Year retrospective · 2020s

2020

2020 (MMXX) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2020th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 20th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 1st year of the 2020s decade.

Recorded events

10

top entries

Notable births

0

Notable deaths

30

Decade

2020s

Timeline

Defining events of 2020

  1. 2020 A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country's history.

    Series of murders in Canada

    On April 18 and 19, 2020, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people, and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the community of Enfield. The attacks are the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history.

  2. 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of confirmed cases reach one million.

    Pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2

    The global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and then worldwide in early 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 and assessed it as having become a pandemic on 11 March.

  3. 2020 For the first time in history, oil prices drop below zero, an effect of the 2020 Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war.

    Spot price of a barrel of benchmark crude oil

    The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC Reference Basket, Tapis crude, Bonny Light, Urals oil, Isthmus, and Western Canadian Select (WCS) among others. Oil prices are determined by global supply and demand, rather than any country's domestic production level, although the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has considerable influence.

  4. 2020 Four police officers are killed after being struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne while speaking to a speeding driver, marking the largest loss of police lives in Victoria Police history.

    Traffic accident in Victoria, Australia

    On 22 April 2020, a truck driver under the influence of drugs, Mohinder Singh, crashed his truck into a private vehicle and two police cars on the Eastern Freeway in the suburb of Kew East, Australia, killing four police officers who were on routine highway patrol. Prior to the incident, the officers had pulled over driver Richard Pusey for speeding in his Porsche. After the truck hit the officers, Pusey filmed them for several minutes with vulgar commentary as they lay dying, before fleeing.

  5. 2020 China holds a national day of mourning for martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease outbreak.

    Day marked by mourning and memorial activities

    A national day of mourning is a day, or one of several days, marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the death or funeral of a renowned individual or individuals from that country or elsewhere or the anniversary of such a death or deaths, wartime commemorations, or the occurrence or anniversary of a significant disaster either in the country or in another country.

  6. 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan.

    Pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2

    The global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and then worldwide in early 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 and assessed it as having become a pandemic on 11 March.

  7. 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigns for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on USS Theodore Roosevelt and the dismissal of Brett Crozier.
  8. 2020 Bernie Sanders ends his presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's nominee.
  9. 2020 Soyuz MS-16 is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Expedition 62/63 crew to the International Space Station.
  10. 2020 Derecho in Iowa becomes the most costly thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history.

Farewells

Died in 2020

John Horton Conway English mathematician (1937–2020)
Tarvaris Jackson American football player (1983–2020)
Carol D'Onofrio American public health researcher (1936–2020)
Ian Whitcomb English singer-songwriter (1941–2020)
Shirley Knight American actress (1936–2020)
Irrfan Khan Indian actor (1967–2020)
Guido Münch Mexican astronomer and astrophysicist (1921–2020)
Tony Allen Nigerian musician (1940–2020)
Rishi Kapoor Indian actor (1952–2020)
Al Kaline American baseball player (1934–2020)
John Prine American singer-songwriter (1946–2020)
Herb Stempel American game show contestant (1926–2020)

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