2020 Events

Events listed on this post may include historical information.

  • January 3, 2020, a US drone strike was carried out near Baghdad International Airport that killed the powerful Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.  In response, Iran launched missile strikes against 2 US bases in Iraq and mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 people.
  • On January 31 – February 1, 2020, the UK formally withdrew from the European Union, aka Brexit.
  • On January 31, 2020, President Trump restricts entry from into US from China due to the cases of Covid 19 as the Pandemic begins to rapidly spread.
  • On March 12, 2020, President Trump restricts travel from 26 European countries to US.
  • On March 16, 2020, President Trump announced a plan of 15 days to slow the spread by shutting down all non-essential businesses, events, etc. Nations around the world began enacting travel restrictions and lock downs in fear of the Covid Pandemic. Very few countries did not totally lock down or were far less restrictive in their Covid restrictions. One of the more notable countries that did not lock down was Sweden.
  • Beginning on May 25, 2020 the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, Minnesota police sparked protests/riots against “systemic racism” and police violence that boiled over to other areas around the US and even the world.  These protests/riots lasted throughout the summer and fall and were renewed over several other instances where police were involved in some sort of shooting or altercation with a person of color.
  • May 30, 2020, SpaceX launched it’s Crew Dragon capsule to transport 2 NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.  This was the first crewed orbital launch to lift off from the US since NASA retired the space shuttle fleet in 2011.
  • November 2020, Joe Biden was declared the winner of the US Presidential election.