Historical Events in 2020 (Part 2)

Events 201 - 400 of 858

• Mar 30 International Olympic Committee announces postponed 2020 Summer Olympic Games will be held July 23-August 8 in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Mar 30 Russian city Moscow begins a city-wide lockdown after 4 hours notice due to COVID-19
• Mar 30 Three out of four Americans now ordered to stay home due to COVID-19 as states of Virginia, Maryland, Arizona and Florida issue lockdowns

• Mar 31 British pensioner Robert Weighton becomes the world's oldest man at 112 years

• Apr 2 New study shows western Antarctica once swampy with temperate forests 93-83 million years ago during Cretaceous period, according to Alfred Wegener Institute

• Apr 2 Record 6.6 million Americans filed claims for unemployment in last week according to the US Department of Labor, 10 million over 2 weeks
• Apr 2 Spain's death toll passes 10,000 (10003), as it posts a record single-day rise of 950 deaths
• Apr 3 27 people swept off a ferry and feared dead in the Solomon Islands during Cyclone Harold

• Apr 3 US aircraft carrier captain Brett Crozier cheered off his ship after being fired for a letter demanding more help for his sailors infected with COVID-19

• Apr 6 Cyclone Harold makes landfall in Vanuatu, leaving thousands of houses destroyed and 2 dead

• Apr 6 Nadia, a tiger at the Bronx Zoo (New York City), tests positive for COVID-19, 1st known case of human-to-cat transmission
• Apr 6 US COVID-19 death toll passes 10,000 in six weeks, with more than 356,000 American infected, New York death toll reaches 4,758
• Apr 7 Australia's highest court overturns the child sexual abuse conviction of Catholic Cardinal George Pell
• Apr 7 China ends its lockdown of Wuhan, the city at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic after 76 days as the country reports no new deaths for the 1st time
• Apr 7 US Acting-Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigns after calling USN Capt. Brett Crozier of aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) "too naive and too stupid", in an address to the ship's crew
• Apr 7 Wisconsin holds its Democratic primary with in-person voting in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, after a mail-in voting rejected by the Wisconsin Legislature

• Apr 8 Saudi-backed coalition fighting Houthi fighters in Yemen calls for a ceasefire after five years to stop the spread of COVID-19
• Apr 8 World Trade organization predicts a drop in global trade greater than the 2008 financial crisis, between 13% and 32% for 2020
• Apr 11 Brazil is the 1st country in the southern hemisphere to report more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19, with 1,056 deaths and 19,638 cases
• Apr 12 Huge storm system produces more than 40 tornadoes in the US from Texas to South Carolina killing 32 people across six states
• Apr 12 OPEC and other major oil companies agree to the largest-ever drop in production to stabilize world prices

• Apr 13 Bernie Sanders endorses former rival Joe Biden for president

• Apr 14 IMF warns the global economy expected to contract by 3% in 2020 due to COVID-19 "Great Lockdown", steepest downturn since the Great Depression
• Apr 14 Parts of Europe begin to ease lockdown restrictions after 5-6 weeks with some shops opening in Austria and parts of Italy

• Apr 14 US President Donald Trump freezes funding for the World Health Organization pending a review, for mistakes in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and for being "China-centric", prompting international criticism
• Apr 15 Revised death count for New York taking into account assumed COVID-19 deaths makes the city's per-capita death rate higher than Italy at 10,367 at this date

• Apr 15 US's deadliest day during COVID-19 pandemic with 2,752 deaths reported
• Apr 16 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in 4 weeks (5.2 million in the last week), wiping out 9 1/2 years of job gains
• Apr 16 Nationwide State of Emergency declared in Japan till 6 May due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak
• Apr 16 New study claims a multi-decade megadrought is already under way in the western US, published in journal "Science"
• Apr 17 WHO warns Africa could be next epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 300,000 deaths, pushing 30 million into poverty as it records nearly 1000 deaths and 19,000 cases to date

• Apr 18 Canada's worst modern mass shooting as a gunman kills 18 people, including a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, across Nova Scotia
• Apr 18 French flagship aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle reports over 1,000 cases of COVID-19, prompting an investigation
• Apr 19 Turkey passes Iran to become the Middle Eastern country with the most COVID-19 cases with 86,306 infections, Iran continues to have the most deaths
• Apr 19 UK COVID-19 death toll reaches 16,060 (hospitals only), as "The Sunday Times" criticizes Boris Johnson's government's response, saying they "sleepwalked into disaster"
• Apr 19 US COVID-19 death toll passes 40,000, with 742,442 cases recorded according to Johns Hopkins tally
• Apr 20 Price of US oil turns negative for the 1st time in history - West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, falls as low as minus $37.63 a barrel as worldwide demand falls
• Apr 20 The last three cruise ships still afloat amid COVID pandemic, finally dock at the ports of Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; and Los Angeles California
• Apr 20 Three US states, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina the 1st to announce end to some COVID-19 restrictions
• Apr 21 At least 25,000 extra people across 11 countries have died during COVID-19 pandemic that were not previously counted according to new mortality figures
• Apr 21 Health Secretary Matt Hancock and UK government come under criticism for lack of personal protective equipment and testing for COVID-19 (despite pledge to test 100,000 a day only 19,000 done April 20th)
• Apr 21 Mexico says it is entering stage three of its COVID-19 outbreak, with rapid spread and hospitalizations from 8,772 infections and 712 deaths

• Apr 21 US President Donald Trump announces new 60-day ban on most green cards for the US
• Apr 22 Sudan bans female genital mutilation and makes it a criminal offense
• Apr 23 Ecuador's COVID-19 death toll is then one of world's highest per capita after 7,600 more deaths than usual (503 official toll), in report by "The New York Times"
• Apr 23 First findings of a frog fossil 40 million years old, found on Seymour Island, Antarctica (2015) published in "Scientific Reports"
• Apr 23 German Chancellor Angela Merkel warns this is "not the end phase but still just the beginning" of the COVID-19 pandemic

• Apr 23 US President Donald Trump suggests studying if COVID-19 could be treated by introducing disinfectant or UV lights into a human body, during a White House press briefing; government officials and disinfectant companies quickly state doing so is not only extremely dangerous but potentially deadly
• Apr 27 Global confirmed cases of COVID-19 pass 3 million with the death toll at 205,000. US has 1/3 of all new cases.
• Apr 27 US Defense Department declassifies and releases videos of unidentified "aerial phenomena" from 2004 and 2015
• Apr 28 Argentina bans all commercial domestic and international flights until September 1 because of COVID-19

• Apr 28 US confirmed cases of COVID-19 pass 1 million, while death toll of 58,365 surpasses that of US soldiers killed in Vietnam War (Johns Hopkins)
• Apr 28 US Department of Defense releases three declassified videos of possible UFOs from 2004 and 2015
• Apr 29 A mile-wide asteroid named 1998 OR2 passes within 3.9 million miles of Earth
• Apr 29 Fire at an Icheon warehouse, South Korea, kills 38
• Apr 29 UK official death toll reaches 26,000 deaths from COVID-19 as care home and community deaths included
• Apr 29 US GDP falls 4.8% for the financial quarter, officially ending the country's growth streak. Worst contraction since 2008.
• Apr 29 World record for the longest single lightning flash of 477miles (768km) across US states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi according to World Meteorological Organization [1]
• Apr 30 British Captain Tom Moore, who raised more £30 million for the National Health Service walking in his garden, turns 100 and made an honorary colonel by the Queen

• Apr 30 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail V. Mishustin says he has COVID-19
• Apr 30 South Korea reports no new domestic cases of COVID-19 for 1st time, their virus cases peaked Feb 29
• Apr 30 UK PM Boris Johnson says Britain is past the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak
• Apr 30 US President Donald Trump claims COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, while the Office of the Director of National Intelligence saying the virus is not manmade
• May 1 Armed protesters against stay-at-home-orders gather at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, as Governor Gretchen Whitmer reinstates State of Emergency

• May 1 Prison riot leaves more than 40 dead and many injured at Los Llanos jail, near Guanare city, Venezuela

• May 2 Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, the Icelandic actor who played Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane in Game of Thrones, sets a world deadlifting record by lifting 501kg (1,104lb)
• May 3 Brazilian confirmed COVID-19 cases pass 100,000 with the death toll at 7,025, the 9th country to do so

• May 4 Countries in Europe begin cautious reopening after COVID-19 lockdown, Italy restarts construction and takeaways, Germany reopens schools
• May 4 India begins lifting some restrictions in regions with fewer COVID-19 cases
• May 4 World leaders pledge $8 billion to research treatments and a vaccine for COVID-19, with the US and Russia not taking part
• May 5 Global confirmed cases of COVID-19 reach 3.65 million, US cases pass 70,000 while the UK becomes the most affected in Europe with 29,427 known deaths
• May 5 São Luis, in Maranhão state becomes the first Brazilian city to enter lockdown because of COVID-19 as its health services struggle to cope
• May 6 At least 90,000 healthcare workers worldwide infected by COVID-19, more than 260 nurses have died according to International Council of Nurses
• May 6 Former intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi sworn in as new Iraqi Prime Minister, 3rd to be nominated in six months
• May 6 Irish organization repays a 170 year old favor, raising over $2 million (to date) for US Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation badly affected by COVID-19. In 1840s Choctaw Nation sent $170 to aid Irish potato famine.
• May 6 UK becomes the first European country to report over 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19
• May 7 Toxic leak at Indian chemical factory near Visakhapatnam kills at least 13 and injures many when it tried to reopen after lockdown
• May 7 UK economy heading for its worst crash in 300 years (-14%), since 1706, according to Bank of England forecast
• May 7 US Father and son arrested for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, after video of the killing surfaces
• May 7 US unemployment claims hit 33.3 million or 20% of the workforce, vs two months ago unemployment 3.5%, a 50-year low
• May 8 11-year old Brazilian skateboarder Gui Khury creates world record by performing 1st 1080 degree turn on a vertical ramp
• May 8 Two US White House staffers test positive for COVID-19 and three members of the coronavirus task force go into self-isolation after possible exposure to the virus
• May 10 Global confirmed cases of COVID-19 rise above 4 million with death toll above 270,000, according to Johns Hopkins
• May 11 Colombian airline Avianca, and world's 2nd oldest, becomes 1st major airline to file for bankruptcy due to COVID-19
• May 11 World Health Organization warns “extreme vigilance” needed as many countries begin easing lockdowns
• May 12 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces a $260 million economic rescue package, worth 10% of GDP
• May 12 Militants storm a hospital and a funeral in Kabul, Afghanistan, shooting an estimated 40 people dead including new mothers and their babies
• May 12 Russia's confirmed cases of COVID-19 reach 232,000, 2nd highest in the world, a day after President Vladimir Putin eased the country's lockdown
• May 12 US coronavirus task force testifies to the Senate that the US "is not out of the woods yet" that the pandemic is not under control and risks surge in cases if reopens too soon
• May 12 Wuhan, epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, draws up plans to test all 11 million residents after it records a new cluster of 6 cases
• May 13 Every African country records cases of COVID-19 as The Kingdom of Lesotho becomes the last country on the continent to record a case
• May 14 Former pandemic agency head Rick Bright testifies to a US House Committee "without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history"
• May 14 Global death toll from COVID-19 passes 300,000 with 4.4 million confirmed infections
• May 15 Germany, Europe's largest economy, officially in recession due to COVID-19, as figures show economy shrank 2.2% 1st 3 months of 2020

• May 17 Former US President Barack Obama criticizes the US government's handling of the pandemic during an online address to graduates, saying officials "aren't even pretending to be in charge"

• May 18 US President Donald Trump confirms he is taking controversial drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19
• May 18 WHO member states agree to set up an inquiry into the global response to the pandemic, including looking at the WHO itself
• May 19 Greenhouse gas emissions dropped 17% worldwide in April 2020 when world was in lockdown, in study published in "Nature Climate Change"
• May 19 Two dams on Tittabawassee River in central Michigan breached by floodwaters, forcing evacuation of thousands of residents
• May 20 Cyclone Amphan comes ashore in West Bengal, East India and Bangladesh, with winds of 185 km per hour (115 mph) killing at least 84 people
• May 20 WHO reports most new cases in a single day - 106,000 worldwide of COVID-19
• May 22 China unveils new national security legislation against Hong Kong at its annual legislative session
• May 22 Pakistan International Airlines flight crashes near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi killing 97 with just two survivors
• May 24 British PM Boris Johnson refuses to sack his senior aide Dominic Cummings, after it is revealed he broke the country's lockdown rules to drive across the country
• May 24 Millions of cicadas in a once in 17-year event about to emerge from the earth in the US south posing crop danger and noise issues, according to scientists from Virginia Tech
• May 24 The New York Times prints front page with nearly 1,000 names of people who have died from COVID-19, as the US toll nears 100,000

• May 26 Costa Rica becomes the first county in Central America to legalize same-sex marriage

• May 26 Twitter adds warning labels to warn about inaccuracies in US President Donald Trump's tweets for the first time
• May 26 US restricts travel from Brazil as the country posts world's second highest number of recorded cases of COVID-19
• May 27 America's COVID-19 death toll passes 100,000 (Johns Hopkins figures) equal to number of US servicemen and women killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan put together
• May 27 Locust swarms in western and central India worst since 1993 after spreading from Pakistan and Iran and due to extreme weather
• May 27 Spain begins 10 days of mourning for victims of COVID-19 with death toll just under 27,000
• May 27 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Hong Kong no longer has autonomy from China, doesn't merit special trade relationship, in note to Congress

• May 28 Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declares State of Emergency in Minneapolis and activates the Minnesota National Guard after protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody
• May 30 Record number of COVID-19 cases reported worldwide 134,064, driven by hot spots in Brazil, Peru, Egypt, South Africa and Bangladesh
• May 30 SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launches carrying the Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. First private company to launch astronauts into space.
• Jun 1 US President Trump threatens to employ the military to quell protests across the country sparked by the death of George Floyd then walks with staff to St. John’s Church
• Jun 2 Brazilian death toll passes 30,000 from COVID-19 at 31,199 with 555,383 number of cases confirmed, 2nd only to the US
• Jun 2 New outbreak of Ebola has killed five people in city of Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Jun 2 UK death toll from COVID-19 passes 50,000 (50,032) according to its Office of National Statistics

• Jun 3 Former Defense Secretary James Mattis says in The Atlantic: "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us."
• Jun 3 Three former police officers charged in connection with death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin's charge upgraded to second degree murder
• Jun 4 Memorial for George Floyd led by Rev. Al Sharpton, killed in police custody, in Minneapolis, as 10th night of protests at his death held around the country
• Jun 4 State of Emergency declared after 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil spills near Russian city of Norilsk, Siberia within the Arctic Circle

• Jun 4 UN report criticizing human rights violations in the Philippines, including deaths of 8,000 during its war on drugs, a day after county's House of Representatives passed new anti-terrorism law
• Jun 7 Black Lives Matter Protests continue worldwide in large numbers, In Bristol England statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston pulled down
• Jun 7 COVID-19 global death toll passes 400,000 with confirmed cases at 6,973,195 according to Johns Hopkins figures
• Jun 7 US National Guard pulled out of Washington D.C. and curfew ends in New York as anti-racism protests stay largely peaceful
• Jun 8 Former astronaut Kathy Sullivan is the first woman to reach deepest point of the ocean - Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench. Formerly the first American woman to spacewalk.
• Jun 8 Lockdowns for COVID-19 in Europe saved 3 million lives according to study by Imperial College London
• Jun 8 National Bureau of Economic Research announces the US officially entered recession in February, ending the longest expansion of growth since 1854 (11 years)
• Jun 8 New York begins reopening after 100 days of lockdown due to COVID-19 with just 702 hospitalized (18,825 at peak of outbreak)
• Jun 8 The Philippines says children won't go back to school until a vaccine is found for COVID-19
• Jun 8 World Bank says the COVID-19 pandemic will shrink the global economy by 5.2% in 2020
• Jun 9 US Senate confirms General Charles Q. Brown as Air Force Chief of Staff, 1st African American to lead a US armed forces branch
• Jun 10 Cameroon's conflict with English-speaking separatists rated world's most-neglected conflict according to Norwegian Refugee Council

• Jun 11 Bodies of 46 migrants recovered off the coast of Tunisia after a boat capsized a few days before
• Jun 11 Pan-American Health Organisation warns pandemic spreading "exponentially" in many areas of the region, home to nearly half of all cases worldwide
• Jun 12 African American Rayshard Brooks shot dead in drive-through carpark in Atlanta leading to further protests at police violence and the resignation of city's police chief
• Jun 14 India reports surge of nearly 12,000 a day confirmed COVID-19 cases (320,922 overall), the world's fourth-affected country, as death toll hits 9,195
• Jun 15 In landmark decision US Supreme Court rules 6-3 that gay and transgender workers cannot be discriminated against in the workplace
• Jun 15 New COVID-19 cluster of more than 100 cases in Beijing called a 'significant event' by WHO

• Jun 16 At least 20 Indian soldiers killed in 1st deadly clash on the Chinese Indian border in 45 years in the Galwan Valley, Himalayas

• Jun 17 American actor Danny Masterson charged with raping three women. after a 3-year investigation
• Jun 17 First major breakthrough in treating COVID-19 using steroid dexamethasone announced by Oxford University
• Jun 17 Former police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta charged with his murder and aggravated assault
• Jun 18 Canadian coronavirus COVID-19 known cases pass 100,000 with 8,361 deaths
• Jun 18 Global COVID-19 death toll passes 450,000 (451,118) with 8,421,357 cases known according to Johns Hopkins figures
• Jun 18 US Supreme Court rules the Obama-era Dreamers Program (DACA), enabling undocumented migrant children ability to study and work, can stay
• Jun 18 World record for greatest duration for a single lighting flash of 17.1 seconds during thunderstorm over Uruguay and Argentina according to World Meteorological Organization [1]

• Jun 20 Donald Trump controversially holds his first re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, only 6,200 people attend despite the campaign stating 1 million had registered. Social media campaign organised by teens on TikTok, K-Pop fans and others, claims responsibility for wildly inflating the expected attendance.
• Jun 20 Highest-ever temperature recorded in the Arctic circle, 38C (100F) in Verkhoyansk, Siberia
• Jun 20 Historic dust cloud from the Sahara desert reaches the Caribbean, largest for half a century
• Jun 20 Three men stabbed to death, with three others injured, in a terrorist attack in a park in Reading, England

• Jun 21 New archaeological discovery announced near Stonehenge of a large circle of shafts surrounding a village 2500 BC, largest prehistoric structure in Britain
• Jun 21 Saudi Arabia bans international visitors from making the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage in 2020 due to COVID-19
• Jun 21 WHO records a new record number of new daily cases of COVID-19 - 183,020, with 116,000 coming from North and South America
• Jun 22 Brazil becomes second country to pass 50,000 deaths (officially) with states of Amazonas, Pará, Ceará, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro most effected.
• Jun 22 Japanese supercomputer Fugaku in Kobe by Riken institute wins world contest to be the fastest
• Jun 22 New York City, once the epicentre of the pandemic in America, begins stage 2 of re-opening, allowing outdoor dinning and some in-store shopping
• Jun 22 US government data shows African Americans four times more likely than whites to be hospitalized for COVID-19 highlighting racial disparities for the pandemic
• Jun 23 125 pilots grounded by Pakistan International Airlines after revelations many had cheated in exams or held fake licenses

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