake those in China for the 1st time, 86,000 vs 80,860 infections, 3,241 vs 3,208 deaths according to John Hopkins Uni
• Mar 16 Major League Baseball suspends remainder of Spring Training and delays start of regular season in response to COVID-19 pandemic; return dependent on recommendations by Centers for Disease Control
• Mar 17 Chad begins repaying a $100 million debt to Angola with cattle, as more than 1,000 cows arrive in Luanda
• Mar 17 European Union announces a 30-day ban on entering its 26 countries for almost all travelers as it struggles to contain COVID-19
• Mar 17 Golden Raspberry Film Awards (Razzies): Musical "Cats" wins six awards including worst film
• Mar 17 UEFA announces the postponement of its flagship national team football competition, UEFA EURO 2020, due to be played in June / July due to the COVID-19 emergency
• Mar 18 Turing Award given to Pixar employees Pat Hanraha and Ed Catmull for three-dimensional computer graphics

• Mar 19 Italian death toll from COVID-19 at 3,405 surpasses China's official total (3,245) making it then the worst-affected country in the world
• Mar 19 Professional football in England is further postponed until 'no earlier than 30 April' due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Mar 19 State of California with 910 cases of COVID-19 locks down and orders people to "stay at home"

• Mar 20 India hangs four men for 2012 gang rape and murder of woman on a bus in New Delhi, country's first hanging since 2013
• Mar 20 Smoke from Australian bushfires killed more people than the fires - 417 vs 33 according to new study published in "Medical Journal of Australia"
• Mar 21 Italy records record daily death toll of 793 for COVID-19 as the worldwide death tolls surpasses 12,000 with 299,000 known infections (Johns Hopkins figures)
• Mar 22 India puts 1 billion people under a daytime curfew to curb COVID-19

• Mar 23 African American Daniel Prude dies after being physically retrained by police in Rochester, New York, including having a hood put over his head
• Mar 23 COVID-19 lockdowns imposed in South Africa and the United Kingdom while other European nations extend and strengthen their lockdowns

• Mar 23 New York confirmed as new center of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US with 20,875 cases (5,707 in the last day) and 157 deaths
• Mar 23 WHO says the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating, 1st 100,000 cases took 67 days, 2nd 100,000 cases 11 days, 3rd 100,000 cases 4 days
• Mar 24 China's Hubei province, the original center of the COVID-19 outbreak eases restrictions on travel after a nearly two-month lockdown
• Mar 24 Indian PM Narendra Modi orders a 21 day lockdown for world's second most populous country of 1.3 billion people to deal with COVID-19

• Mar 25 Spain's death toll from COVID-19 overtakes China's at 3,434 to become then second worldwide behind Italy with 7,503 deaths with a worldwide toll of 20,836

• Mar 26 American cases of COVID-19 exceed all other countries on this date, with 81,578 cases and 1,180 deaths (New York Times)
• Mar 26 Christchurch mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant pleads guilty to all 51 murders in New Zealand
• Mar 26 Record number of Americans file for unemployment - 3.3 million according to US Department of Labor

• Mar 27 $2.2 trillion stimulus package, largest in US history, signed into law by President Donald Trump saying "I never signed anything with a 'T' on it"
• Mar 27 UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces he has contracted COVID-19 but will continue to lead the country "thanks to the wizardry of modern technology" while in self-isolation
• Mar 28 US President Donald Trump makes grim projection that 240,000 American could die from COVID-19, even with restrictions in place

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